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Why materialism and materialistic people are bad.

One can be materialistic by enjoying all kinds of legal thinks like alcohol, cigarette, meat and party and girls(i. e sex).

As Long as you are not harming or abusing someone, it is okay to do the things you like.

But according to hindusim, materialistic people will be born in evil wombs.

Why is it like that, just because you are enjoying your life without harming anyone and doing thinks that are legal you will be born as a dog or other animal?

3 Answers 3

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Why materialism is bad in Hinduism? Why materialism and materialistic people are bad.

Sanathan dharma does not forbid materialistic enjoyment for everyone. Discouraging pleasures depend on several factors such as the goal, occupation, knowedge, virtue of human under consideration. Pleasures from materials are encouraged by scriptures

For example, you can read the statements by Bhimasena on the importance of pleasures. Many scriptures do explain the importance of materials and pleasures. It should be noted that pleasure (material enjoyments) is a purushartha in sanathan dharma.

So, it is wrong to generalize that Hinduism is against pleasures. It is clear that Hinduism is against the pleasures that are against the virtue (dharma) of that particular human only.

One can be materialistic by enjoying all kinds of legal thinks like alcohol, cigarette, meat and party and girls(i.e., sex).

Sanathan dharma does not forbid the enjoyments you listed, if they falls in to the virtue of that person. It allows parties, sex with married partner, eating meat etc., You can understand it from the words of Vamana

O King, controller of the entire universe, although you are very munificent and are able to give Me as much land as I want, I do not want anything from you that is unnecessary. If a learned brāhmaṇa takes charity from others only according to his needs, he does not become entangled in sinful activities.

[17, 19, 8, Srimad-Bhagavatam]

Thus sanathan dharma regulates enjoyments based on the human under consideration only.

 As Long as you are not harming or abusing someone, it is okay to do the things you like.

It is also important to understand that harming or abusing self, due to insufficient knowledge is always discouraged. A person who believes only in materialism and becomes slave for pleasures with out any wish for permanent happiness (moksha) is obviously discouraged in sanathan dharma. All the pleasures are temporary and everyone should ultimately realise it.

Legality deals more with harming or abusing others and less with harming or abusing oneself. Sanathan dharma deals with both of them. Sanathan dharma does care about the permanent happiness and further lives of an individual also. So, the restrictions are only for gaining permanent happiness and not to fall in the trap of temporary pleasures.

But according to hindusim, materialistic people will be born in evil wombs.

Why is it like that, just because you are enjoying your life without harming anyone and doing thinks that are legal you will be born as a dog or other animal?

It is because of the reason that they want materials and pleasures and not the permanent happiness. They will take birth in this material world only.

In proportion to the extent of one’s religious or irreligious actions in this life, one must enjoy or suffer the corresponding reactions of his karma in the next. O best of the gods, we can see three different varieties of life, which are due to the contamination of the three modes of nature. The living entities are thus known as peaceful, restless and foolish; as happy, unhappy or in-between; or as religious, irreligious and semireligious. We can deduce that in the next life these three kinds of material nature will similarly act. Just as springtime in the present indicates the nature of springtimes in the past and future, so this life of happiness, distress or a mixture of both gives evidence concerning the religious and irreligious activities of one’s past and future lives.

[45-47, 1, 6, Srimad-Bhagavatam]

If someone realises that material world is temporary, then there is a chance to get rid of the cycle of birth and death. If someone does not realise the true nature of pleasures then obviously the Jiva takes birth again and again solely due to the seek for pleasures and ignorance.

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  • "They will take birth in this material world only." okay but why birth of animals. Why not humans(healthy) Apr 17, 2021 at 10:47
  • "sex with married partner" why not sex with a random girl I just met. If she want I want. No problem(consent) Apr 17, 2021 at 10:49
  • @DarkKnight Problem is not about consent, it is about internal desire. Since you have a strong desire internally, you want to do that. If that intensity is not decreased by the time of death, then animal life is apt to enjoy such desires. So, more chances to get the animal body. You can read it for more understanding bbc.com/future/article/20140613-do-animals-have-sex-for-fun
    – hanugm
    Apr 17, 2021 at 12:55
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    @DarkKnight if someone wants more sex, but as a human and scriptures do not agree on it for that human, then the person has to search for a solution rather than breaking virtue. For example, you can read the past lives of Draupadi, she asks for her husband five times (due to the intensity of desire), and since she followed her virtue, she got 5 husbands and enjoyed sex in her life as Draupadi. If there is only desire and no virtue, then ends up with animal form only.
    – hanugm
    Apr 17, 2021 at 13:01
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    thanks for the answer Apr 17, 2021 at 13:47
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The Charvaka school subscribes to materialism.

https://anannyauberoi.medium.com/perspectives-on-charvaka-as-a-school-of-hindu-philosophy-5ce668fd2e3a

Perhaps one of the most interesting and seemingly counter-intuitive viewpoints in ancient Hinduism is Charvaka, also known as Lokayata, Sanskrit for “worldly ones”, a school of thought which grounds its philosophy in materialism and empiricism dating back to 600 BC. Therefore, it rejects notions of an afterworld, a soul, and any authority outside of the material world (the Vedic scriptures, Hindu Gods and so on). It further dismisses the idea of karma, i.e. good or bad actions manifesting as consequences in an individual’s life, and moksha, the idea of liberation from the vicious karmic cycle

Madhwa prsents their views in his Sarvadarshnasangraha as the purvapaksha.

https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-sarva-darsana-samgraha/d/doc79745.html

While life is yours, live joyously; None can escape Death's searching eye: When once this frame of ours they burn, How shall it e'er again return?

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    chaarvaka is a nastika school (refuted by HH Shankaracharya in Sarva vedanta sidhanta Sara sangraha).Poorva Pakasha cited,(may not be Madvacharyas view point ), it might have been addressed in the subsequent verse of the same treatise quoted.,(I predict though I've nt read it)
    – Athrey
    May 23, 2022 at 17:54
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Materialism is bad in Hinduism and for the whole human society because:-

Let me explain you by justifying 2 points

Point 1:-

All the material things are made up of some source, so if you are using anything, first you harm the source to use it.

Let me explain you this point:-

Who says that meat eating is not harmful, it is harmful for the animal which was sacrificed for your satisfaction of your taste buds.

Just like this even eating vegetables is sinful as for eating veggies we are compromising the life of plants.

Similarly everything that is done for our satisfaction is created by a compromise of other source.

Second Point:-

Next point is that, as in Srimad Bhagwad Gita Krishna clearly states that the main goal of human life is to uplift the spiritual life of the soul and make himself enlightened and not stuck in the materialistic pleasures, because once if we desire a material object then it creates a sense of satisfaction and desire for other materialistic objects (as you know the human mind is full of desires even if he gets everything he needs), this will make us sway from the God (the spiritual being) and we will never come out of the cycle of birth and death. This is the second reason

Hope you got the answer you were searching for.

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