May 31, 2024
Finally, I settled on this title for this blog: between these two terms ‘material development’ and ‘spiritual development’ I decided to draw a line. This line is symbolic, implying a gap which is difficult to measure. Before settling on this title, I was exploring multiple options. Initially, I was thinking: ‘matter and spirit: bridging the gap’. Then, I was thinking: ‘material development and spiritual development: measuring and bridging the gap.’ Finally, I settled on the title with a straight line separating the two terms, both implying developments, though one at the level of matter or material, and the other at the level of spirit or spiritual. I believe matter and spirit are the production from the same divine mint, but at the current state of our human life and society, neither matter fully reflects spirit nor the spirit fully embeds the matter.
The thought of this blog came to my mind when I was visiting the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit last week and reflecting on a particular picture (at the beginning of the blog) in the museum. The picture describes how Henry Ford before becoming famous was using a bicycle to go to his job, and to protect his trouser he had to use clips to prevent its damage from the cycle chain. The description reads: “In 1893 – before he became famous – Henry Ford rode his bicycle to work through the streets of Detroit. Trouser clips, similar to these, protected his clothing from damage by the chain.”
Ford, the famous inventor and kind of godfather of the automobile industry, was at one point of time riding a bicycle and using clips. Within a span of a few decades the motorcars were not a fad or rarity but almost a public good. The rapid development in science and technology – particularly in electricity, automobile industry, railways, etc. – revolutionized transport and communication, and more so it provided the needed comfort to develop a settled and luxurious life. Then came aero planes. The museum has a replica of the first aeroplane made by the Wright brothers. Thinking of the time between 1893 and 1993 – span of a hundred years – a revolution occurred in human living, and that certainly impacted many human pursuits.
1893 is the year when Swami Vivekananda from India travelled to the United States to deliver his famous Chicago address. The Swami took about a month or so to sail the United States through sea. Rapid developments in transport happened with Ford in America and with companies like Mercedes in Europe. There are stories how Indian Maharajas, pleasure loving and extravagant, were purchasing expensive cars to show their royal pomp, though their subjects were impoverished.
I still remember, when I was in middle school, one of the guest speakers referred to the Mughal emperor Akbar in a school event. Akbar, who ruled in the 16th century, was perhaps the most powerful and influential among the Mughal rulers. The speaker said if Akbar were born in our times, he would have preferred a life of a commoner than that of an emperor. He gave these reasons – Akbar had no electricity, no electric fan, no refrigerator, no television, no car, no private jet, and when Akbar was travelling to Mughal capital, Agra, a distance of about 150 miles from Delhi, his travel in hot summer on elephant back could not have been a pleasant one. In summary, Akbar, a powerful emperor with no modern technology, would have preferred the life of a commoner in the late 20th century world. Though he narrated the story to amuse his students, it remained etched in my memory.
True, technology is a great barrier breaker or equalizer. To borrow Thomas Friedman’s words, it has made the world flat. It has demolished many massive barriers across the world, whether in terms of communication, opportunities, travel, pleasure, and in many other ways of individual and collective living. There is no denying of it.
But as we know material development is not the only domain of human progress. Sages and thinkers from the ancient times reflected on this aspect of progress. The point I am trying to make here is – though human society as a whole has made rapid strides in material development, it has not made similar or parallel development in inner exploration, exploration of richer, vaster and more meaningful aspects of life – to give a few examples, a life of compassion as embodied in Buddha, a life of love and sacrifice as embodied in Jesus, a life of deeper reflection and search for ultimate truth as embodied in Shankara.
Or, perhaps I am too optimist – but can there be life possible and sustainable without optimism? If money and materialism could provide all meaning to life and amount to happiness, then a rich and famous individual like chef Anthony Bourdain could not have committed suicide. There are many such examples.
Though the current trends in national and international developments do not present an optimistic picture and there are myriad factors behind these sordid developments, I think one of the major factors behind these developments is an overemphasis on material development and rules and regulations driven by it, but an underemphasis on inner, spiritual, development – to use medical terms we have a surfeit of material development but a malnutrition of spiritual development.
I am not against material development. Though I agree with Mahatma Gandhi on many issues, I disagree with him on the issue of material development. Gandhi was not fond of material development, but his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru went against him and emphasized on industrialization and scientific temper after he became Prime Minister of India. I argue material development alone can not cause true flourishing of human life. Sole emphasis on material well being, and negligence of spiritual development, will not only generate a lopsided human story but also stunt human growth and even harm it.
Better late than never!
