MATERIALISM VS SPIRITUALISM

MATERIALISTIC OUTLOOK
The materialistic outlook says that body and "the feeling of 'I'" are inseparable. The feeling of I cannot be represented by the word 'soul'. Soul is an imaginary concept. When we die, the activities and functions of the body cease. Systems fail to work. Mind is not an integral part of the body. We get a feeling of having a body and a life, because our body organs and the senses perceive the forces and things outside the body and respond to the external stimuli. Thus birth, life and death are nothing but a natural cycle and there is nothing SPIRITUAL in it.

SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK

The Hinduism, particularly the Bhagavad Gita, the Sankhya Vedanta and the Upanishads dealt with spirituality in length.

Gita preached that just as a man changes his old clothes and adorns new ones, the spirit (atma) sheds its old body and assumes a new body. Thus, the spirit has no birth, maturity and death. It is the body which germinates when the spirit enters the zygote-fetus, matures and emerges out of the womb and continue to grow and perish, while the spirit within the body continues its tryst with its own destiny. Body is only an instrument.

Adi Shankara propounded the Advaita philosophy. Advaita = Not two. According to this the human spirit and the God are one and the same.

Madhvacharya propounded the Dvaita philosophy. Dvaita = two. The human spirit and the God are different. They can never unite.

Ramanujacharya propounded the Visishtadvaita philosophy. The human spirit at the end of its
adventure merges with the God. This reunion is emancipation or mooksha or saayujyam (being one with the God).

ANALYSES AND SUMMARY
The materialistic outlook reflects the hard realities. The spiritual outlook is only a figment of imagination.

Is the SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK totally useless?

It urges us to think that "we and our body are not same. Being the spirit we command our body." This helps us to be more active, instead of being fatalistic or passivised. If we can really free ourselves from the confines and contours of our body, we get freed from certain prejudices which we acquire from our family, friends and teachers.

The self-persuasion that a person is different from his body, is self-deceptive. Yet, it is a useful tool to gain freedom. (A belief that a man is not free, may also be a figment of imagination).

What is the object of this post? Do you want to spread Hinduism or its philosophy?

1. Certainly not to spread HInduism.

2. To examine if there may be something good in pagan philosophies also.

3. Also religious philosophies treat us as ignoramuses and make us ignoramuses, if we are not one. We have to examine the precepts from time to time, to prevent such contingencies.