“Seeing is Believing” Drags Humans to the Animal Level, Diksha Mataji (Gita Daily)

Published on Aug 21, 2013

Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15, Text 10

The Bhagavad-gita (15.10) reproaches as deluded (vimudha) those materialists who are blind to the soul due to their overdependence on their undependable senses. “Seeing is believing” is the credo that such people use self-righteously to justify their disbelief in everything invisible. Sadly, their credo drags them down to the bestial level both intellectually and practically.

Intellectually: “Seeing is believing” is a permanent progress stopper. Our advanced human intelligence enables us to infer underlying invisible principlesfrom visible phenomena. Without such inference, we can gain no deep understanding of the world — neither scientific nor philosophical.As this dogmacensors everything invisible, it reduces our human intelligence to nought and condemns us to the same epistemological boat as animals.

Practically: “Seeing is believing” drags humans down to animalistic indulgences. An animal wandering in a desert believes in the mirage that it sees and chases after the non-existent water, thereby condemning itself to perpetual thirst and eventual death. Similarly, dogmatic materialists refuse to believe in the spiritual because of its invisibility and so deprive themselves of spiritual happiness.


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