Malabar Christian College, Calicut get_together

A get together of alumni of Madhuvanam WInter School and other interested people was organised at  Malabar Christian College on 3rd March 2013 by alumni from Calicut. Apart from winter school students, Sri Gopinath, periodicals editor Mathribhoomi, Sri Chandra Haasan, one among the five voracious readers in Kerala, Sri Noushad, teacher from Perambra and Babu Mash from Mokeri Govt College also participated in the live discussions. Sri Noushad was present in the two day get together at the residence of Ms Aswathy Nair held two years back.

The first prominent question came from Babu Mash of Mokeri Govt College. he asked why there is an untouchability to the word 'spirituality' among the wise and why do they deviate often?

                   Krishnan Kartha gave the following answer.

It is because the word spirituality is one of the most misused words. Often spiritualists and preachers regard materialism as some thing inferior. When an ideology professing materialism and ruling out religion came to popularity, the grievance of the religious people icreased. We must go to the root of the problem to solve it. Once the root is observed, the problem evaporates..  The dialectical materialism came into being when the so called religion and spirituality was harming people like anything. Rich became richer and poor became poorer.. Religion had become an aide to the rich since sins could be easily compounded with donations of money. Then naturally, the theory of materialsm was welcomed by people.The spiritual aspect of the emergence of materialistic thought is this. It was the need of the nature to save itself.

But the ideology, though born in industrially advanced soils, it had to be taken , for its up binging, to soils where agriculture was the main occupation. We can see that the ideology got firm roots in economies with predominance of primary sector, viz agriculture and allied operations. They are directly connected with soil. This is the spiritual side of the growth of materialism. The matter and spirit has such a dichotomy. Seemingly polar but essentially united. ...... "

Then Sri Chandra Haasan asked whether there is 'spirituality' in the origin and growth of materialist theories and ideologies. Krishnan Kartha replied that , it is felt as such, simply because of the alleged aversion of the materialists towards the word spirituality ,as opined by Babu Mash. Kartha explained that it is only "the spirit" behind the birth and growth is considered here and not the theological connotation. 

Krishnan Kartha further stated the following:

It is interesting to find that seeds of religious thought are born in agrarian economies while they grow in industrial economies... The dichotomy works like that.You may doubt whether the seeds of material thought would grow in industrially developed economies, yes, they will. After the primary growth in agrarian economies, the materialistic thought will certainly grow in industrially developed societies, due to the presence of a vast population with unrest. But , if you examine the history, you can learn that the established religion may hinder the growth of materialism in such society with secondary and tertiary economies. The establishment takes up a tooth and nail fight against materialism through positive and  preventive measures. Positive measures include correctional administration in the religious institutions, reformations, etc while the preventive measures include heresy hunts and oppression of heterodoxy etc

The materialism and the connected ideologies are becoming forgotten words in places where the ideology had a regime. On the other hand, the spirituality becomes untouchable in places where pseudo religious establishments affected normal life badly. This is natural and ideal. So there need not be any lamentation over the fact that the word spirituality is by passed.. some use values,,  some use goodness etc etc. J.Krishna Moorthy ised to avoid the term 'God' for the same reason..