MANAGE THE ONSLAUGHT OF MATERIALISM – THE RAMANA WAY

[Guest guest]

prof laxmi narain (prof_narain)

 

Source and courtesy: Sri Ramana Kendram, Hyderabad

This article was published in Sri Ramana Jyothi,

monthly magazine of the Kendram.

 

MANAGE THE ONSLAUGHT OF MATERIALISM – THE RAMANA WAY: The replacement

of spiritual values by materialist ones in a fast developing world is

a crisis affecting almost every culture. Sheer materialism cannot

solve the problems of today. Life in modern times, in spite of its

areas of material prosperity and its intellectual and artistic

attainments has proved to be not all that conducive to human

happiness. As long as the world is dominated by rank materialism and

its innumerable spin-offs, the situation will give rise to more

complications than we can presently think of.

 

Materialism is tied to ego. Ego is the root cause of all evils. `Who

am I?' represents the beginning of scientific doubt questioning of

the ego's validity. " Seek within and thou shall realise thy blissful

nature " , declares Sri Ramana. Sri Ramana postulates that the spirit

of mankind is identical with the Supreme Spirit. Our suffering are

due to the failure to realize our universal identity. We are bliss.

But our problem is that we identify our self with the body. The

source of everything is the Self. We can merge our mind in the Self

through constant and persistent Self-enquiry and enjoy bliss.

 

If the world is to be saved from the present crisis, if our spiritual

values have to survive the onslaught of material values, if peace and

tranquillity are to be sustained for the upliftment of mankind, Sri

Ramana's teachings serve as key to unlock the mystery of human life

to solve the problems that confront us today. (Source: One Hundred &

Twenty Five Years of Grace.)