When a spiritually evolved person gets something such as a name, fame, money, or power, he maintains equanimity. This is because he understands the temporariness of all the possessions. He always has gratitude towards the divine for blessing him with all these things and out of love and compassion for fellow human beings, he does not hesitate to share all these things with others. Thus, he does not become arrogant and does not develop a sense of entitlement. As a result. his spiritual growth is not hampered and he remains grounded in his spirit.
On the other hand, if a person is not spiritually evolved, and gets unlimited name, fame, money, or powers, he is not able to digest the same. He becomes arrogant and develops a sense of entitlement. Since he is quite fixated on his "ego", he feels disconnected from his fellow human beings. He wants to prove his superiority to others and in the process develops a feeling of superiority complex. He keeps making others feel inferior. In the process, he develops a strong desire to maintain what he possesses and since all these possessions are temporary by nature, he starts feeling insecure. Insecurity brings fear and fear makes his life hell. He starts living a life full of pretensions and falsity. That makes his life a living hell.
Thus, material growth without corresponding spiritual growth is a disaster. That is what we see in the society today. People have excessive money and lack spiritual depth. They do not know how to spend the money and therefore get mad about spending the same. Tourist places are flooded with crowds. Restaurants over the weekends have long waiting. The more people spend money on these pleasures, the more they become hollow and disconnected from the inside. The majority of the so-called "riches" are visiting one or the other psychiatrist. Their relationships are spoiled. They suffer perpetually because they have become addicted to a higher dose of neurotransmitters such as adrenaline or dopamine, a continuous supply whereof can not be ensured.
Many are not so spiritually evolved but have little material possessions. These people have a clear goal before them to earn more money, power, name, and fame. Their motivation remains high and they keep running after these objects. Such people stay disconnected from the inner self and keep searching for that happiness, which they are deprived of due to the inner disconnection, in the outside world. Since they have not yet satiated their worldly desires, they remain sure that worldly possessions will give them pleasure. That is why they remain so sure of their motivations and keep setting one after the other target. In the process, they keep moving further from their inner self just to become "dissatisfied achievers" or "frustrated losers".
I really do not know why the spiritual pursuit has been relegated to a post-retirement hobby. Spirituality is the way of living and has nothing to do with the life after death. Arjuna learned this art of living right in the middle of the battlefield from Krishna. If we defer spiritual evolution to post-retirement, firstly it never takes place because the more time we spend in worldly pursuits, the more we get fixated on these things. Post-retirement suddenly the mindset does not change. In fact, we become more and more fixated, fearful, and narrow. In fact, there is no time or energy left to examine afresh. Secondly, even if we evolve spirituality post-retirement, it is like reading the manual of a machine after the machine has crossed most of its useful life. Does it make sense to operate the machine whole of its useful life without reading the manual?
There are two types of people in this world. One who has not yet achieved what they desire and running continuously as a part of the crowd to achieve something that they believe will give them joy. The others who have already achieved that something and have not got that joy but are reluctant to accept the same, and keep living in pretensions. They live a life of falsity pretending to be happy and in most cases need external stimulants such as liquor or drugs to keep themselves going. It appears quite surprising to me why people ignore the third category of people who are connected to their souls and do not need materialistic possessions for joy. Probably, such people are so low in numbers and lack the critical mass to inspire the masses to connect to their inner core. Society is so aggressive in its pursuit that there is no space for these people in society and therefore generally they decide to move away from society and live in the mountains. Since they stay isolated, their voice becomes quite dull and inaudible. Many fake babas pretend to be Sadhus and run their own business in the name of spirituality. That further disconnects people from spiritual pursuits.
Probably there is no easy solution to this problem. I feel that the only solution is self-awareness and inquiry. If we stay aware of what is happening inside us, we will soon realize the impact of materialistic pursuits on our bodies and minds. There are so many scriptures available so easily in the world of the internet that we can almost read everything written in the history of mankind freely. We just need to contemplate that and relate that to our lives. In fact, the latest research in the field of neurology and quantum physics makes the understanding of the "self" quite clearer. A blind pursuit of materialistic pleasures is not going to take us anywhere. The moment, we can see this naked truth of our life, we automatically connect to life and "self". Once that connection is established, the matter loses its grip over our minds and we become contended. It does not matter whether we have money, name, fame, or power or not. In fact, money just becomes a tool to serve humanity rather than a proud possession.
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