Evolution, materialism and spirituality – Guru knows it all

When a rational mind analyzes the present status of life on the Earth, it tends to subscribe to any one of the three popular schools of thought. While each of them has its own set of loyalists and oppositions, it is worthwhile to recapitulate them quickly.

Firstly, from time immemorial religious institutions have considered a supernatural entity as the primary source of life on earth. They are strong believers of the philosophy that all life forms have been created and destroyed according to some immaculate planning and will continue to be so for eternity.

The second theory is that every single living organism on this planet is a result of Darwin’s ‘Survival of the fittest’ theory of natural selection and evolution. This theory is widely taught in schools and colleges all over the world. However, the exactness of this line of thought has been the topic of numerous raged debates and has also drawn the dissension of fundamentalists.

The third and of course, the most modern theory propounded by our scientists emphasizes on the point that chemical reactions and physical forces are responsible for the origin of life. Also, according to them, the result of evolution is nothing but the gross manifestation of the probabilistic outcomes and complicated genetics.

Whatever the reason might be, no one can deny the fact that in terms of intelligence, humans have emerged to be the winner by a large margin. We are one of the youngest species on this planet and our growth story has been phenomenal in the last five millenniums. While there has been little change in our physical features, our intellectual capacity has leapfrogged. In the last hundred years, we have invented nuclear bombs, the internet, stepped on the moon and decoded the DNA.

On the flip side, variety and complexity of diseases have increased manifold. Divorce rates and crime figures have shot up, people has stopped trusting their neighbors and has forgot how to laugh. Money has become the metric; dignity and ethics are mulled every now and then. Numerous wars and cyber-attacks have been fledged to exploit the weakness in others and most importantly, we have lost our peace of mind.

These tremendous achievements and tragic consequences are testimonies to the fact that we have achieved more in the materialistic world but have failed miserably to create and nurture a sustainable civilization. Human beings are using every imaginable resource to make advancements, but are losing sanity and the qualities that differentiate us from other animals.

Quite naturally, a question pops up in our mind – where is this whole humdrum and chaos heading? Are we really making any progress towards the next step of evolution or are spiraling down through the vortex of spiritual emptiness?

Well, at this point of time, there is no definite answer. However, the power to shape our future lies with us. All we have to do is to make the right choices that will lead us to spiritual enlightenment. We should exercise caution at every step to clearly draw the line between religious lunatics and spiritual gurus.

The whole world and everything we have created so far is the gross manifestation of our thoughts, which in turn, has originated from our mind. For example, the article that you are reading right now is the product of my thoughts born out of my mind. Thus, it would not be an exaggeration to say that our world is as good as our mind!

Having said that, every one of us needs an experienced teacher who has conquered his mind. We need strong characters and enlightened souls who can guide us through the maze of confusion and bring back clarity and confidence. But in today’s world, it is hard to find such teachers who can be adored and trusted. If you have already found one, you are really lucky. If not, then you should start searching now.