STRESS, SPIRITUALISM AND MATERIALISM: DR. SHRINIWAS
KASHALIKAR

Many of us, who are ‘spiritualists’ often focus on freedom from the cycle of birth and death, liberation and emancipation, without probably knowing what that means! Their religious celebrations and festivals are more ritualistic, mechanical (and often; commercial or mercenary) and hardly reflect their innate aspiration and/or fervor of realizing the absolute truth! These are rendered into cheap entertainments.

The others; not as much ‘spiritualists’; often called ‘materialists’ feel uneasy in these activities. They; resent the alienation of these activities from the stark realities of life. They think; all this is escapism and waste of time. They think such activities distract us from the real problems of life; and produce and aggravate stress!
But, they have a fragmented or sectarian approach and superficial solutions to the problems. They also remain hollow in as much as they do not give the dimension of self realization or immortality to our life!

Many of us, who are ‘spiritualists’, think that devotion to God is answer to all social evils. But knowingly or unknowingly they never think so about their personal gains. They are humble and lean, but don’t grow from within.

The others amongst us, who are materialists, are often deeply concerned about social problems; and are broad-minded. But their views and activities are subjective and egoistic and so they are sectarian and superficial.

Another conflict amongst spiritual as well as material people is that of asceticism/austerity vs. indulgence. Some vehemently insist on fanatic austerity; while the others take pride in brazen indulgence! These cannot offer holistic solutions and Total Stress Management (simultaneous blossoming of an individual and society), which spring from the practice of NAMASMARAN; as explained (at least to some extent) in my books (available for free download on internet)!