Man has suffered heavily because of his materialistic and self-centered views not only about the physical world but also about himself.

In the first decade of 21st century, humanity is still dominated by materialistic, energy and resource intensive and narrowly self-concerned technological civilization born in the west and extended to all continents. A linear continuation of the trends and processes engendered by this civilization is not sustainable; it would provoke major crisis and ultimately breakdown---Erwin Laszlo (2009)

You may be surprised to know that in the last century alone, nearly 167-175 million lives were lost by way of violence and man's inhumanity on man(compiled by Zbiginew Brezinski, former national security adviser under the Carter Administration in by 1993). Eric Hobsbawn called “20th century as the most murderous century in recorded history”. Statistics shows that the 20th century was the bloodiest 100 years in human history, with more people killed as the result of violence, war and genocides than from all of the major natural disasters combined during the same period of time. Crime is increasing sharply everywhere whether the society is developed or underdeveloped. Over and above, society is increasingly riddled with many serious maladies right from increasing divorce at alarming rate, drug menace, child prostitution, infant mortality, sexual harassment, domestic violence etc. Besides, man across the globe is killing his fellow beings in the name of God and religion.  The burning example in front of us is that of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. Sometimes we feel that man is nothing but another animal that has evolved randomly to a higher level of intelligent being.

What has happened to man’s nature and behavior and why the man who has enormous capability to think and act rationally and intelligently is increasingly becoming so violent, inhuman and intolerant? Why is he losing contact with his inner Self and has so much of aversion to love, compassion and care for fellow beings? Something is terribly going wrong in the way he thinks, act and behave. Something about man has changed and this change is undoubtedly within man himself. Off course this question is not simple to be answered however, I feel, one of the most important reasons has been that man has adopted highly materialistic way of life with the advancement of civilization by unconsciously ignoring the spirituality aspect of life. It reason is reinforced by the fact that all societal problems which existed before the rise of materialism have drastically worsened through the use of materialistic solutions.

In materialistic world, we genuinely believe that everything in the universe is basically matter and physical matter is all there is, without any true spiritual or intellectual existence. Mankind is hence largely preoccupied with the material world, while ignoring the very spiritual nature of human beings. Materialism means an inclination towards acquiring material possessions and comforts; in short, it is a tendency to lead a life in which pleasures of the body are given preference above anything else. On the other hand, spirituality means, centered and established on the soul, that is, activities in life are decided keeping in mind the awakening of the soul.

As the mankind advanced into 20th century, the traditional concepts of Soul (the Atman) and spiritual nature of man took backseat and materialistic views of the world became the foundation for every field right from humanity to medical sciences and biology. Over the period of time, mankind as a whole has paid heavily for many irrelevant and wrong solutions and remedies provided by materialism. Many of the institutions established under socio-political and religious fields have deteriorated with the denial of man’s essential nature of spirituality. Medical sciences like psychology and psychiatry have also ignored this aspect while doing research for finding remedies for man’s problems of physical and mental health and its behavior.L. Ron Hubbard the founder of Scientology who argued strongly in favor of each man’s capabilities as spiritual beings was of the view that psychiatry had consistently invented more and more mental illnesses during the last fifty years and pharmaceutical industry has been quick to jump on the gravy train by inventing the chemical ‘cures’. The effects of these drugs create yet more categories of mental illnesses profiting everyone but the patient. Like in many other fields materialistic solutions applied to human problems do not work.

We are born with a self-hood that contains the spiritual DNA of our uniqueness – encoded birthright knowledge of who we are, why we are here, and how we are related to others. Parker J Palmer, 2010 in ‘A Hidden Wholeness’ observe that from the moment of birth onward, the soul or true self is assailed by deforming forces from without and within: by casteism, racism, sexism, economic injustice and other social cancers which all are byproducts of materialistic world. In this process, the child grows to a materialistic being by ignoring his spiritual nature. Mankind has suffered heavily because of its materialistic views not only about the world but also about himself. The remedies and solutions provided by modern science based on the concept of materialism have further deteriorated the man’s problems and maladies affecting the present day societies with the denial of man’s essential spirituality.

Despite all odds, mankind as a whole has largely been and is religious, regardless of how his belief in spiritual beings manifests itself. In the many parts of the world man has faith in spirituality and aspirations to something higher than his current existence. Even science has now gradually making an attempt to overcome anxiety by providing an understanding of life and forces of the universe. Spiritualism is all about learning to connect with our own inner self. To follow the spiritual path one needs not have to abandon material things, nor does leading a materialistic life mean that one can't engage in spiritual practice. In fact, even if we are totally materialistic, if we come in touch with our inner truth, becoming conscious of what we truly are. We can find that there is already a part of our mind that is flowing in a spiritual direction. (Lama Thubten Yeshe) As we evolve spiritually, it leads to an understanding that we already have within us what we seek from outside world like love, inner happiness and peace.