01. The Materialist Denial - 1

II. The Two Negations

The Materialist Denial

Man seeks to accomplish divine life in the human body. His aspiration to shed his mortality and assume immortality is irresistible. Earlier we arrived at a rational conclusion that it is possible for man to achievehis goal. The rational mind needs a further explanation of that conclusion, if it should come to believe in it with a sense of reality. In his mind Matter is lifeless, concrete, incapable of motion and real to the sense of touch, sight, etc. The Spirit is an idea, unreal to any sense, intangible, vague, imaginary. Where is the common ground or the uniting thread? How can thought concede that these two are the same at some level? If Matter and Spirit are essentially made of the same substance, there is a possibility of them uniting somehow. If the scale of life is so graded that concrete Matter is at the bottom and the invisible Spirit at the height, then the rational mind can find a scope for its understanding. Such an understanding may lead to the unity of Matter and Spirit starting from some point of compromise or reconciliation. The age-old metaphor that Matter is the external robe of the inner living Spirit can then appear to the materialist.

This may serve as a beginning but may not ensure that the unity we weave between Matter and Spirit will last forever. A recoil or going back is always possible, unless we go further in our understanding at the original constitution of Matter and Spirit. On the authority of the Upanishad we can rely when it says, “Matter is Brahman”. It goes on to say that God is the soul of the Universe and the physical universe is the external body. For one to believe in the idea of Divine Life, it is essential that his basic conviction must accept the formula of the Upanishads. It is not only Matter and Spirit that one finds on earth. There is Life, Mind and Supermind between the ends of Matter and Spirit. If Matter and Spirit are the same, Mind, Life and Supermind that are the intermediate planes must be different grades of the same substance. Unless this is conceded, it seems the wedlock of Matter with Spirit cannot resist divorce. Thinkers, with their acute intelligence, often put forward very able arguments that are artificial and unreal. If we do not proceed on the right line, our own argument would be considered an irrational one. Often great mystic truths are wrongly presented by great intellects making mysticism appear irrational. Let us not commit that error. It is not a wise beginning to assert that there is only Spirit or rigidly say Nature alone exists. There is a danger. When we assert onone side, at the end we come to deny the other. This way you either deny God or deny Nature. This stand compels the thinker to choose one and deny the other. Not only the thinker but Life too has to make its choice. It is possible for the thinker to say that there is really no God; we only imagine so. God, he says, exists only in our imagination and not in reality. The world is full of material objects concrete to our touch, sight and smell. But the thinker argues that it is an illusion. It may be real to your senses, he says; but it really does not exist, like the image in the mirror, like the bent rod dipped in water. He calls it an illusion of the senses because the rod taken out of water is not bent; it looks bent while under water. Therefore, it is an illusion.

Man in life turns to God and then feels disgusted with life. It makes him go to the forest, away from life. In the dyana, he forgets himself, feels ecstatic. If he comes to enjoy life, he forgets God and slowly lapses into low animal behaviour.

Matter and Spiirt represent Prakriti and Purusha. We attempt to unite them. But they have nothing in common. True the Purusha is unmoving, immobile and silent and it is called silent Purusha. Prakriti is full of static inertia. Still we see no common ground between the Silence of the Purusha and the inert inactivity of Prakriti. How then are we to arrive at a Unity? It is said that life is a chain of images created by Nature reflecting on the soul. If Nature’s activity stops to reach the silence of the Purusha, then we can think of uniting them.

Shankara describes the Self as wordless. His Maya is the activities of the world of forms and names. We see nothing common between the two. If the many-faceted life loses its outer form, it can dissolve into Silence. Then, may be, there will be a possibility of uniting Matter and Spirit.

The materialist can easily deny God as he does not seehim, while the sannyasi cannot as easily deny life, because life is real and is there all around you. For him Monism, all is one, means all is Matter or all is Force. It is easy to explain and easy to understand and accept. Though it is easy to say that all is Force, when we continue the quest of the materialist, it does not continue to be easy. His research ends in the atom, the inert matter. Beyond that nothing is known. He too arrives at an unknowable. The sannyasin arrives at the silent Atman while the materialist arrives at Energy. It is a dead end, not fully satisfying to our intellect. It is not satisfying because we do not pursue our enquiry to the end. We stop in the middle. Not that there is no answer possible, but that we do not persist in our enquiry.

Human mind is not made to accept half knowledge that is ignorance. It will not accept the result, “There is no answer”. If Matter is a contradiction of Spirit, mind will not rest content with that contradiction. Mind seeks a complete answer, confirmation, a reconciliation that sheds light. Till then it will not rest.

Shankara finds the world unreal. World is a procession of nonstop events, multiple appearances of the same truth in different forms. Energy expresses itself as these events. To say all these events are maya, are nonexistent, is no answer. We have to explain what they really are. To arrive at that full answer there are two methods. One, as we have analysed Matter, we must not hesitate to analyse Life and Mind.It will be an objective analysis without any prejudice. This analysis will lead us to the answer we are looking for. Science calls it objective method. As this external method can lead us to the goal, there is an inner method. Inside in our emotions and deeper below in our consciousness things unite. What are opposites outside, meet in our feelings revealing their unity. When a manwho loses his temper and abuses another consults his feelings, sometimes he will find that there is no real anger there. Opposing outward elements unite in a synthesis in the inner feelings. Let us go inward and try to synthesize in our emotions what we see outside as contradictory factors. They do unite there.

Either the objective analysis or inner subjective synthesis will give an answer. That answer will cover the whole universe and will give us a complete satisfaction. In outer life events are contradictory. Forces collide against each other. Our thought is too full of these contradictions. Our daily life bears witness to these struggles. Analysis or synthesis will harmonise these contradictions. There is One Truth in life which is its central Truth. This one central Truth appears as many events and forces. Our human experience finds them conflicting with one another. We are bewildered by the conflict and struggle. We rarely realize that all these opposing forces represent only the central Truth. Also each of those forces does fulfill a particular aspect of that Truth. We see hundred competitors in the market trying to sell the same product. And there are thousands of products. There is cut throat competition. But, are not all of them competing with each other to serve the public, a central aim? Seeing that central Truth, our Thought can be at rest.It needs not wander any longer. It can be fixed and stable even in its infinite motion. The Upanishads say that of the Brahman. It sends forth its energy in a million directions but there is a rhythm, a rhythm that unites. Behind that energy are the joy and light well settled. Our thought can reach a similar status of stability of oneness.

This rhythm, the unity of Matter and Spirit, was there in the Vedic period. After that it was disturbed by the materialist denying the Spirit and the yogi denying life. Now for some thousand years Man faces these two great opposites viz., Matter and Spirit. Each asserts that it alone is true, the other is false. So, let us test them separately.

Mind in its origin in divine. Its impulse is never stifled half way. If mind is prevented from reaching its goal of full knowledge, it submits temporarily. But sooner or later, it comes back to the question. When it does come back, it comes back with a greater force. As an interim measure, mind may study Life Energy or Ideas. But these are partial studies. They do not have the fullness of knowledge; rather they appear to be unreal. Man is endowed with logical reason on the surface, but deep down there is a greater mind sense. Logic delights in arguments. For a time logical faculty may be satisfied with these temporary conclusions. But not forever. In the long run the greater sense of the mind is awake. It knows what is actually real and what is not. It is satisfied with no solution that is not final.

Mind knows it is not the ultimate thing. Behind its Idea, Mind knows lies the Reality. So also, Mind knows behind the vital the same Reality awaits to be explored. It is true Spirit and Matter are greater than these temporary, partial solutions. Spirit above may satisfy the mind for a while, or Matter too can do so. But these temporary solutions cannot give the Mind even that much of satisfaction. Mind that tries to know the whole must necessarily know the two parts of it, Matter and Spirit.

The two instruments of Mind are sense and speech. This sense is so narrow that it cannot handle the Whole, but it is precise and exact in knowing little parts. Man is a WHOLE. Surely mind is unable to comprehend the whole man. Health is a part of man, but a whole in itself. Nor can the mind grasp the whole of health. Physiology is one part of health. Mind’s sense finds it comfortable to study physiology. Speech is another very powerful instrument of Mind. Speech is a part of thought. And thought is a portion or reflection of idea. Idea itself is a representation of knowledge. How can this instrument of speech which gives Mind a sub part of the whole be used to secure complete knowledge? Mind has before it innumerable things, each governed by a different principle. Mind, if it tries to reduce all of them to one term, can comprehend them.

The difficulty with the mind is, when it tries to understand one thing, it excludes another, because it can handle only one at a time. Suppose, by a superhuman effort Mind avoids this narrow process, it can try tounderstand the whole. That is too much for its capacity or constitution. Therefore it may feel drowned or complete the process with difficulty. In that event, Mind finds that all the innumerable little things on earth reduce themselves to That. And That escapes definition but it is real. And one can attain That.

The age-long dispute about God had many participants. All of them vanished leaving two, Matter and Spirit. Having passed successfully through rigorous tests, Matter claims the whole life for itself. Spirit too makes that claim. But the judge before which they stand is Mankind itself. Its instinct is supreme because it represents the universal spirit of Truth. That judge refuses to accept partial solutions. It demands an answer from the whole. We are lucky Mankind has rejected Spirit as well as Matter as the exclusive ruler. Europe is ruled by the materialist. Spirit is for India. India has a rich harvest of Spiritual treasures whereas Europe has mastered science and its splendors. But life in India is bankrupt. Spirit in Europe is a failure. Nor is the European intellect satisfied with its conquest of material life. Now is the time for a whole new approach. Thought now can try to continue the inner and outer experiences. And as its result it can hope to have a rich self-fulfillment in human life, personally and collectively. That way Spirit should express in life as material plenty.

Spirit and Matter are differently related to the Unknowable. Similarly their refusals are different. The materialist, denying God, is more successful, because a vast support easily comes to him. But it is not so effective as the refusal of the sannyasi. The sannyasi refusing life is very powerful and dangerous too. The admiration the sannyasi evokes is greater. People cannot readily overcome that admiration. The materialist’s base is agnosticism, a refusal to believe in anything. Indirectly he admist an unknowable behind things of life. If you do not believe in anything you see, it means you believe in something beyond. He only believes the physical senses and Reason. These are very limited fields. The instruments of senses and Reason cannot be used in wider fields. So another kind of inquiry is needed.

Materialism takes such an unreasonable stand. This stand itself will condemn materialism. How can any sensible person say that he would believe only what he sees or touches? Then we cannot believe England exists because we do not see it! So, is there no geography or history for us? When Sputnik landed on the moon, AIR requested a Sanskrit scholar with a Ph.D working in a world famous Institute to deliver a lecture on the moon. He refused because he never believed the landing on the moon. Well, he may not believe moon landing. Will he believe in Rama, Veda, etc.?

There is a vast field of evidence and experience which contradicts materialism. In all of us there are latent capacities. They are noble and useful but must be developed. There is a mass of supraphysical facts. How can we refuse to examine them? When magic is performed, material objects disappear. Is not magic then related to material objects? We cannot stand on this materialist’s objection without ignoring all these.

Scientists believe that mind depends on Matter. It is a prejudgement. Suppose we examine Mind and Supermind without this prejudgement, a whole new world reveals itself to us. We see in the universe knowable realities. We see our capacities determine affairs in the universe. It is not as if our capacities are determined by movements in the universe. Our existence is inner and our true world lies inside. Our senses are our outer shell. This examination knocks out the foundation of Agnosticism. We are now free to expand the scope of inquiry into Matter and Spirit. And that enquiry will certainly be wider than the enquiry of the materialist or the sannyasi.

Humanity is passing through a period of rationalism and materialism. This is only a brief period. Rationalism has done a great service to mankind. It is good we recognize this service of materialism. The world is giving up materialism. Therefore a vast field of evidence and experience of supraphysical fields is opening. It is true that it is a great opportunity but it is also true that this is not a safe field. Only a pure, clear, disciplined intellect can handle this field. The mind must be severely trained to know the right from the wrong. Otherwise the field becomes dangerous, for the forces acting are not material but supraphysical. Supraphysical forces are many times more powerful than material forces. So, even the least error can be disastrous. The supraphysical forces are like the atom bomb while the material forces are like the bow and arrow. Therefore the minds that handle these forces must be disciplined, well-trained, incapable of error, pure, severe. Minds of men are unripe, impure. They are capable of wild imaginations. They take a small seed of truth and add a good lot of superstition and tons of irrationality. No advance of true knowledge is possible if men do this. In the past this error was committed in a great measure. Someone should raise his voice against such superstition and irrationality. Rationalism and materialism have done it. A clean sweep has been made of every disguise, pretension and hypocrisy. Is this not a great service? All rituals are bogus. Much of the faith is selfish. Priests try to rule the ignorant masses tyrannically. The whole worship becomes a sham, a mockery, superstitious nonsense. Who could have cleaned allthese cobwebs? Rationalism has done it. We must be grateful to it. The road has been cleared for surer advance.

To understand supraphysical events the senses are incapable. Thinking can understand them. Silence, subtle perception by patient observation and quiet functioning are called for. Unfortunately these are not free capacities. These capacities should work in a field of Matter. They are lodged in the gross physical body. They have to deal with emotions and nervous impulses. But they have to function in a mixed field. For example, an astrologer who reads a horoscope understands that a man would die in a month. How can he say that? He lies to the client. Lying will ruin the liar and the hearer and the forces acting. Who can control the astrologer from telling lies? If he is a rich client, the poor astrologer is tempted to take a lot of money from him telling how he could be saved. This is very dangerous. The atomic scientist with the government boss is in the same position. How many scientists can refuse to work for creating destructive weapons? How many can speak the truth? So, the work of great minds goes to organize confusion, instead of removing it.

When truth mixes with untruth, the field becomes dangerous. Men are not pure in their sensibilities, nor are they chastened in their minds. Such minds are dangerous in the spiritual field since the powers are great. The mixture of falsehood with truth creates a fog and a cloud. Brilliant men by their intelligence make the cloud brilliant and start their premature adventure!

Nature’s advance takes place only in fields of adventure. Rather, Nature seeks adventure. In a field of unknown, Nature enjoys taking risks and acting with courage. Reason is a poor person not equal to the adventure. What is enjoyable for Nature becomes rash and premature for the Reason. It is like an untrained youth acting freely, presiding over a government or a great company. He can ruin the government and himself.

Intellect is the instrument of acquiring knowledge. Advancing knowledge needs an advanced intellect. It is needless to say that intellect must be pure, clear, disciplined and trained. Knowledge describes facts and events. At each stage the knowledge that advances should turn back and see whether it correctly represents the fact. It should represent only sensible facts, concrete realities. That which describes insensible facts or imaginary realities is not the knowledge that will help us advance. Even when you studies are about heaven, it is necessary for your feet to be firmly planted on earthy. The Upanishad says, “Earth is his footing”. Aldous Huxley quoted this sentence in his book. That is how the Upanishad describes the Self in the Universe, with his feet on earth. The wider we extend our knowledge of the physical world, the surer becomes the foundation for the higher knowledge. This is true even for Brahmavidya, the highest knowledge ever known.

In the transition from materialist period to higher knowledge, the natural tendency is to give up the past and accept the new. The perceptions and powers of the higher knowledge are not easy to grasp. It is less easy to possess securely even when grasped. Therefore one should not throw away even a little of the old knowledge till the new enters and is established. Mother says he who wants Divine Love must give up human love. But in practice the time gap between the old leaving and the new coming in may be long, even 1000 years. So, She advises us to change the old into the new, instead of giving up the one and taking on the other.

Agnosticism refused to believe in anything. To make the agnostic believe, thousands of arguments, facts were given to him. In the process knowledge itself increased illimitably. If the agnostic was less easily satisfied, this increase in knowledge would not have been there. Looking at what happened we must wonder and admire agnosticism for its service to the Divine.

We dislike error. But it is error that constantly serves Truth. Error is called the handmaid of Truth. Error is half truth. The other half is dark. Penicillin was discovered by an error. By error we proceed on the wrong path and sometimes knock at the right door. The princess married Kalidasa through an error of judgement and the world got the greatest of poets. Error stumbles because of its limitations. Often error helps. Error is truth in disguise. The disguise prevents people from discovering the hidden intention of error. Only when it reaches the goal people say, “It is good we have not known it till now.” It is an error to use paper on which an article on Mother is printed as wrapping paper for a packet. It is that paper which brought Sethna and Mageswari to Mother.

Error can be reckless and destroy arrogantly. It can also be faithful, severe, conscientious, clean-handed and luminous. In the past error was positive. If error could always be that way, it is all right.

The small intellect readily believes in everything or anything. A robust intellect does not readily believe even in high philosophical ideas. Agnosticism is the refusal to believe in anything. It requires a great vast intellect. Knowledge ends when you begin to believe. It continues to grow when you refuse to believe. So, agnosticism is the final truth of all knowledge. For the rich man, at the end of a long life, it is clear that affections, security, worship, respect and status all reduce to his money. His world has come to him as values represented by money. For an affectionate man, the world is seen as values of affection. At the end of any path the universe reveals itself as values of one kind or another. That is the unknowable Reality for each. Behind the values is the unknowable That. We see That as values and do not proceed beyond. We do not see That. At some stage, That becomes real. Then we see That cannot be defined in words. Not even thought can catch That. The Upanishad says, “Neither mind, nor thought, nor speech reaches That.”

The Mayavadins exaggerate maya. We too can exaggerate the unknowableness of the Unknowable. We can even say that no one can know it or by no way one can know it. It is not true. What is true is, it is not knowable by thought. Thought is not an end. Thought originates in consciousness. Obviously what thought cannot give us, its source may give. Let us move to the consciousness. It is no easy effort. A supreme effort is needed. When we reach the consciousness, we see what we failed to know by thought.

Here we know there is another kind of knowledge than what we knew till now. This knowledge is one with Identity. It is identified with That. This is not the final highest knowledge, but is surely a higher knowledge for us. This knowledge, in a sense, can make us know where thought fails. Even this knowledge cannot be put in words or even thought. Once we have that knowledge we begin to change. We begin to think of our life differently.

In the last 100 years or 50 years man has come to know urban life, modern life and democracy. Before that the Master was his God, ஆண்டே, education means திண்ணைப் பள்ளிக்கூடம், good man means he must serve his family, better still his village. Death means he must be buried in his village. Loyalty means loyalty to caste, Master, Father, husband, etc. In modern urban life in a democratic country allthese values are revalued. They have undergone a revolution. No longer is the village a sacred place. The master is one whom you should quite, the sooner the better. Now you are your own master.முந்திரிக் கணக்கு is no longer education. It disappeared. Education is in the school. Now computer gives the education. This new knowledge has revolutionised the inner values of man and it has revolutionised his outer values too. Similarly, this knowledge we now speak of revolutionises man’s life inwardly and outwardly. That too reveals through this knowledge. Man, with this knowledge, beings to see That inmen and matters.

Tolstoy’s cobbler Simon saw God in the boy, the woman and the old man. This knowledge disguises itself to the ordinary intelligence and reveals itself only to the perceptive. Also this knowledge can analyse Life, Mind and Supermind and reveal their essence.

The Unknown is not unknowable. It need not remain unknown to us, unless we choose ignorance or refuse to give up our limitations. There is a one to one correspondence between man and the Universe, because he is the miniature, the microcosm, the smaller version of the universe. Man has in him faculties, abilities, powers that can know anything in the universe. For every aspect to beknown in the universe, man has a faculty in him. Some of them are developed, others undeveloped. But there is no aspect of the universe for which he has not a faculty that can know. It is for us to develop those faculties or not. Fundamentally, all possible knowledge in the Universe is within the reach of Man.

Nature has the irresistible impulse to evolve. Man too has it, because nature has given it to him. His intellect is an important faculty, but it is only a part of him. The part cannot decide the fate of the whole. Intellect may not choose to complete the inquiry of Matterand Spirit. But the inner impulse of man is stronger than his intellect. Intellect may fail, but the impulse will succeed. Then the inquiry is bound to proceed till it reaches the solution or answer.

Knowledge thus revealed is powerful, self-propelling and cannot be stopped. Man may discover the secret capacities of Matter and that discovery has an innate power that grows by itself. Here knowledge is like desire. Who can stop desire that succeeds? Who can stop knowledge that succeeds? As the Vedas said, “Push forward to other new fields”, the inquiry will proceed endlessly.

We see modern Materialism as wealth, comfort, convenience and enjoyment. If that is all, the above mentioned power will not be there. The inner power of this Materialism is NOT comfort but the search for knowledge. This search is its SOUL. It is this search that has this infinite, irresistible power. It will not be capable of stopping itself. Originally this knowledge worked against superstition. It was the sense barrier. He who believes only what he senses is superstitious. Now, he has to break the barrier of Reason. Having crossed over the barrier, the Force becomes forceful and cannot be stopped. The distant symptoms are already seen.

We speak of oneness in the final understanding. We say, ALL is one ultimately. It is not only so in the final conception but everywhere. Whatever path is followed, all come to the same end. Science has discovered that all things are made of Energy and therefore all are One. Vedanta came to that conclusion long ago but not through the same path. They meditated and went inside to know. The scientist observed the outer events and studied. Both came to the same conclusion. HE is talking of Vedanta of Upanishadic period, not the period of Shankara, Ramanuja, etc.

Now that science has discovered that all is energy, the Vedantic idea looks richer tous. Vedanta says that all things are arranged by the Energy fromone seed, பீஜம். The dualist speaks of two energies, not one. To them Matter and Force are two different ideas. That is no great objection. It is mind and thought that artificially divide Matter and Force. But, no such difference exists.

Matter is now seen not by the intellect but by the consciousness. Thought sees matter is inert. When we move from thought to consciousness, matter changes into a vibration of energy. Life too is seen as a vibration of energy. Ignorance divides matter and life. Once we remove that dividing ignorance, we see Matter and Life as the same energy. Mind too is seen like that. Now, when we see from consciousness, we find Matter, Life, Mind are vibrations of the same Energy. The Vedas have said this to us long, long ago. The scientist has been saying that mind is born out of Matter. Now that we know that Mind and Matter are the same, how can we believe the scientist?

Always Energy is created by Will. The dynamic achiever is moved by ambition. A sad child becomes energetic when it can do a thing. When the child knows it will not be permitted to play, it is sad. When it knows it can play it is cheerful. The will is the change. So, if there is Energy in the universe, obviously it comes from Will. Whose Will is it? It cannot be the will of an individual because it is not the individual who created the world. So, it may be the will of humanity. Earth is not only humanity. And earth is not alone. There is a wide Universe. So, it is clear that the WILL we see is the will of God.

If there is a Will, it has to have a work. What is it? The work is creation by God hiding Himself in the world – involution – and emerging out of it – evolution. How do we see the play of this will in life? What is the characteristic of this WILL in the world and in the individual?

The characteristic quality of this WILL is that it cannot be stopped, its energy is limitless. Is it possible for us to discern that characteristic in its workings? Man’s life has an end. That is his limit. His powers are limited. His knowledge is also limited. This will in Man makes him aspire for limitless life, i.e. immortal life. He seeks to overcome distance, time, obstacles, oppositions; He wishes to conquer animals, nature, seas, skies, etc. He seeks limitless power and he has by now got a good bit. Also he seeks to know everything. This will in him has given him the urge for immortal Life, limitless knowledge that is Light and limitless power that is Freedom. God is for him Light, Freedom and Immortality. And that is what he seeks. The materialist who has been seeking all these, all these days, can very well see the meaning of his Quest.

Space is a bar. Time is another obstacle. Telegraphy abolished the bar of space and time. Again wireless telegraphy abolished the wires that connected both ends. That is science making the connecting machinery disappear. Now only the transmitter and receiver are there. Next they too will be abolished. After that between two men the only obstacle will be their egos. When the ego of the speaker and the ego of the listener are abolished, Man unites with Man through material space. The Spirit of Man unites with the Spirit of another man abolishing the material space between them. This is possible only when the Spirit and Matter are one.

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