A good friend
of mine asked me a question about "Spiritualism and Materialism", and
whether these two can co-exist. Before we dive headlong into long-winded rants
as if we know it all, we should ensure that we understand what the terms
'Materialism' and 'Spiritualism' mean, and then see whether they exist,
co-exist or are mutually exclusive.
With this pretext, we start
with defining "Materialism". In normal day-to-day parlance,
Materialism is often identified with pursuit of wealth or following a mindset
that focuses on tangible and 'Practical' (aka mechanical, calculative, or corporate)
methods to achieve an end with general disregard to cultural feelings or human
emotions. If we were a bit pedantic, we shall see that 'Material' relates to
the word 'Matter' which is tangible and measurable, as opposed to
'Spiritual' which is intangible and immeasurable or be understood
with common sense. Thus it is easier for us to define 'Material'ism before
grasping the idea of 'Spirit' and Spiritualism.
DHARMIC MATERIALISM: Dharmic
materialism is the pursuit of wealth, power, and comforts that do not contradict
human nature (or Dharma). Dharmic pursuit of Artha (material acquisitions) and
Kama (pursuit of Desires) are part and parcel of human life without which
progress of human race would be difficult. These acquisitions (of material
wealth and desires) should be devoid of greed and should be taken up with an
intention to help oneself AND the Society in general. The present generation is
witnessing how corporations pursue acquisition of wealth by any means and mode
even if it means destruction of general wellbeing of those they claim to help.
Dharmic Materialism differs from this type of blind pursuit by following a humanitarian
approach to wealth generation and sharing.
ADHARMIC MATERIALISM: Adharmic
or "Blind" Materialism refers to a philosophy akin to the 'Charvaka
materialism' which believes that 'life' is purely an accident caused by
chemical combination; and believes that intelligence, love, anger, and other
emotions are purely hormonal reactions that ends when the body dies. (This
materialism should not be confused with Artha-Kama pursuit.)
SPIRITUALISM: We all can
see and appreciate the 'Material' world as it is easy to measure tangible entities.
But we also know that there is some undefined entity (or non-entity) called
'Life' that one cannot see, verify, or understand. Even the best doctor in the
world can tell us whether a person is 'alive' or not only by seeing the
'symptoms' of life (e.g. temperature, heartbeat, brain scan etc.) but he/she can
never pinpoint to a particular 'substance' and say 'THIS IS LIFE'. Even the
best of scanning machines cannot capture a material disconnect between the
material body and the 'Spirit' when a person 'dies'. Thus we have to infer that
there is something that is 'non-material' that exists in this universe that
makes matter move, 'talk', 'feel' and have desires. We do not know what this
'Spirit' is. We can give it various labels like Atma, Paramatma, Jeeva, Ruh,
Soul, Life etc... but the fact of the matter is that we still remain ignorant
about the nature of this Spirit despite all the labels, discourses and
references books we read.
Now that the context is set, we
see things fall into place about existence, co-existence or non-existence of
material vs. spiritual thinking.
Dharmic Materialism can (and
does) co-exist with a Spiritual mindset. Every human being has to have material
pursuit for his/her subsistence. Even the most evolved Spiritual thinker - as
long as they are a life-form on earth - has to work in order to maintain life
in the body. We see that even newborn babies cry for food, or a starving monk
has to at least breathe in order to maintain life in the physical body. Thus
pursuit of material (matter related) aim towards an end does not clash with
Spiritual thinking. The difference between a novice and a spiritual thinker is
that a novice sees only ephemeral matter and thinks it is real, while a
Spiritual Giant sees the underlying substratum of Consciousness and knows that
the world is nothing but names and forms for the same Conscious Continuum..
On the other hand, Adharmic Materialism
which denies the existence of 'Soul' outside of Spiritual (or Adhyatmic) context
cannot co-exist with Spiritual ideas. As long as a person believes that life is
merely a product of chemical combination, he/she is complacent and hence are
limiting their pursuit to push and explore the boundaries of the nature of
Spirit and have any 'Spiritual' experience. Thus one should outgrow Adharmic
material thoughts in order to understand and appreciate Spiritual thoughts.
There is a famous saying in Tamil
that illustrates this point.. The saying goes as follows:
Maratthai Maraitthadhu
Maa-mara yaanai
Maratthul Maraindhadhu
Maa mara-yaanai.
Paratthai Maraitthadhu
Paar mudhal boodham.
Paratthil Maraindhadhu
Paar mudhal boodham.
Literal meaning:
The Elephant was hiding
the wood,
The Wood then hid the
Elephant.
The five elements
(Earth, Water etc) hid the Cosmic Intelligence.
The five elements
remained hidden in the Cosmic Intelligence.
Inner meaning:
When a child sees a wooden
Elephant, he/she will exclaim "WOW!!! An Elephant!!!" for he/she sees
only the shape of the Elephant and does not pay heed to the material it is made
of (i.e. wood.) But when the same child grows up - to be, say a carpenter -
he/she will discard the shape of the object and look at the wood and say
"Oh! This is good quality teakwood!! It is perhaps from Indonesia." Here
the person is the same (the child grew to be an adult), and the object (wooden
Elephant) also has not changed. What has changed is the outlook and maturity of
the person.
So also, a spiritual infant
sees this material world (made of protons and electrons) and thinks "Oh!! This
is a beautiful world, or This is a dangerous world.. He is rich, I am poor. He
is tall, I am short. He is fair, I am dark. He is angry, I am sad etc."
But when Spiritual wisdom dawns and the little boy becomes a Carpenter who
understands wood (i.e. a Spiritual infant becomes a Gnaani who understands the
nature of Consciousness), He will say "All this is Consciousness, there is
no permanence to the superficial qualities as they are ephemeral."
Thus Understand Brahman - another
Label to the Supreme Consciousness that is the underlying Substratum to the
universe... and when you see the Substratum, the Elephant no longer remains...
What remains is pure Consciousness, and Contentment.. :)
