Spiritualism Vs Materialism - Can they Co-exist?

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.. :)