Spirituality makes us oblivious to the luxuries of the body. Materialism makes us neglect the spirit. Is it possible to blend both, spirituality and materialism, in our lives? This is one of the fundamental questions, that rises every now and then in our mind. What we want in life is guided by the primal knowledge of what or who do we think we are. A beggar knows that he is a beggar and his entire focus in life is to somehow manage his ends meet.
If a man knows what he is then he won’t take time to understand what he needs or where he belongs. If he is a body, then he must strive to do what he think is best to it and if he is more than this fleeting game, than he must or rather he will endeavor to achieve that which is necessary for soul. What we need to understand, has been clearly explained below; which is taken from “Spiritual Dialectics” by Swami Mukundananda.
The attainment of a healthy mind in a healthy body requires a synthesis of both—material and spiritual knowledge. No matter how successful we become in our field of work, if the body is ailing and the mind is disturbed, we will remain unhappy. Hence, our most valuable possession is not our wealth, property, or car, but our own body and mind. The body, which is made from the five material elements and sustained by what we eat and drink, must be kept in good shape through material science. And the mind must be cleansed and elevated through spiritual science. Hence, there is the need to blend both, spiritual and material sciences, in our lives.
Simplistic spiritual practitioners sometimes proclaim that since we are the soul, we must cultivate only the spirit and pay no attention to the body. However, if the body falls sick, the mind becomes filled with the sensation of physical pain, and one cannot even think of God.
A healthy body is our boat for crossing the ocean of material existence. The old adage states: “Health is wealth.” Realizing the truth of this, an intelligent person should spend time and effort to learn the science of healthy living, for physical and mental well-being.
Conversely, materialists often proclaim spiritual science as a waste of time and an impediment to material progress. This is also naïve, for without the help of spiritual knowledge, secular science has no means of eliminating the negative propensities of the mind. We may harness external nature through modern technology to multiply our bodily comforts, but how will we harness the forces of our internal nature, such as lust, anger, greed, envy, and illusion? This is only possible by taking recourse to spirituality.
Thus, for attaining the Ultimate goal of human life, we need to adopt both—spirituality for nourishing the mind and materialism for taking care of the body.
