Tag Archives: Materialism

Are modern day science n stress making us more sick or superstitious?


True image or illusion?

Current US President Barack Obama has revealed in a recent interview that he always carries in his pocket a statuette of Lord Hanuman, small Buddha, silver poker chip etc. and seeks inspiration from same when he feels tired or discouraged. But, he has said that he is not that superstitious.

He is not alone; he has millions of followers!

How gifts and gadgets of science are making you more superstitious

You would find celebrities, artists, leaders, especially from political polity and gen. next more than ever before wearing rings containing specific stones, colorful bands or sacred threads on their wrists or lucky charms to attract good omens. Advancements in multimedia enable millions to watch them like never before and entice them to emulate such practices.

Scientific advancements have given advent to social media and social media have brought together not only colleagues, cultures, traditions, beliefs and rituals from every corner of our planet but also voices of faith healers and fortune tellers. Every other day, I get text message on my cell phone about forecast for my future and what I should do to make it lucky. One day while under duress, one is bound to fall prey to same.

All kinds of wearable devices are now available to monitor nearly all parameters of your body. Everything looks hunky-dory as long as these parameters are within prescribed limits. But what is if some of those go out of limits? You land on the lap of stress, superstition or god for quick fixes. Hardly anyone would run to doctors for every tit and bit; but if someone does it, he/she would create another set of psychological problems.

When you are stressed, you fall either sick or prey to superstitions

Stress has long list of its byproducts – insomnia, IBS, cardio disorder, lever dysfunction, diabetes… and now new research studies including one conducted by Ohio State University have added cancer, as it gets accentuated by stress.

In modern age, there are many more media available to invite stress, leading among which is social media and mobile phones. Social media is a great boon as well as a gruesome bane. It is a classic example of how plus and minus go hand in hand. Thirty years back, we were surviving very well without having even a line of remote communication at home; today we can’t sustain a minute without cell phone in hand.

No one notices, rather dislikes to notice silent stress of taking selfies, posting images supposedly better than previous day, racing to get more likes and repenting if buddies or beloved did not like it.

Untold story of how science has been misused by man

In its original form, science is secular and secures everyone; but depending upon how it is used or applied, it can create values and virtues or vices and viruses; it can develop faith or fear; surprisingly, its positive use promotes spiritualism and negative use prompts materialism.

Though the taste of man or masses is for positive, their recipe is for exactly opposite – negative. That is why scientific facts have been twisted by most people into their fractured faiths i.e. illusions or superstitions and turned on more far right and left wing ideas and ideologies leaving little space for the center or balanced ones. Discoveries of atom and subatomic particles should have consolidated our conviction that god is everywhere but we have pushed him elsewhere – deeper into isolation and places of worship. We have used these discoveries more for destruction than for construction, creating more stress on our system. We have misused stress to create more medicines and manipulated the fact that it is more a matter of mind control.

We hardly know who we are; but we want to jump into bandwagon of knowing who and where aliens are. We are unable to arrest decay of our world colony; but billions of dollars are being spent on race for colonizing Mars and Moons.

But, all is not lost yet, if we can still realize that it is a bad idea to misuse or overuse science, its gifts and gadgets and that it is a bane to drift away from core principles of nature and life!

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Materialism always matters to man, since at its root is mathematics!

When math is wrongly applied! Source: https://www.flickr.com/

Do you know why sane and saintly advises to shun materialism have proved to be futile always? It is plain and simple – seed of materialism had been sown by mathematics and mathematics is integral part of our life and therefore, it can’t go away in practical life; in ideal life – possibly!

Money, modern gadgets, medicines, science and technology would have not existed without “mathematics” as well as “man’s urge to have more and better”, which is actually materialism!

Materialism and mathematics go hand-in-hand to bring progression as well as regression!

  1. It all started with humble number – 0 or 1 and then 2,3,4….during initial stages of evolution of human race.
    t is the numbers that gave ability to man to count, crave for more or clamor for less!
  2. Thereafter, came virtual numbers -1,-2,-3…. And then the stage was set for major revolution!
  3. It gave birth to imagination, innovation and creation on one hand and lust for power and greed for controls on other hand.
  4. Mathematics became the foundation stone for all branches of science and medicine. Einstein’s relativity theories and for that reason other theories – Newton’s Laws, Quantum Mechanics, Super Symmetry etc. could have not come to existence without mathematics.
    Every modern day progression has foot prints of math and material in it!
  5. Solid progression has brought sharp regression!
    Conflicts and controversies, worries and wars, money and manipulation, cruelty and killings, rivalries and revolts came up as consequence of materialism! Why otherwise Jesus Christ would have been crucified or Mahatma Gandhi assassinated?
    It seems that nature demands progression and regression to go hand-in-hand!

Can we be spiritual without material?

Preachers, Gurus, First of all, let us deal with lot of misnomers around spiritualism or being spiritual.

Prima facie, very definition of being spiritual or spiritualism in holy books, philosophical essays, articles written by believers and preachers is vague and leave you confused. Some spiritual leaders have defined it as the way to connect to the higher being – God or divine powers to get bliss and peace during life and after death, get relieved of sufferings and physical pains of self, dear ones and some noble souls wishing that for all people on this planet. Many pursue spiritualism for progress in their profession or business, success in their pursuits, getting more money and means to live luxuriously. Some intelligentsia like to be spiritual for getting benefits from their good karmas but no bruises from bad karmas! Many follow it, especially in east, to get moksha i.e. getting rid of their physical being, not knowing what it exactly means!

It is not a question of being for or against spiritualism or materialism. Point to be driven home here is that while taking recourse to spiritualism, we are intimately entangled with material or physical objects.

Another great gaffe is – being spiritual has been linked to good thoughts only, forgetting that good would always go with bad, as much as progression goes with regression!

To put the fact simply – spirit essentially means thoughts!

Now, to get thoughts, you need not only mind but also matter – brain. It is hypothetical that spirit, in other words thoughts can exist without brain. Further, what spirit or thoughts are supposed to be about? Thoughts always and actually comprise of images and ideas about matter!

This proves that matter and spirit co-exist; these cannot exist without each other. Matter creates spirit but spirit (thought) controls matter!

Look at godmen, gurus or preachers, who talks or write about spiritualism. They need material to communicate – mike, mobile or other form of media, apart from an audience. They need means to commute; money and organization to promote their ideas or thoughts about faith. Is not it then hypocrisy to advocate shunning materialism?

Where does this lead us to?

Above analysis brings following facts on the surface:

  1. Matter and spirit are as much interwoven as matter and mathematics are!
  2. Matter is determinate and spirit is indeterminate.
  3. It is proven beyond doubt that only good thoughts (spirit) can lead to progression in every sense and that is what we witness today – modern means and media; a lot more to come! Read the minds of those, who are engaged in advancing our civilization; they are full of only good thoughts – if they ever get bad ones, they falter and fail.
    But, bad thoughts certainly lead to regression. This is where same technology and advancements are misused to create chaos, fear, fundamentalism, terror etc.
  4. It you want to make the most of matter and spirit, moderate or balance the use of the same.
    You would be the happiest and luckiest, if you use spiritualism and materialism just to the extent you need to achieve your goals; not more, nor less!
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Let your knowledge, niche or expertise not become your enemy!

When niche becomes nightmare! Source: http://www.flickr.com/

“I know enough” is enough to pull you down in very area, you believe you know enough! Statistics show that cause of eventual failure of most experts is their expertise!! Is it difficult to believe? But you can’t disbelieve the numbers – my analysis shows it is 8 out of 10!

There are very effective marriage counselors, I have heard about, saving lot of marriages but are unable to save their own! Well known cardiologists eventually suffered from cardiac problems and lost life at an age, it should have not happened. There are legal luminaries and media whistle blowers engaged in eliminating immorality or infidelity in societies across the world; but they ignore what they do in their own backyard! A highly disciplined father would normally be blessed with rebellious children. You are more prone to accidents on the road you have traveled most!

All leadership, moral or spiritual materials exhort you in abundance to be expert or excellent in what you do; then why is that excellence brings you adversity; that expertise elicits extinction? What is it that promotes irony or double standards especially among those, who have acquired prominence, passion or par excellence?

It is like darkness under the lamp!

Everyone needs light and a lamp gives it. But lamp suffers from darkness underneath!However, nature also requires that there be a cause for every effect!!

So, here below is what happens, when you become very knowledgeable, known, expert or highly engaged:

  1. It makes you dedicated.
    But, high dedication leads to addiction to what you do!
  2. It encourages high degree of ownership.
    But, you don’t notice when your ownership becomes excessive. Excessive ownership promotes obsession!
  3. In-depth information on your subject makes you expert.
    But, when you are not conscious, expertise encourages egoism and even arrogance!
  4. More you know, more focused you become!
    But, high focus is invariably fraught with loss of flexibility.
  5. Expertise and excellence can only come, when you converge on areas you operate.
    More you converge on your activities; more close becomes your mind! So, you fail to take cognizance of what and how you do outside of your areas of expertise or knowledge.
  6. You are consumed by your passion.
    What you are highly consumed with, would create contradictions, which you are generally averse to manage! You become indifferent to anything outside of your area!!
  7. When you know it all, it comes very easy.
    But, it also means you start taking things as granted. This is when you would make worse gaffe!
  8. You fly high!
    So, you lose ground and humility!!

How to remove darkness under the lamp!

Our traditional thoughts would find it difficult to do it. So, go untraditional; go offbeat.

If light from the lamp can be reflected back to dark area/s, it would become illuminated!

Experts lose habit to look at reflections, which they receive from others; that is how darkness exists under their nose; their expertise becomes their own enemy!! They are unable to realize when their knowledge – an asset also works as a liability.

So, at no stage of our evolution and progress, we should ever stop or ignore to reflect and contemplate. Reflect on what we do; what others reflect about us and be aware about larger purpose beyond us and ramifications of what we are engaged with. That alone can keep us grounded and ensure that our expertise remains an asset through and through.

Another important fact is that nature demands balancing; neither left nor right! Just be around the center!! It is in this context that balancing between work and life, money and morals, spiritualism and materialism assume paramount importance!

Having said that, would you ever like to allow your knowledge to become your liability; your expertise to become your own enemy?

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