The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 14.4. Swami Krishnananda.

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The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 14.4. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, November 3, 2021. 7:00. AM.

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita

Chapter -14.The Coming of God as an Incarnation -4.

(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti)

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Now, such a position cannot be maintained with any sensibility, but sometimes we seem to be tending towards that kind of acceptance under pressures of the organs of sense and by paying too much attention to the clamours of our passions, which insist that material existence is the only source of satisfaction and we cannot be, unless matter is. The philosophy, the doctrine, the theory that our life is totally dependent on the existence of material forces in the world to such an extent that we seem to be emanations of this material sustaining existence as if we are not there and matter only is – as if only the object is there and the subject is swallowed by the object – is a most untenable theory indeed. Such a thing is what we call philosophic materialism, but it cannot be held as a tenable system of thinking because there cannot be an acceptance of the existence of material forces unless there is a nonmaterial position which accepts such a position. It is not matter that assumes this philosophy, it is a doctrine held by an opinion which cannot be associated merely with an organic existence. How can we associate opinion with inorganic matter?

There is a subtle error in the logic of extreme forms of materialism when it is believed that matter, which is nothing but the object of perception, alone is, and nothing else can be, because if it alone is, there would be no one to hold the doctrine of materialism. There are people who may not be holding theoretical doctrines of this type, but virtually live a life of this kind. These are the practical materialists, not the academicians who hold this kind of theory. They live a life of matter, worse than animals, and behave like sluggish, lumbering vehicles rather than intelligent driving forces.

Excessive emphasis laid on economic forces, material forces, and even an excessive interest taken in only what we call a social infrastructure of existence can be identified with a kind of materialistic doctrine. Here we move too much in the direction of an object, beyond the permissible limit, and God is just what we call a universality of subjectivity. The more we deny the element of subjectivity in things, the more is God denied in that particular condition.

There are many forms of this kind of denial in our life. Our attachments to physical objects, things of sense, objects of passion, whatever they be, are tendencies to the denial of God because the subject clamours for satisfaction in terms of objects as if that satisfaction is located in the objects only: There is nothing in me that can satisfy me. My satisfaction is only in that which is not me, in the thing I love, and in the thing which is outside. It may be gold, it may be silver, it may be land, it may be property, it may be a person, it may be a social position, it may be a political authority – anything that is not me is what sustains me, and I cannot exist without that. This is a practical kind of materialism that many of us mostly live. We may not write a thesis on materialism but we live that kind of philosophy, and to that extent, we live an undivine life. The undivinity of our practical existence is in that proportion of our acceptance of the values of the external world in comparison with the values we attach to our own soul inside. We do not seem to have any soul at all. Our soul is not there. Even if the soul is there, perhaps it has lost its vitality. It is dead. Either we have no souls at all or they are dead souls when it appears to us that our existence is hanging on the tree outside, rather than in ourselves.

To be continued ...

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