The Materialistic and the Spiritual

Human beings are born on earth as a mysterious animal that can move, think, talk, and act. This endowment is a special feature in the humans due to constant upgrading the level of creatures by a process of trial and error, by constant experiment testing the ability to survive under dire circumstances, and upgrading skills to suit its survival. The Monkeys or primates do not have these abilities although they are intelligent, move and chatter. What makes the humans so special is their ability to destroy themselves and others, too. This is not the case with the birds, animals and other species which are enjoying life. The animals do fight, but do not kill. Some animals kill other animals for food, for they are created that way. Otherwise they cannot survive and their existence is at stake. But the humans fight and kill! There is no question of killing others to survive, but still they fight and kill! This is the tragedy.

 Now, the question about materialistic and the spiritual comes here. The human civilization is materialistic since it is the tendency of the humans to think in terms of materialistic progress.This tendency is due to the nature of human existence, that is materialistic. The human body is made of matter, the five elements, depend son food and water that are matter. The mind is matter and it thinks only about matter! The entire life of a man is built around matter, acquiring food, building shelter and improving the means of acquiring wealth, that is called materialistic progress.

  The Spiritual aspects do not matter! Matter comes from spirit. The sublime aspect of matter is spirit. It is a forward movement that makes spirit a matter. It is a backward movement that turns matter into spirit. Mind is matter. Mind is the product of spirit. Mind can become matter when it can revert to its pure state. Mind becomes heavy, gross, matter. This is because it is the product of food.The quality of mind depends on teh quality of the food. Sattva guna comes from sattvika ahara like milk and fruits. Bhagavad-Gita gives a detailed account of this. This is the reason why we find man who eats rajasa ahara becomes demoniac, rakshasa.The world has seen constant fights leading to war due to the food aspect. The saints do not fight; the kings fight. 

    The spiritual people are not materialistic. They do not think of acquiring wealth; rather, they would give up everything. They know there is happiness in giving rather than storing. Bliss or ananda is a built in quality of tyaga, yajnya, sacrifice.The present day tendency to hoard money, food grains and gold and other things are the product of rajasa guna. Sattvika guna will make the world more peaceful. Parents encourgae children to become economically prosperous little knowing that this leads to competition, strife, illwill and ultimately total destruction. Parents should encourage children to learn how to live peacefully, work for the upliftment of the people who are deprived, ignorant, gullible and exploited by strong, rich and powerful. They should teach how future lies in spiritual progress, not material progress.

   This may mean a retrogressive measure to many who think in terms of materialistic progress. But this is the truth. The jiva is held in a mesh of magical world that is governed by attachment, ego, anger, pride, envy, etc that are all detrimental to the very existence! The Bhagavad-Gita brings out the truth how the entire evil forces, Kuru sena, were destroyed at the end,all due to envy, greed and attachment. Bhagavan Shree Krishna advocates spiritual development through dhyana yoga. Spiritual practices bring joy, peace, and happiness, not the craving for more comforts, wealth.
   Thus, the entire journey of man on earth is one of 'search for truth'.Yhe mpment this truth is found, the journey ends! But the 'truth' is not found here, in the materialistic since it is the untruth, rather, truth un-folded! Truth, the 'sat' has un-folded; fold it back! This has been the spiritual practice of all the sages- unfolding and folding the pack of truth. First the material world unfolded itself from the spiritual, the 'spirit of matter'. The  spirit of matter goes to the very beginning of consolidation and condensation of stellar dust into the fermions and the bosons, the primordial matter. These produced in a gradual unfoldment of the neutron, electrons, and the protons and fianlly manifest as the organic cells and inorganic matter- the gaseous, liquid and the solid, the metallic and the non-metallic, etc etc.
    Thus, the paraphernalia of the material world appeared to the inquisitive minds. This, too, is a matter of one's interest. Nothing exists for a person who is not botheed about all these. One may take interest in some selected faculty and investigate and may not find anything at the end. What all find at the end is oneself! The Self is the truth; this self only is unfolded into the material world. This material world unfolds in all its hues and colours as a vibration of energy and names and forms all illusions, at that!
  This is the Sage wisdom.