Spirituality was the last thing on San Diego-resident Dustin Ellison’s mind when he visited India in 2006. All that he wanted to do was meet friends and surf the seas. “I had heard that India had good surf and no crowds. So I brought my surfboard along,” recalls Ellison.

Ellison’s friends directed him to the Kaliya Mardana Krishna Ashram — a surfing ashram in Mulki, near Udupi, in coastal Karnataka. Here, the sport turned out to be more than just riding the waves. “I learned to feel a spiritual connect with nature while surfing. I experienced the beauty, strength and playfulness of Krishna’s dynamic energy,” recalls Ellison, who now lives and works at the ashram and calls himself Daruka Dasa.

Set up in 2004 by Swami Bhakti Gaurava Narasingha, the Kaliya Mardana Ashram mixes surfing with spirituality. “There is a spiritual connection to surfing. Riding a wave in the open ocean awakens inner awareness,” says Narasingha. Besides learning spiritual surfing, a day in the life of ashram residents includes singing devotional songs and meditation — when they are not kayaking, cycling or playing volleyball and chess. Seventy people have learned spiritual surfing at the ashram since 2004. Of these, 60 per cent are Indians.

Spirituality has a new look in India today. Like the surfing swami, many others are repackaging spirituality to appeal to the modern, public school-educated Indian. Take a chain of Mumbai gymnasiums called 360 Degree, which promotes exercise as “meditation in action”. Members are taught to seek body, mind and soul awareness while pumping iron.

Spirituality has shed its saffron robes in favour of spaghetti straps. “The Indian youth wants to be seen as modern. So they want spirituality to be packaged in contemporary ways,” says Narasingha.

The age-old science of the soul is also being reinvented because today’s youth are bored with archaic systems and approaches, argues Priyanka Malhotra, spokesperson, Full Circle Books, a Delhi-based publishing house which has published 70 titles on spirituality. “Something new piques their curiosity,” she says.

So you have Mumbai-based Zen Publications — publishers of over 60 books on philosophy — which tries to keep up with the times by issuing volumes that the young can relate to. “Our books on modern spirituality don’t spout Sanskrit text and ancient jargon. They are written in a contemporary style,” says Yogesh Sharma, publisher, Zen Publications. Most of its readers, he adds, are young professionals.

Clearly, spirituality takes on a different form with every generation. The generation that grew up in the 1940s found spiritualism in holy books; the 1960s’ peacenik set took to gurus and alternative lifestyles. Now, in the new millennium, the young are being encouraged to link spirituality with their areas of special interest — physical fitness and academics, for instance.

So several organisations are trying to answer the fundamental question — “who am I?” — with the help of a blend of management theories, quantum mechanics and psychoanalysis. Zen books, for example, cross reference spirituality with science, astronomy and psychology in a bid to attract the young.

“Contemporary gurus and spiritual institutions have customised their techniques for a new audience. Their idiom is global, humour is contemporary and meditations are tailor-made for the busy professional,” explains Sharma. “They may still use the wisdom of the Vedas but they feed it to their audience in a pre-digested form.”

Manjit Singh, who works as a senior consultant at information technology firm Capgemini India in Mumbai, says new-age spirituality appeals to him because it helps him deal with practical, day-to-day situations. “If I have a grudge against my manager, a contemporary spiritual book will tell me how to tackle it,” says Singh, who is translating a book Personal Religion of Your Own by Ramesh Balsekar from English to Hindi for Zen Publications.

The Management Centre for Human Values (MCHV), at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta, uses the Gita and Upanishads as study material for its business ethics, leadership excellence and management culture creativity courses. Zen Publications publishes cartoon postcards which deal with Vedanta in a light and humourous way. A psychiatric clinic in Madurai uses a spiritual technique, Yoga Nidra —a mind relaxing method — to treat patients.

The publishing industry, while dealing with spiritual books, is seeking to cloak them in different garbs. Young Indians, Malhotra elaborates, are buying spiritual books that are not apparently spiritual. “These may be books on how to get ahead in your career or how to get along with others. But even within such books there are clear spiritual messages,” she says.

“The language in which spirituality is being preached has changed,” adds Panduranga Bhatta, head, MCHV. “It uses modern jargon and analogies to appeal to the young.”

For instance, the collapse of Satyam Computers has become a case study of spiritual mismanagement for students of business ethics at IIM, Calcutta. “It’s taught as a case of ambition overriding values,” explains Bhatta. For ideal leadership qualities, students study the lives of Ashoka and Gandhi. “Both based their leadership on spirituality,” says Bhatta.

The MCHV also conducts spiritual management programmes for school principals and business executives. “It helps high-pressured professionals develop a balanced approach to life,” says Bhatta. The centre publishes a journal on human values carrying articles on spirituality and how it helps tackle stress.

Spirituality is no longer an abstract subject — it’s also getting a scientific spin. The Tureya Foundation — which runs an ashram in Kodaikanal, promoting spiritual living — has set up a research centre in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, to scientifically test the writings of the Sutras. “We have developed mind relaxing techniques to help tackle modern day problems,” says the coordinator of Tureya Foundation, Rudra (she uses only her first name). Its Yoga Nidra technique has been adopted by a psychiatric clinic run by the M.S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation in Madurai to treat its patients.

The Tureya Foundation has also started two meditation retreats — in Kodaikanal and Rameswaram — where growing numbers of college students, software professionals and working mothers are signing up to learn mind management. “The two-day weekend refresher camp — which teaches students easy-to-use ways to unwind — is very popular among young people,” says Rudra. The foundation has conducted meditation camps at several business process outsourcing (BPO) firms in Madurai.

Old-time spiritual institutions also realise that Vedanta-in-blue-jeans sells. The 73-year-old Brahma Kumari movement — which was started by a school teacher in Pakistan, who preached living an austere, God-fearing, spiritual life — now uses youth festivals, slide shows, seminars and lecture series to woo the youth. “We have set up an International Youth Forum (IYF) to raise awareness about spiritual values among the youth,” says B.K. Karuna, director, public relations and communications, Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. The IYF currently has 8,000 young adults in 49 countries as members.

Spirituality is not just for the soul. Psychologists and fitness trainers are using it to fine tune the mind and body as well. In 2008, a World Congress on Psychology and Spirituality was held in New Delhi to discuss the benefits of spiritual thinking on the psyche. “Spiritual thinking is being increasingly used to resolve psychological problems like negativity and stress,” says Sunil Gaur, assistant professor of psychology at Delhi’s Zakir Hussain College, who has been studying spiritual psychology for the last 10 years.

At the 360 Degree chain of gymnasiums, fitness is not just about sweating it out on the treadmill. “I involve the mind and soul as well,” says Mickey Mehta, promoter of the fitness centre. So lesson one for all new members is to “dissolve” in the experience of exercise. “I teach them to exercise slowly, regulate breathing and not think of the past or future. It makes exercise meditative,” says Mehta, adding that his gymnasiums are growing at 30 per cent every year.

This is the language that the young understand. Dhruv Parikh, who works as a senior analyst at Mumbai-based IT firm Geodesic Ltd, and regularly attends discourses on contemporary spirituality, believes new-age spiritualism is more blunt and to the point — and does not speak in circles, unlike its older, traditional version.

“Also, contemporary spirituality does not impose any list of dos and don’ts. It lets people take their own decisions, which appeals to young minds,” he says.

No wonder then that it’s catching on. After all, who’d quarrel with a concept that helps you communicate with God while you ride a sea wave on a surfboard? Beats the four walls of your granny’s puja ghar any day.