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Ageing is a spiritual journey. Everyone should keep in mind that each soul is potentially divine and our goal should be to manifest the divinity from within by controlling ourselves from the illusory world. This is the essence of all religion as propounded by Swami Vivekananda. Spiritual care is distinct from physical and mental care as the former transcends beyond matter. To provide spiritual care the career must understand what spiritual health is and what is the felt need of the elderly. A career should possess the skill to recognize the spiritual health of the older persons leaving aside the status of their physical and mental health.
It is unfortunate that in the gerontological literature in India the philosophy of ageing is conspicuous by its absence, seldom one comes across a study which deals with the dynamics of spirituality and ageing except, of course, as a passing reference. However, in the Western countries there are studies based on empirical data which emphasize the significance of spirituality in elderly care. One comes across special centres for studying spirituality and ageing in America and Great Britain . To name a few are: Center for Ageing, Religion and Spirituality Chronicle, American Society on Ageing, Institute of Spirituality and Ageing, Center for Ageing and Spirituality and so on.
The present study is an humble attempt to discuss spirituality and ageing by holistic approach. Starting from the concept of spirituality and ageing, it has analyzed the relationship between spirituality and ageing with the help of both empirical and secondary data showing how with the advancement of age, the need for spiritualism increases, how this need varies in terms of sex, the differences in the mode of understanding the essence of spirituality and age between commoners and specialists, identifying the elderly who are in need of spiritual care, how family, friends, religious leaders and community can play the role of spiritual therapy can serve as an alternative method to reduce the problems of ageing and so on.
This being a preliminary attempt, it is suggested that more studies in Spirituality and Ageing be taken up by covering both rural and urban areas on a largest canvas.
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