Religion versus Spirituality: Lessons learnt from Maslow’s Hierarchical Theory of Motivation
Living in these times I have always wondered, if the God(s) we worship is/are all powerful, where does the need to protect our God’s homes (religious places) and his/her people come from. Why do the followers of a spiritual force feel this overwhelming need to protect the One who protects them? The answer for this question came to me from revisiting a theory in psychology that I have truly admired. The concept is simple- according to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchical Theory of Motivation; all of us have needs which lie in a hierarchy, starting from basic needs of nutrition and water to higher level needs of self-actualization (going beyond one’s own needs to reach out to one’s community at large) These needs are the ones that guide our every action. For example- the basic need of hunger makes us look for food and eat. Similarly, it is our need for belongingness that makes us want to maintain social bonds, however limited they may be. To explain my point today, I will have to ex...