Technology and Spirituality go hand in hand.... Ecotrain QOTW:9.4

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Whenever I have difficult situation to encounter or a problem that seems beyond my control, I close my eyes and imagine my position in this universe. I am just one on the earth comprising of 7 billion people of my species . There are millions of other species with millions of individuals. Then, there is a big sphere we all live on. The sphere is here with its perfect inner core and magnetic field, with its continuous rotation at a perfect speed, with its atmosphere aptly designed for the existence of life. Then, there is big sun with its apt size and gravitational force to keep all the planets in their positions, making the solar system. It is at a perfect distance from the earth to make the life possible here. Then, there are many other stars that are bigger than the sun maintaining their own solar systems. Then, there are hundreds of solar systems combining together our galaxy, the milky way. Then there are billions of bigger galaxies in the universe. There are many other entities and elements that are making the presence of all these objects work.* I realize how small I am in comparison to all these objects and how small my problem is for Someone who is maintaining and managing this huge (huuuuuuuuge) universe. This imagination makes me more faithful and hopeful when I pray. It makes me believe on the existence of a caretaker, of a greater being who has powers to do whatever He wants.

When I peek into my own existence and I realize how easily I am breathing, how the 480 millions alveoli have accommodated in my lungs to perform the function, how my heart is continuously pumping blood to veins, arteries and capillaries of 60,000 miles length, how epiglotis prevents food to enter my breathing passage every time I swallow food, how 86 billion neurons have accommodated in as small a structure as brain and are helping me to sense the world around me. There is much more within my body that awes me, and made me realize that I am much more resourceful than I think of. It gives me courage to combat with my problems boldly. It makes me more grateful and more resilient.

Now, here comes the question how I know about all the information that helps me attaining spirituality? The answer is because of technology. The advancement in technology could make it possible for us to discover all these huge and minute objects. In this realm how I can say that technology and spirituality cannot grow together. Spirituality is the understanding of our existence in this world, and this is what technological advancement is helping us in. It is making us more and more consciously aware of the phenomena around us. I would have to say that technology is facilitating spirituality and both of them are NOT contradictory to each other.

If I look back to my life, I find technology helping me in coming out of the darkest times of life- the time when I suffered from clinical depression. I had lost my self esteem and self confidence, and had feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. It was the arrival of technology (internet and a palmtop) in my life that enlightened my heart and mind. I got access to the books that proved to be best friends when I was feeling alone. Those books filled positivity in me and warmly took me in their arms to provide me the comfort.

Another thing that this technology brought to my life was financial autonomy. Though I was not earning too much, yet the feeling of having control and autonomy was worthy enough to bring satisfaction to my heart. A happy heart was able to extract more positive elements in the surrounding and had got enough strength to ignore/overcome the negatives. This technology has made it possible for me to accomplish the activities that bring joy and satisfaction to my heart, so I can NEVER say that technology is a hindrance to spirituality.

Moreover, spirituality guides us that the real power of our existence lies within our thoughts. In order to control our surroundings there is a need to control our minds. We can mold our realities Desires as per our desires. This is the very idea that science and technology has been discovering these days. With advancements in science and technology we are now able to say that our mind create illusions for our realities. In this way, technology is backing what spirituality teaches. Technology is making spirituality more understandable.

I know, there are many negative attributes that are linked to technology such as distraction caused by mobile phones in our daily lives, pop up ads on the internet distracting us, wastage of time in unhealthy and harmful activities on internet, depression due to video games, increase in discontentment, ingratitude and other psychological conditions due to social media, blackmailing, scamming, etc., etc. Here, my question is: is it really the technology that is harming us, or we have ourselves chosen to be harmed? Technology is merely a tool. It is our choice what we draw out of it.

In essence, Technology in itself has no rivalry with the spirituality. Instead, it has a lot to offer that helps boosting the spirituality. It depends on us if we want to use it or abuse it.

This is my participation for ecotrain Question of the week: Can Spirituality and Technology Live Together? For participation, click here