Spirituality And Materialism - Hindu Scriptures And Bhagvad Gita

A friend recently asked me whether I had read Bhagvad Gita. I said no. She was surprised I hadn't. And she gave me a very interesting article to read.

The article is about finding unity between personal and organizational values. The author quotes Hindu scriptures and defines the following: 

• There are 4 objectives in our lives. Kama (pleasure, sexual), artha (excelling in what we do), dharma (doing the right things) and moksha (salvation).

• Materialism is about attachment to material things and possessions. The objectives of Artha and Kama are contained in this. Spirituality is about detachment from material things. I assume Dharma and Moksha are contained in this. The author says "When you get obsessed with self-gratification (with materialism), you lose judgement of what is right and wrong and awareness of your responsibility to do good to others". Now Dharma, I think, is about doing the RIGHT things and not about doing good to others. Right and Good are not synonymous. 

I see the same issue again later when the author talks about Karma (focus on action). The author says that there are times an action could either result in personal gain or it could do good to others. In such cases, according to the author, one should do good to others. Here again, I believe Good is wrongly used, the correct word being Right. I believe that if Dharma is defined as doing the Right (and not necessarily Good) things, a conflict between Materialism and Dharma is less likely. A judge's verdict has to be right and fair, whether it is good for one party or the other is irrelevant. Trying to do good is a personal choice. Society should not force any person to do Good. But, Society should ensure that people do not do the WRONG things. This is where I differ from the author's belief.

"Any action performed in a selfless spirit and with dispassion is superior". Again I don't agree with this quote. An action performed with no interest  / passion is better not done. If the author actually meant that an action should be performed without an extraordinary focus on the outcome, then I might agree. We control only our actions, we don't control the outcomes. Jimmy Connors, tennis player of yesteryear, apparently said that he liked to enjoy playing a match and liked to walk out of the court at the end of the match in such a way that people watching couldn't make out whether he had won or lost the game - A perfect example of what Gita says.

The passages on Yoga seem out of place and stand out. One might have said "eat chocolate" or "climb Mt Everest". The flow of the article is lost here.

While the author started out nicely with a nice introduction, I am not sure whether the purpose of the article (to find a balance between spirituality and materialism) was achieved. What are the takeaways? Do Yoga? If there is a choice in our action there is a conflict between spirituality and materialism, then we should choose that path which results in GOOD to others? Not much meat here.