The possibility for self-improvement is reduced by materialism and expanded by spirituality Gita 18.60

Transcript

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Thank you. Self-improvement.
Becomes. Increasingly possible. With a spiritual world view.
And becomes. Increasingly impossible. With a materialistic world view.
In today’s world. Progress. Or progressiveness.
Is often seen. As a characteristic. Of the materialistic.
World view. So for example. Say.
When a country has. Many facilities. Then.
It is considered to be progressive. So the more modern it is. It is considered to be more progressive.
And conversely. The more traditional it is. Often it is considered to be.
Less progressive. It is thought that. Because of its adherence to.
Tradition. And many traditions. Most traditions we could say have a. Spiritual world view.
So it is not that much progressive. Now. It’s paradoxical that.
Actually. There can be progress which is outer. And there is progress that is inner.
So materialism. Holds that. Matter is all that exists.
Or at least matter is all that matters. And then. It strives a lot.
To try to make material things better. To try to. Make.
Make the materialistic. In a way by which. People can come closer to God.
And can ultimately attain. Sorry. By which this.
By which this world. Can come close. Can be made closer to.
Paradise. As is described in the world’s religions. So.
This worldly paradise is thought. Is aspired to be brought in through materialism. Through especially nowadays the power of technology.
So. Because of this. This world is all that exists.
Then by the forces of nature. We can try to operate this world. And shape it in a way.
That it will help us to. Better control it. That will help us to better.
Shape it. So to now. If we take materialism forward.
To its consequences. To its logical philosophical consequences. And if matter is all that exists.
And matter works according to the. Laws of nature. Laws of physics say.
And. We are basically. We are basically.
Materialistic creatures. Science. Operates the principle of.
Naturalism. And naturalism refers slightly to. Slightly from materialism in that.
Naturalism acknowledges. The existence of. Feelings.
And emotions. But. It considers them as.
Entirely dependent on matter. And therefore. It doesn’t ascribe to them.
Any. Existence in their own right. Thus.
The end result. Of the materialistic world view. Is that.
We are basically stuck. The way we are. Because.
We. Our free will. Is eventually.
Reduced to an illusion. Our free will. Is considered to be.
A. Something which we don’t really possess. Our bodies. Are like programming machines.
We are like. But when we. When the materialistic world view is there.
We identify ourselves with our bodies. And thus we end up as biological robots. And we are simply.
Distilled. Or we could say doomed. To act the way.
Our bodies act. And there is just nothing that we can do about it. Such a world view.
It centers on the notion that. We at our core. Are simply.
Products of matter. Is. A profoundly.
Anti-spiritual world view. Such an anti-spiritual world view. Actually makes life.
Increasingly difficult. To. Balance.
To harmonize. To seek to improve ourselves. Now.
Self-help is. A burgeoning industry. In today’s world.
And we all. Do want to become better. Than what we presently are.
We all aspire. To improve ourselves. Recognize that.
At our core. We are spiritual. And we need to.
We may not in a sense. Acknowledge that we are. Spiritual.
Materialistic people may not really. Think so much about that. In the vast majority of people.
Are materialistic. But we do acknowledge. That we have free will.
That we have emotions. So. Free will is an experienced reality.
Say. Right now. I chose to speak.
I could well have chosen not to speak. Right now you are choosing to hear. You could have well chosen not to hear.
So. We won’t go into the philosophical. Implications or complications.
About the existence of free will. But suffice it to say. That without free will.
There would be absolutely. No chance for self-improvement. And.
For self-improvement. It is vital that. We.
Recognize. The. Not just practically.
But also conceptually. The possibility for that. So it is a spiritual worldview.
Which tells us that. Our bodies are programmed. But they are not just programmed for life.
Or programmed forever. They are programmable. They are machines.
Which do have programming. Associated with them. But the programming can be changed.
I may have. Lust associated. With myself.
I may have anger. Associated with myself. I may be used to.
Succumbing to these inner weaknesses. These human failings. But.
I have the capacity to resist them. And. How do I resist them actually? That is where.
The bhakti wisdom. And the bhakti practice comes in. Spiritual wisdom helps us understand that.
We are distinct from our bodies. And at least by that. The possibility of resisting them.
Opens up. And further. When we understand that.
We are parts of a whole. Krishna. And he is all attractive.
He is all powerful. But he is. The supreme being.
Then. That understanding. That awareness.
Opens within us. The possibility. For.
Accessing his omnipotence. Through our sincere devotional practices. And thereby.
Relishing. The. The magical transformation of our heart.
That is what we do see that. Spiritual people are transformed. And.
And often miraculously so. So. It is not just.
The materialistic world view. That is progressive. It may be externally progressive.
Whether that is really progressive. Because it. Is destructive to the ecology.
Is destructive. Sometimes even to socio-cultural order. But that’s a different subject.
But in terms of. Progressiveness. But when progressiveness is defined in terms of.
Inner well-being. Or inner improvement. Then it is a spiritual world view.
That is far more empowering. And transforming. Than a materialistic world view.