#151 How to live in a materialistic world?

K, a 34 year old asked me – I feel like such a misfit in this world. How to live in a materialistic world?

K was referring to being materialistic as being overly concerned or preoccupied with material possessions rather than with intellectual or spiritual aspects of life. The Vedic Vision considers Artha, the pursuit of security through wealth, property and things as a valid pursuit. Nothing wrong with that. However, people who are preoccupied with materialism seek to fill up their lives with things for comfort, pleasure and happiness. They believe that money can buy everything and are willing to cut corners without much attention to Dharma. If we are given to being materialistic then our feelings of security and personal worth are  determined only by our networth. We are always angry with unexpected expenses including growing family expenses as it interferes with our savings and our plans for growing our money. Both personally and professionally, we seek to meet only those people who can grow and help invest our money. The yardstick for success is, the more things we have, more secure we are.

A moment of reality check – All of us have overflowing wardrobes and kitchen cabinets with clothes and things that we don’t use and have accumulated. We are reluctant to give these away because material makes us happy. Not for too long though. Some more material must be bought. And our journey with materialism goes on.

The question is – Where does our preoccupation with material come from? From Materialism which is a branch of philosophy. Most of you say but I have not studied that. It does not matter. (pun intended).

Materialism is the philosophical belief that the building block of the world is material. Even consciousness or life are the result of actions by material.

How do we see ourselves? As the body? That is material.

As the mind? That too is subtle material.

As a sum total of our experiences? That is also materialism.

A school of thought called Charvaka summarises this philosophy well-

yavat jivet sukham jivet, rnam krtva, ghtram pibet

As long as you live, live in comfort and luxury, having incurred debt and experiencing the fine things of life.

Bhasmibhutasya dehasya punaraagamanam kutah

The body is going to turn to ashes and there is no returning (reincarnation)

This Charvaka philosophy rejects the idea of God, an afterlife or moksha or even the framework of karma.

When you think of yourself as merely a body-mind-sense-complex, then you focus on yourself as material interacting with the world which is also material.

Correct?

Since our focus is on matter or material interacting with each other, we begin to experience separation. All material interacts with each other in space and time. I am person A in place 1 and I want to meet you, person B in place 2. There is you out there and there is me here, different material separated by space and time. I am seeking to find a connection with you because I feel separate from you physically. If you look a little differently than me, your color is different, the kind of clothes you wear are different, I experience more separation. And then the moment I notice something really beautiful which I don’t have I experience separation again and lack.

Everyday we experience things coming together and moving apart in our three dimensional world, where material seems to be the defining reality. By that definition all of us are materialistic. Isn’t it?

Our delight at acquiring something, our sorrow at parting, our anxiety about death of the body are based on taking material as real. Material seems to give meaning to our lives.

Bhagavan Krishna in Ch 16 speaks about some characteristics of people who have unbecoming dispositions or who are asura like

Chintaamaparimeyaam cha pralayaataamupaashritaah

Kaamopabhogaparamaa etaavaditi nischitaaha:

Aashapaashashatairbadhaa: kamakrodhaparayanaahaa

Ihante kamabhogaarthamanyaayenaarthasanchayaan

Those who are committed to immeasurable concern until death intent upon enjoyment of objects of desire, who have concluded – Life is this much alone, are committed to desire and anger. They are bound by fetters of hope. They engage themselves in the illegitimate accumulation of wealth for the enjoyment of objects of desire.

As we can see, being an asura, a person given to adharma is not characterised by a scary appearance with protruding teeth but a person who uses all her thinking to acquire more wealth and pleasure and for whom material is the only reality. The great blessing of the mind is not used to discover the limitless reality of who she is.   

If we go by perception alone then yes, material is the building block of the world we experience.

But then the Veda comes along as an independent and valid means of knowledge that tells us what is beyond perception and in the realms of other dimensions and subtle matter.

The Veda reveals Dharma to be the universal framework of values such as balance, kindness, justice, compassion, contribution which are not material and yet make us happy.  

The Vedas reveal that the individual goes from lifetime to lifetime depending on his karma. The jiva will survive death and may travel to different realms of experience and dimensions called lokas which include svarga.  

The Vedas reveal that the framework of karma and the choices we have made across lifetimes accrue as punya and paapa which further transform into sukha and dukkha

The Vedas reveal that all material that this multiverse is made up of is really Bhagavan himself.

To illustrate this, some beautiful examples are given.

yathorṇanābhiḥ sṛjate gṛhṇate ca, yathā pṛthivyāmoṣadhayaḥ saṃbhavanti I

yathā sataḥ puruṣātkeśalomāni, tatākṣarātsambhavatīha viśvam II

Just as the spider creates and withdraws (its web), just as trees are born on the

earth, just as the hair on the head and the body (grow) from a living person, in

the same manner, the universe is born here out of Brahman.

Did the spider go shopping for material to build the web? No. Did the spider go to University to study architecture? No. Both the intelligence and the material to create came from one unitary source alone. This example helps us appreciate that both the material and the intelligence for the web came from the spider.

Hair and nails which are inert emerged from a living person which suggests that something inert can come from a conscious being. Although hair is an important part of our appearance we never say that we are going for hair surgery. We can cut, shape, style, gel and curl our hair only because it is inert and yet a part of us.

Living plants shoot up from the earth that is seemingly inert. 

In the same way the material of this universe which may be conscious or inert has come from Bhagavan himself. There is an intelligence in the way the material is organised too. The planets spinning at great speeds are held in orbit. There is enough food for all beings whether they are herbivorous, carnivorous or omnivorous. The plants can generate their own food. Any process or anything that you observe in nature has been put together intelligently. The intelligence is not a function or property of the material because something inert cannot rearrange itself. Intelligence always rests in a conscious being. And this being is Bhagavan, who is beyond space and time.   

When we see our connection to Bhagavan we feel connected to something greater than material. We are no longer functioning as matter trying to change matter. Because when we’re living as matter trying to change matter, we try to force and control outcomes in our life. But when we see our connection to Bhagavan, we begin to trust outcomes and are not threatened by change in material. We become a little less materialistic.

Further, living in a world that is made of material is not a problem because we see that all forms are sacred. Bhagavan being the unitary source of both the intelligence and the material sanctifies all material starting with the panchamahabhutas, akasha, space, aapa, water, vayu, air, agni, fire and Prithvi, earth. All forms are sacred, from subtle to gross all the way to its many modifications such as our bodies, our minds, the trees, the rivers, the mountains. And so we can live in a material based world knowing that it is Bhagavan’s manifestation and there is nothing to be rejected.   

When we witness our bodies we see that we are other than the material the body is made up of. If we were merely our bodies we would not be able to objectify them.

When we witness our thoughts, emotions and memories we see that we are other than the mind. If we were indeed our minds we would not be able to objectify our minds either.

By witnessing with neutrality we drop our identification with material that seems to limit us.

If we can pick up and drop our identification with material, then is material our defining reality?

Then, how can living in the materialistic world be a problem if you are living as pure being having a human experience?

You pervade matter and yet are always free of matter.

That is all that matters.