How can we use technology in a way that harmonizes with our spirituality?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question, how can we use technology in a way that harmonizes with our spirituality? Answer, through constant vigilance.
Basically, there is a physical world, the virtual world, and the spiritual world. So, now the physical world is the world which we interact with, function with, function in. And this is where people are, this is where our responsibilities are, and this is where our distractions also are, temptations also are.
Now, of course, one temptation is that from the physical world, we may get distracted to the virtual world. So, if the physical world is filled with sensuality, and the virtual world has stimuli that point toward our spirituality, say for example, we are sitting in an airport waiting for a plane, and all around us is a worldly atmosphere, and if you pick up a phone, or phone and read some Bhagavad Gita words over there, then we are withdrawing from the physical to the spiritual, through the virtual. And in this sense, if we just had to close our eyes and think of the spiritual, it might be a little difficult.
But if you have words to look at, then the that device is helping us to move away from the physical, which has nothing spiritual in it, toward the spiritual. So here, technology is actually aiding us in our spirituality. At the same time, the physical and the spiritual are not entirely divorced from each other.
Often the physical can be the arena where the spiritual manifests to us. So for example, if we are in a secret place, like a temple, where we are sitting to hear a talk, a class, then if we keep looking at the phone, and we are looking at the phone for various social media notification updates, which are, which seem urgent, but are not really important. Then, the virtual is taking us away from the physical where spiritual is manifesting.
So, we have to know that our purpose is to spiritualize our consciousness as early as possible. And we have to see which aids us and which impedes us. Does the physical aid us in being more spiritual? Or does the virtual aid us in being spiritual? So, now if more often than not, we become less conscious of the present.
We could say the physical present around us is also important because even to be conscious of the physical present, it requires a certain control over our consciousness. If we are talking with people, and while talking with them, we keep looking at the phone in between. Basically, we are telling them that we would rather not be with them and we would much rather be with our phone.
Imagine if we were sitting and talking with someone and while talking with us, that person was constantly looking at the door or at the window. You would wonder, are you expecting someone else? So, we might wonder, are we just fillers till that other person comes and then we have to leave? So, we would consider somebody constantly looking at the window or the door a little strange, but we don’t consider it that strange if while talking with others, we keep looking at our phone. So, especially with our loved ones, our lives nowadays are so fast that, so fast based and busy that we don’t really have much time with people.
And when we are with people, we need to really be with them. As we say, quality time is eroded if the quality of our consciousness during that time is not focused but is distracted and technology can easily distract us. So, it’s helpful to monitor what exactly are we doing on our phones? To what part of the world are we being connected? Sometimes we may feel that, oh there are so many things going on in the world, I need to be up to date.
It may well happen that we are in tune with the happenings in some remote part of the world, but we are completely out of tune with the feelings of the people around us and we may be even be out of tune with the core longings of our heart. So, technology inundates us with the superficial and distracts us from the essential. Now, the essential can be at the physical level, essential can also be at the spiritual level directly.
So, there is a virtue to being reflective, being calm, being focused and that virtue is lost or that virtue doesn’t register to us if we are too caught in worldly things and that’s why it’s essential for each one of us to make healthy decisions. By prayer and by discernment, we can consider how God is calling us to manage our relationship with technology. Essentially, let us see, is our interaction with technology enhancing our relationship with God, enhancing our relationship with the people who are important for us, enhancing our attention to the things that really matter for us.
So, discernment essentially requires the capacity to know what is less important and what is more important and that is something which we need to know before we engage with technology because while engaging with technology, the urgency of the updates and the notifications will naturally make us feel that whatever is emerging is what is important. But it needn’t be. So, while the physical world can be a source of temptation in today’s world, but the virtual world can be a source of far far greater temptations.
In fact, we can be in a physically safe place, a physical place that seems spiritually sacred, a temple and we could have the unholiest of images and inputs streaming into our consciousness through our devices that would indicate a complete destruction of the sanctity of the spiritual of that place at least with respect to its effect on our consciousness. And in such cases, technology is surely working against our spirituality. So, if that is happening, then we may need to monitor and regulate our interactions with technology to make sure that it enhances our spirituality and doesn’t deplete it.