Spirituality- meaning and significance
What is spirituality
When we talk of spirituality, we first need to know what is materialism. Whatever we perceive through our senses, that is what we see, hear, listen, touch and smell is all that we can know. What we see is all matter- solid, liquid and gas. Besides this, we know nothing. Spirituality is thus something different. Accordingly, we may say that what we do not know or the Unknown is spirituality.
The notion of spirituality or Unknown dates back to dawn of civilization. There must be maker of anything we use. Everything we use is made by some one. This led to the belief that there must be some maker of the entire universe. Consequently, the concept of God resulted. Other concepts of lower spiritual entitities- good as well as evil - like Satan, devil, angel, gods - emerged. The concept of God and other non physical entities differs from region to region. Religions were formed based on such beliefs.
Spiritualism and spirituality
These concepts differ. Spiritualism is the science and art of communicating with spirits. God is the supreme all-powerful spirit who created the universe. Other lower spirits like gods, angels are God's helpers in administration of universe. Satan and his disciples- devils oppose the empire of God. This is also like earth where there is system of ruling party, various ministers and authorities and also opponents- opposition, various separaist groups, anarchists etc. In fact, nobody can imagine anything apart from physical world. Hence even the world of spirituality is conceptualized on what is seen in real materialist world.
spiritualists preach anti materialism
In absence of any direct knowledge about God, the spiritual preachers find it next to impossible to reveal anything about God or related spiritual world. What they preach is not spitituality but anti materialism. They tell their disciples to abstain from worldly pleasures and adopt the path of renunciation. This results in many neglecting their duty and families. They preach that if you renounce world and meditate, you will see God. A spiritual Guru asked his devotee to close his eyes and experience the divine existence. The devotee was already mesmerized. He said- "I experience that there is some light and sound also". Thus light and sound were equated to divine existence.
However, Osho is an exception. He did not preach to renounce the world. Rather he advised to excel in worldly pursuits. In his book 'Sambhog se samadhi tak' he explains that climax in sex would lead to divinity. However, sex is also physical and materialistic pursuit. He could also not reveal anything about God or divinity.
The concept of spirtituality has undergone many changes. The modern definition underlines our struggle with the issues of how our lives matter in greater scheme of things. Whenever we encounter questions like - where the universe comes from, why we are here or what happens when we die. Even the abstract values like beauty, love or creativity take us to the notion of spirituality.
Science and spirituality
This is a very complex relation. According to historian John Brooke- "the natural sciences have been invested with religious meaning, with anti-religious inclinations and, in many contexts, with no religious significance at all.". Physics and Biology branch scientists avoid supernatural explanations to describe reality. However many scientists consider Science and spirituality complementary and not contradictory to each other. The neuroscientists are studying functioning of brain in realation to spiritual experience. Freudian psychology influenced the realtionship between science and spirituality. Development in particle science opened the debate about compementary relation between scientific and religious discourse and many got intersted in holistic conception of reality. New age spiritualists championed such conception. The quantum physicists reject such attempts being pseudo scientific. This is very true. Science is based on observation and facts. Science is not based on notions. Science studies facts and how these happen. This does not talk about why. What happens, happens. why it happens is unscientific question. This is for philosophers.
Spirituality and after death experiences
Brain is definitely part of body. There can be justification of notion of spirituality only if there is consciousness existing apart from body. If such consciousness exists, an individual is attached not only to material world but also the non temporal or spiritual world. This kind of thinking is based on reports of individuals who experienced near death situation. But many researchers consider that NDEs (Near death experience) are actually only REM intrusions triggered in the brain by traumatic events like cardiac arrest.
Spirituality is unreal
Obviously, concept of spirituality is not backed by any concrete reality. The notion of 'higher existence, higher reality' by the spiritualists, various religions and philosophers appears mere verbal jugglery. The most often asked question is that there must be some one who created this universe and must be running this. To satisfy this notion only, God and other non physical bodies have been conceptualized. But it is worth noting that this conception also has to be based on physical existence. The gods and goddesses are not only conceived as human bodies but also are tied in marital relations. Gods and goddesses have also bodies like us and are similarly married. Why could spiritualists not conceive of them as non physical bodies. Also, the concepts of heaven and hell are based on reward and punishment scheme as on earth.
As regards neuroscientists and psyologists, it appears that they are adopting unscientific attitude. Human brain is just a body part. Not only brain, our body parts like feet and hands also work differently. So, there are different walking, speaking, expressing styles. So, brain also being a body part can have different way or style from man to man. Individuals may think differently and get different experiences as dream and hallucinations. Near death experiences are also nothing but dreams and hallucinations. If these are real spiritual experience, it should be noticed that experiences are in accordance with life experience. To elucidate, near death experience of an Indian Hindu will be different. He will see Yama with buffalo as near death experience. The western experience is of going through long dark tunnel. Accordingly, such experiences cannot be considered as evidence of spirituality.
Conclusion
We can conclude without any fear of contradiction that presently, there is no evidence of spirituality. This is just fictional. The entire concept is based on fear of the unknown, imagination and false analogy. There can be no analogy between making things by humans and making the universe. According to Scientific observation, matter is indestructible. Hence, matter was never created. This only changes shapes. Thus, all matter contained in universe always existed and only changed shapes and forms from time to time. Nobody runs the universe. The universe runs by itself on laws discovered by Science. The notion of some entity managing the universe is based simply on the way humans run their affairs. Needless to say, if some conscious body were running the universe, there would be rain only where needed and not elsewhere. Also the supreme authority would ensure that there are no calamities and even if these occur, only sinners should be affected and devotees be saved. But nothing like this happens. Obviously, the notion of spirutality is false. This also affects our progress. Indians became more spiritual in medieval ages. so, our material progress came to halt. It may be added that honesty and character have nothing to do with materialism and spirituality.
Let us be materialist. Let us honestly work for materialist upliftment of all our citizens honestly.
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