Last Article of 2020.

So, I just thought of explaining few things I discussed in my last Session on Revati Nakshatra as I can understand that it can be difficult to understand due to our prevailing concepts of Materialism Vs Spirituality. So, let’s try to understand it under following points –

Materialism Vs Spirituality? – Normally, people ask me this question about their spiritual evolution in this life or if they are going to live a spiritual life. The concept of Materialism Vs Spirituality is developed and conceived in such a way as if they are enemy to each other and one person can either live a materialist life or a spiritual life. As I see, Life is one. We can be living the most materialist life ever but even then we are moving towards something at higher level.

Let’s suppose there is a politician who is all about grabbing power, being in authority and dominating/controlling people. This person may look like living a materialistic life but even he is moving towards spirituality as one day or the other OR in one life or the other, he is going to have this realization that he is wasting his time and he can utilize his life in a more meaningful ways.

So, for reaching up to this spiritual realization, it was very necessary for this person to live this 100% materialistic life. Without exhausting materialistic side of life and without realizing its futility, it is impossible for him to move ahead towards spirituality. So, we can say that materialism is the ladder which takes us towards spirituality.

And we all have been this process. Understand that we all are evolving with time and with lives. We all have been criminals, serial killers, politicians and narcissists in one life or the other and because we have exhausted those avenues and realized their futility, we are here at whichever level we are now.

So, 1^st thing we need to realize that materialistic life or your materialistic goals are not useless. Their attainment make us realize the futility of those goals and we evolve in our lives. As Jim Carrey says – “I believe that I had to become a famous idea and get all the stuff that people dream about and that accomplished a bunch of things that look like success in order to give up my attachment to those things” and “I’ve often said that I wish people could realize all their dreams and wealth and fame so that they could see that it’s not where you’re going to find your sense of completion”.

Without attaining your materialistic desires, you cannot evolve ahead as your mind will continue to linger around your unaccomplished desires.

Difference between Materialism and Spirituality – But is there a really any difference between Materialistic life and other stages of life as we see these days. As I see, we are approaching every different stage of life with same materialistic mindset. Let’s try to understand it –

Materialistic Person – He wants to gain prestige, position and authority in life. He is looking for the next promotion to become Manager or Senior Manager. He gets it and after some time, he gets tired of it.

Religious Person – Now, same person is going towards religion, temple and religious rituals etc. After getting ditched by materialistic pursuits, he thinks that religion is going to bring some happiness in life. He starts donating money, building temples and constructing homes for poor or orphan. He sees his name on the top of list of donors and he feels happy. Now, he wants to become a head trustee of any temple or High Priest or Arch-Bishop of any Church etc. Although, it looks like he has transformed in a religious person but he has the same materialistic mind. Earlier he wanted to become Manager to control/dominate people and now he wants to become Arch-Bishop or High Priest to control/dominate people. The materialistic desire to control others has found a new outlet in religious sphere.

Spiritual Person – Then he gets tired of his religious pursuits too and moves towards spirituality to find the same happiness. Now, he has a spiritual Guru, he goes to Meditate daily, possibly he lives in an Ashram only but the materialistic mindset is still the same. Now, he says that this extra-ordinary divine person is my Guru, I meditate for these many hours every day, I am trying to achieve Kundalini Activation or Enlightenment etc. Again, it looks like he has transformed in a spiritual person but he has the same materialistic mind. Earlier he wanted to become Manager to control/dominate people then he wanted to become Arch-Bishop or High Priest to control/dominate people and now he wants to attain God or Nirvana. Basically, everywhere he wants to attain something or become something. He is not content with what Universe has made him. As Osho said, “You want me to live a socially acceptable life. You want me to be moral as per the standards of this Society. You dont want me to be controversial. Not that you have some great concern towards me or in my development as an individual but you want all this so that when you tell in society that your Guru is Rajneesh, then people should praise you that what a great moral Guru you have!!! So, you want all this to hear that praise which will lead to your ego satisfaction. As a Teacher, my only job is to destroy your ego.”

So, as we can see that we can be living life at different stages but most of us are only living a materialistic life. If we say that we need to let go of all our desires in spiritual world then we must let-go of desire of attaining God/Liberation/Enlightenment too. Even that is a desire and every desire is materialistic in nature.

Ego Assertion – And if we see closely, at every stage there is an Ego Assertion from our side. First, Ego said that I can be happy by attaining Promotion. Then Ego said that I can be happy by following Religion. Then Ego said that I can be happy by following Spirituality. So, we may be running in different spheres but at all places, Ego is making us run. As long as this Ego is making us run, it is impossible to be religious or spiritual in true sense. A true religious or true spiritual person doesn’t want to achieve anything. He is happy in the present.

But at the same time, we can exhaust over Ego only by running and making efforts. So, this whole effort is very necessary. It is not that we are getting liberated due to meditating for 10 hours in a day but when we meditate daily and we don’t get anything in return then Ego exhausts. Ego starts disappearing as it realizes that nothing is going to happen out of my egoistic efforts. That’s why, if we go into the stories of eventual awakening of all enlightened beings, we would see one common theme that some time before their enlightenment, they lost all hope of attaining enlightenment. Losing hope means Ego got exhausted and lost the battle.  Ego accepted its defeat that nothing can happen as per my efforts and the moment ego dropped, things started happening because now Universe/Divine got its chance to function.

So, if we see closely then this whole effort from materialism to religion to spirituality is very necessary because this journey only exhausts the ego. If a person is not even starting this journey then there is no hope for any eventual liberation.

Conclusion – That’s why I say that it is necessary and important to go in an order. 1^st attain your materialistic desires or exhaust your efforts/ego in attaining them. Then attain your religious desires or exhaust your efforts/ego in attaining them. Then attain your spiritual desires or exhaust your efforts/ego in attaining them. And then the moment comes where desire itself drops. As Jim Carrey says – “I do believe in manifestation power or that kind of stuff but I don't believe that any of it matters”. This shows that here is a person who can manifest things as per his desires in life but that desire of manifesting anything itself is not there anymore because he has already exhausted those desires.

If you directly jump into spiritual life without attaining your materialistic goals then it will only lead to a situation where you are sitting in an Ashram but your mind is thinking what is going around in my Shop.

As 12^th house/Pisces/Revati all are last things in astrology and they all represent Spirituality, the clear indication is that Spirituality should be the last goal/desire in life.

Thanks for the company throughout the year. Have a great new year 2021.