Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16.

We have nothing to lose except our non-existence by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16.

When we consider taking up spiritual life, materialists often try to scare us by saying that we will lose the many material things that we presently enjoy.

Such scare drives can be countered by various philosophical truths – the things we lose give only illusory pleasure followed by substantial misery; we won’t lose anything important because devotional spirituality centers on not rejection, but redirection; we will gain Krishna, who will provide for our needs, including our need for happiness. But perhaps the best way to counter such fears is the strategy of attack is the best defense – highlight instead what we stand to lose if we don’t take up spirituality but hold on to a materialistic conception of life.

According to materialism, you as a person, as an individual irreducible unit of consciousness, as an integrated center of awareness and agent of action, don’t exist.

We will, of course, lose everything that we hold dear, at the time of death. But long before that, we will also lose something far more fundamental – we will lose ourselves, right here and now, at the very moment we accept the materialistic worldview. How?

Materialism holds that nothing exists beyond matter. As matter is not conscious, whereas we are, materialism implies that our sense of consciousness is merely an illusion somehow created by the brain’s electrochemical signals. According to materialism, you as a person, as an individual irreducible unit of consciousness, as an integrated center of awareness and agent of action, don’t exist. The Bhagavad-gita (16.09) points to this deleterious consequence of materialism when it states that materialists destroy their own souls.

Most materialists don’t realize this consequence of materialism because they unthinkingly gorge on the enjoyment sanctioned by materialism. Why should we join the ranks of the unthinking due to the fear of losing something inconsequential when by staying in their ranks we end up losing everything – for our self is the basis of everything we experience and enjoy and treasure?