What is the material world?

Humans are often criticized for their attachment to the material world. It's considered as some sort of trap where once you get stuck, it's difficult to get out. The reason for our spiritual and moral decline is often blamed on our desires and attachments associated with this material world. What is this material world after all? Is it our planet, our surroundings, our possessions, people around us? What is it?

If we assume God is the creator of all living beings, then this whole earth or universe is its creation, so how it can be a trap or a bad thing? If this material world is so bad or it's a trap full of so many distractions and evil things then why God sent us here?  For me, earth is the best planet in the entire universe and we are lucky to be on it, that's why we call it our mother planet/earth. How can our mother be a distraction or source of our downfall? We are still trying to find evidence of life on other planets and it’s very much possible that we might find evidence on some of them but still, our earth will be the most beautiful planet for us.

Now let’s see why this planet or material world or attachment is often criticized in scriptures/religions. This is the place where we are born and live our entire life and during that process, we get attached to many things which is quite natural. Most religions believe either there is life after death or there is some other planet or world that is supposed to be better than ours where one goes after death. It’s also believed that your attachments on this planet hinder your journey to that unknown destination. All religions paint different pictures of that promised land (heaven or hell whatever you want to call it) and also prescribe different ways to qualify to go there. We use everything available on this planet to fulfill our needs and desires. After serving us so well and honestly his poor material world gets blamed for our attachments and miseries.

The aim of religion was to replace all our attachments with only one attachment, the God or whatever other entity that religion preaching. They see these material attachments as the biggest threat to them and want to eliminate their competitors that's the only reason I see they criticize it. People many times use wrong ways to satisfy their desires or greed, but they don't do this only for their material desires there are enough examples of religious extremism, forceful conversions, hatred about non-believers, communal riots, etc. All these are due to human attachment to religion/God. People think it's God's will to preach their religion and they are serving/pleasing God by doing this. It is even said that “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.” How come only material desires or attachments are blamed/criticized in scriptures but not religious attachments? 

These so-called distractions and attractions around us are part of life and life is interesting because of them. Running behind them is not the whole purpose of life; everything has its own importance and meaning in life. For example, eating is necessary for living but if you only pay attention to eating and do nothing else, if eat as much as you can without any control, then you know what will be the result and it might become the cause of all your problems and destruction. Give importance to things as much as they deserve and to know how to do this is living a balanced life. Every person is different and different things have different importance to different people.

This planet is our home for the rest of our life and we are privileged to have it. Whatever we learn, achieve, discover, and create is all from this so-called material world. It's the source of all our happiness, problems, and sorrows. There is a perfect world around us that provides us everything we need, it has enough for our needs but not for greed. The real material world, its imperfections or attachments or distractions are not outside but they are inside our mind and we need to control that, no point in blaming anyone for that. So called heaven or hell everything is here and we experience it so many times during our life but don't realize it. It's our duty to take care of this planet as generations to come will be living here. We should try to make this place more beautiful than it was before we leave.

Thanks for reading and please share your opinions about this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)