“Long gone are those joyful days of shared showers

“Long gone are those joyful days of shared showers, outdoor fun and gatherings where the alcohol gets over much before midnight” exclaimed Pankaj Gupta, a faculty of Business school. These days, the student experience has changed throughout the years. Rather they party and have a decent time; however, students are working harder and reliably. He further explained that the students are more career-oriented and under strain to go up against extracurricular activities, more obligations and working to cope with the market jobs.
Meeting individuals, making companions forever and finding new interests are the things that have not changed for students who are following an indistinguishable course to freedom from their parents. The parents of current youth have experienced childhood in the l960s when traditional religious structures broke down. Parents may be less inclined to push organized religion onto their children. The college students today have significantly more access to worldwide societies and belief system than in the past, and exposure gives them more extensive decisions about spiritual beliefs and practices. In regard to the spiritual existence of youngsters, the criticism isn’t exceptionally reassuring leading to decrease in the student’s most profound sense of being. When students go to college, it’s often a time when they go through various changes in their lifestyle and thinking. For some, these changes may include the challenge of spiritual struggles.
Regardless of their strong spiritual and religious interests, numerous students express religious questions and reservations. The religious and spiritual experiences of present students add a nuance to the investigation of campus climates. In spite of the increasing number of students who relate to no specific religious tradition, college students held high levels of interest and contribution in matters identified with deep sense of being and religious commitment. The students who are not religious tend to define their spirituality in a different way than those who are highly religious. It is essential to fathom the relationships between students’ perceptions of the campus climate, their religious views, and perceptions of the religious/spirituality campus climate.
As may be normal, students who are firmly religious tends to be spiritual; however, there are critical restrictions. “We feel distant from God and religious practices in college” said Vasudha kamra, one of my colleagues from Jindal Global Business School. She further added that there is no engagement of students in spiritual experience and no encouragement of meditation and religious faith in campus life. In order to support this statement, Anjali Rao, a student of Business school stated that, “I considered myself to be spiritual and quite religious before entering college. But in reality, I was just making a halfhearted effort. After experiencing the college life I realized that i didn’t really have a deep relationship with God.”
However, “Rajshree bhattad, one of the students pursuing MBA from Jindal Global Business School” indicated that there were “visible efforts to make the campus more welcoming in terms of the campus climate and religious diversity”. She enlightened me with various techniques and sessions introduced by the college to create a sense of Ethics, Spirituality, and Sustainability in the environment of the campus. There are various meditation sessions and conferences held for the awareness and inculcate the forgotten faith and essence of spirituality in various social problems of society. But the presence of students in such activities is close to none until and unless they are forced or given some incentives like attendance etc. This behavior highlights the student’s perception related to this environment. “Spirituality is a part of people,” Professor Pankaj Gupta said. “It can provide coping resources to psychological well-being issues or just daily life, but it has another side too. People can struggle when they’re facing psychological and situational conflicts.”
With the classroom reserved for discussions of an academic nature, I have observed that students found that they encounter deeper engagement with religion and spirituality elsewhere. “I don’t think that it’s religion/spirituality really meant for the classroom, but its fine for like clubs and different activities and stuff” said one of my colleague, name to not be revealed, portraying his thoughts regarding the spiritual nature on campus. He also explained that the campus life is more about physiological needs and does not encourage the religious activities and prayers much. In spite of their religious commitment, students exhibit a high state of religious flexibility and acknowledgment. For instance, most students concur that “non-religious individuals can lead positive experiences that are similarly as good as those of religious believers”. The students who preferred not to state their religious or spiritual identity had slightly poorer quality of interactions than their other peers. On-campus residents reported more positive interactions than their peers who lived off-campus. Among the students who do have a residential experience at college and who have opportunities to interact with students different from them, we see greater change and spiritual growth. It really points to the benefit of engaging with people who are not identical in terms of beliefs and practice. The students appear to be comfortable with the diversity of individual views by indicating they can disagree yet respect another person’s opinion thus providing an example of acceptance through a loving attitude. Spirituality encourages relationships, not only with the extraordinary, but also with fellow human beings.
Classroom discussions tend to involve little personal information. Even so, the topics regarding faith and spirituality were approached in certain courses, from an academic angle, best illustrated by Aditi shokeen, one of the MBA students who quoted: “The religion classes are very scholastic so there’s normally not a lot of discussion about your personal spiritual beliefs.” Continuing discussions of religion, faith, and deep sense of being from the classroom to living learning groups, residence halls, retreats, and student clubs and organizations is very basic in showing how faith and spirituality can move from theory and philosophy to application and practice. Also, the campus is not equipped with any temple or religious place which in turn can make students more driven towards early morning prayers or meditation.