Spirituality recognizes four debts, namely:

• Debt to God: For being our Creator and Sustainer.

• Debt to sages: One is indebted to the sages and saints for documenting all their knowledge in the form of scriptures for us to follow.

• Debt to ancestors: Whatever one has or is today, one owes a lot of it to our forefathers.

• Debt to society: One is living in the society and is dependent on it, even for day-to-day needs like water and electricity, etc.

     However, all these obligations are considered from a spiritual and not a psychological point of view. Since the society keeps changing, social obligations from a psychological viewpoint keep changing. Hence, they cannot be included in Spirituality. For example, the terms such as equality and justice do not even enter the realm of Spirituality, since the law of Karma, which states, “Each one derives the merits according to one’s actions” is a doctrine of Spirituality.

    In Spirituality, one needs to be committed to the cause of the everlasting Truth, that is, the Guru. When one has a Guru, one is free from all the four debts. A disciple has a debt only towards his Guru, which can only be repaid by attaining Self-Realization. For those who do not have a Guru, doing spiritual practice will repay all the four debts as follows:

• Debt to God: With spiritual practice, one ultimately merges with God, thus fulfilling the very reason that God graced us with a human birth.

• Debt to sages: One repays debts by studying and imparting the knowledge one has gained from the various scriptures written by the sages.

• Debt to ancestors: When one progresses as a result of spiritual practice, the ancestors too, are benefited, thus repaying their debt.

• Debt to society: Spreading Spirituality as one’s spiritual practice increases the spiritual purity (sattvik) element in the society, thus paying off this debt.