Arriving at Spirituality

Neena Kulkarni | Actor

Spirituality. The word invokes a myriad emotions within me. Because it is abstract. It’s invisible. It’s indescribable. Yet it is tangible. You can feel it within you. Inside you. Around you.

I oppose the way people use the word ‘spirituality’ at random. If a person is outwardly calm and soft-spoken he/she is ‘spiritual’! Not necessarily!

When I was young the word spirituality was not a popular one. It was seldom used. I first heard about ‘spiritual‘ people who were god men or women. Or people who practise yoga. Or some who say they are spiritual.

I soon realised the above is not necessarily true always. Spirituality, for me, came in through my work as an actor.

When I stood waiting in the wings for my entry on stage. Calming my nerves, trying to get into the character I had so hard practised to be during rehearsals. That moment when I braced myself, took a deep breath, and stepped on stage as someone else.

When I struggled to get the lines of the part I was playing in a film. To make them my own. To finally be able to hear her in me.

Spirituality comes  as I sit before the mirror to start my daily work as an actor. Call it trance or meditation. I call it ‘rising above the everyday’.

Yes. I arrived at spirituality in those moments. It is when you start to see the good in the world, when you realise that you have a power of transformation within you. Which, in my case, I use as an actor.

Slowly it became a part of me. It came to reside within me. I see the world differently now. There is a togetherness in my perception. ‘I’ has turned to ‘we’ and the ego has melted.

Spirituality is being fearless. Spiritual is to be generous with your feelings towards others without holding back. Is loving and being grateful for what you have within you. And to acknowledge the abundance you have in and out of you. To feel blessed even in adverse situations, is to be spiritual.