Smaller electronic gadgets; greater functionalities; faster net connections. Such advances may make us believe that future technological advances will enable us to become happy and live happily ever after.

No matter how much technology advances, this world is never going to turn into paradise. Why? Because technology can never make us immortal at the material level because matter by its every nature is temporary.

Moreover, technology improves only our periphery, not our core. It doesn’t transform our heart. And the heart is the seat of love, peace and fulfillment – all of which are central to real happiness.

Spirituality alone can provide all these – and provide them forever. Gita wisdom explains that we are indestructible souls who can attain everlasting happiness by rising to the spiritual level and there delighting in eternal love for Krishna.

Infatuation with technology can blind us to all this.

When we see something well, keep getting expert at seeing it better and keep getting accolades for that expertise, it’s easy to forget the things we don’t see, forget even that there might be something entirely different to see.

Similarly, when we are captivated by the promises of ever-improving technological gadgetry, it’s easy to forget that there exists a dramatically different reality –  the higher spiritual reality.

That reality eludes those who are infatuated with trying to manipulate matter in the hope of enjoyment, as the Bhagavad-gita (15.10) indicates. Thus, the better our vision of material things, even a 20/20 vision, it can make us blind if it causes us to miss the full picture of reality – material and spiritual.

Thankfully, this blindness is not mandatory. If we use Gita wisdom to stay aware of the reality and primacy of spirituality, then we can use matter and material technology for our all-round well-being.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15 Text 10

The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this.