by Parmjit Singh
Western nations have done wonders in explaining the outer material world. Their success story is undoubtedly impressive. However, despite stellar achievements, something is crying for attention.
Despite the material prosperity in the West, there is a simmering discontent and unhappiness among people. Dr. David G. Myers of Hope College calls this a, ‘spiritual hunger in the age of plenty’. Evidently, material acquisition and success have not been able to create happy people in an equal measure.
Balancing material and spiritual prosperity
If you look around, the people in the western hemisphere are comparatively more prosperous than the ones living on the fringes of countries like India or Bangladesh. They drive better cars, have better housing facilities, better resources, access to a better medical system, and have all the comforts that one can aspire in ordinary circumstances. But still their happiness and life satisfaction index is commensurately lower than many poor countries.
There is a profound reason for such discrepancy. People in the West have adopted a flawed assumption that they can solve all the problems through analysis, pure scientific and logical explanations. E.g. pure and logical explanations can help to propel a rocket into space and map out its astronomical dimensions, but it will not be able to provide an answer when your life seems dull or meaningless for no apparent reason or when you lose a job or every material possession in a single stroke of natural calamity or even when your boyfriend/girlfriend dumps you for another person. Then you need another kind of science to help you come out of that emotional devastation.
In order to live a harmonious life, you have to balance the material pursuit with emotional/spiritual training. Mental and physical are two parts of the same reality and if we ignore one part, we do so by imperiling the balance in our life.
Both material and spiritual pursuits are akin to two embankments of a river. If one embankment is broken down, then the flow of the river is seriously disturbed. Same thing happens in real life. When you become too much involved in material pursuits and don’t pay attention to your spiritual needs, the balance in your life is disturbed. You may succumb to various addictions or become sleepless for no apparent reason.
Go slow and reach faster
Aggressiveness is part of western culture and most of the times it is used to achieve goals and material things within a specified timeframe. According to a North American banter if you have not had a heart attack by the age of forty than you are not a successful person. This undoubtedly symbolizes the philosophy of aggressiveness and possessiveness towards living.
There is nothing wrong with achieving material or professional success. Indeed, it is very essential for a healthy self-esteem of any individual and can make you happy and content to some extent. But if you are always worried about achieving external success in the form of getting an early pay-raise, a promotion or stress yourself to buy an expensive car to impress your neighbor, then there is something seriously amiss in your approach.
What would you do with an expensive car, if restlessness simmers in your heart? What would you do with an early success if you become a victim of heart diseases at the age of forty? On the contrary to your expectations, these material things may bring you more restlessness than the restfulness for which you invested so many efforts and spent so many sleepless nights.
Balance your efforts of achieving external success with deepening the internal satisfaction. Then you will enjoy the fruits of labor with more relish. With this approach, you can have the best of both worlds. Try not to become a person who spoils his health to earn money in the first half of his life and then spend the same hard-earned money to get back the health in the later half of life.
To do so, engage in emotional/spiritual training so that you are able to coach the neglected portion of your soul. It should be kept in mind that spirituality does not necessarily mean adopting a religion; it is a simple device to care for your spirit and can be non-religious. Scientific research has shown that mental/spiritual balance is very important for living a productive life. Controlling your emotions and having mastery over your moods can add valuable experience to your daily living.
These practices, which help control and train the mind and deepen connection with spirit, could be in any form, ranging from Meditation to Gregorian chants. All these practices done with complete commitment and dedication can enrich the core and meaning of life.
Therefore, let us make a novel resolution for 2006: Let us follow ‘The Middle way’; rather than simply deciding that ‘I will eat healthy’ or ‘I will work hard’ or ‘I will lose some weight’, let us work toward balancing aggressive and active modern lifestyle with emotional and spiritual training. The by-product might be that you will end up achieving all that you set out, without having to kill yourself. Not only will this approach help in achieving more success in your external goals but will also deepen the joy and satisfaction in life.
