you see one scientist makes a claim that the greatest virus to have infected humanity
or done tremendous harm to humanity why does it harm nobody is the virus of religion in
the guise of religion a lot of atrocities were committed a lot of wrong things have happened
etc because of religion is a virus that infected children in society what i'm suggesting is that
the greatest virus that has infected humanity over the last 2000 years and still infects whole of
the society is the virus of materialism reducing everything to matter and its epi phenomena or if
you like the qualities attributes of matter is the way we try to understand the creation the whole of
this including human beings we are nothing but extension of material kingdom and matter has got
certain attributes you know you've got this little elementary particles a little bit of charge and
spin and mass and all that and they interact in a particular manner and you'll learn the laws how
they interact how they sit well with each other don't sit well you learned all this lovely stuff
and you really mastered nature so this enterprise of explain the universe in terms of matter and its
sub phenomena or epiphenomena has done wonders for humanity i've gone i put my hands up yes this is
how science has progressed and this started 2000 years ago or perhaps i don't know slightly earlier
with a greek philosopher called democritus he said look we can explain the whole creation through
atoms means undividable undivisible lump of matter and empty space that's all the whole universe made
of that it's a nice way of starting your kind of exploration what is the nature of reality now
that is stuck and that has produced durable very positive results for humanity because by focusing
on that we had the chemical table the chemistry table we had all these elements that you could
classify and we could see exactly how different elements sit with each other they conduct
electricity or they sit in a particular manner in a lattice and produce engineering marvels
you learned all this marvelous stuff just using this matter and it's epic phenomena feature it has
become embedded in our thinking look if you are a study science in school they'll give books in
physics and here right at the top of the front of the book you'll see a little nucleus with little
electrons whizzing by so this is the you should like the building block of the creation this how
all of science explains in terms of matter and his phenomena epic phenomena is qualities attributes
now it sounds so good it has worked well it has done tremendously well with the if you like the
integrity of science itself by trying to explain everything in terms of matter it's epithelial
when it is taken to its conclusion which happened in 1920s in the in the scientific community when
he took it his conclusion the results that came out are profound and mind-boggling they're really
puzzle puzzle scientists since the last 100 years so what is all this they are saying that really
even though we are fixated on matter matter is not the building block of the universe this is not
something that is negotiable even this is the form will form if you like suggestion by modern science
matter is not the building block there's something different which is known material that holds the
whole of this creation together underpins this physical reality this is coming out of science
with through the integrity of science they are discovering this so the problem is this because
somehow we've been tuned to thinking in terms of matter and its epi phenomena society pays
a heavy price and the price is materialism if everything is nothing with extension of matter
my whole focus of attention in living my life should be massing more material things for myself
if i have a bigger car bigger house bigger property possessions a beautiful wife or handsome
husband or whatever that's my that's material possession yes so whole society has been infected
with this strongly materialistic vision now it translates into very poor practice when it comes
to greater society but then when you reduce yourself to mataran's epiphenomena and you see
yourself as me is me here see this lump of these atoms in this particular complex manner that's me
so now i'm only on the lookout for me myself so if you like the greater vision of looking after
others or working for the betterment of others is lost because now i know i am this material frame
so i must look after this material frame and if in the process i step on others who cares
so this very materialistic infection if i can use the word that is now look this is universal this
is not something that's in the west is east west everywhere this strong fixation on matter and you
see look you see kind of weird examples when you see people trying to dignify themselves when they
get old and they become the skin becomes loose and they go through horrendous plastic surgeries to do
you know do to enhance the physical being it shows this materialistic fixation that i am nothing but
this lump of matter i must hang on to it with my dear life and if in the process i had to pay
hundred thousand dollars to get my eyes lifted or my chin lifted i better do it because that's me
the material frame is me so this fixation of matter you can see it turns morbid when people are
trying to you know lift their you know whatever is frightening in a way this is how it translates
into practice materialism when you translate into practice in this morbid manner and become more and
more selfish or more and more self-centered because now we see our universe just as this
so initially suppose you were subscribing to a spiritual agenda you say okay you must live
for the betterment of others you must look after your society your community suddenly that now is
becoming less and less important because just me i and me and mine so what you do is forget about
living for the greater society you can't even live with your husband or wife with your partner
because when this if you like this division divisive element of fixation on yourself
becomes very self-centered you will have problem not living a greater society but even living with
a partner so marriage is crack up because this is my individuality this is my way of thinking
and i don't agree with you so this if you like this if you like more kind of deeper
vision about how society should operate is sacrifice in the name of materialism so we
are paying a heavy price for material let me show you some simple examples how bad it is
you see the modern economy thrives on selling goods in marketing in advertising this is how they
judge their performance did i always do to do our sales figure co-op for selling your car or
selling your refrigerator or whatever how about the sales figure if they don't keep going up
two or three percent every year we are sunk our share price will collapse so the whole fixation
on this kind of strongly materialistic agenda produces a very vicious advertisement agenda
the aim of advertisement is very simple it is to make you feel discontented with what you have
if they showed you everything saying aren't you happy you got a fridge that works aren't you
happy then you'll never buy a new fridge and they don't want that to happen they want you to change
your fridge or change your car they'll always advertise things saying you are what you had is
outdated now it's time for you to get the new one lexus you know the warmth of the seat before you
and wake up in the morning don't you need that to get your bum warm when you get up so they
will force it down your throat so first thing you open the switch on television open the newspaper
it glares in your way you must do that you will lack you are lacking so the aim of advertisements
this is the part of the commercial mechanism that comes with materialism is to force things
down your throat and if you can't fulfill your desires that have been thrown in others you know
shove down your throat then you're not doing so well so you become frustrated so the greatest
disease the national health service are treating is not cancer it is not heart problems it is not
aids the greatest disease the national health service are treating today comes through
depression and stress and who is responsible the materialistic agenda that has become if you like
the infection of modern society and that produces general is guaranteed not to let anybody alone
leave anybody alone see when you've got the best house they say look there's a bigger one next door
they won't let you sit still because they want to you know shove this thing down your throat
and make you discontent with what you have so it's guaranteed to produce stresses and depression so
greater society pays a heavy price for this fixation on matter and material possession
and this comes about it has produced benevolent results like you know producing medicine all these
lovely allopathics you know teachings and so on but at the same time it came with this price tag
it produces stress and depression society so we face a difficulty i think modern society
is growing out of it very fast the people who are thinkers who begin to are prepared to step
away from this kind of red red race and say we will not participate anymore what we here
we are satisfied with so we'd rather not keep buying newer things so the mature ones step out
but majority are caught if you like in this whirlpool of buying bigger and better things
all the time and possessing more and more things this is head story so no more shopping
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