Humanism is a way of thinking that puts people first. It cares about human reason, dignity and the ability to act morally. Humanism focuses on human experience, careful thinking and responsibility as the base for knowledge and values.
Modern humanism usually says:
People can use reason and decide for themselves.
We can build ethical systems without relying on religion or spirituality.
The goal of life is to help people live well, be free and grow.
Some people say humanism is like materialism, meaning it treats life as mainly about human needs and consumption.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn said –
“Humanism has made man autonomous from God, Truth and objective morality.
If, as humanism declares, man were born only to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature: not the attainment of everyday bread alone but the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty, so that one’s life journey may become an experience of inner growth, so that one may leave this life having become a better human being than one started it.
All cultures live or die, based on their respect of the True, Good and Beautiful.”
In other words – Satyam Shivam Sundaram!
These points show the main idea of his argument. Death itself challenges the shallow view of humanism. If everyone must die, then a life only focused on comfort, pleasure or material success is incomplete. Life must be seen as an ethical and spiritual journey.
Drawing from his experiences under totalitarianism, Solzhenitsyn rejects the optimistic assumption that man is naturally good and will flourish if simply freed from external constraints. Instead, he insists that good and bad run through every human heart. A humanism that ignores this inner struggle risks becoming naïve – or worse dangerous – when it places unchecked faith in human reason and power.
What, then, replaces it? Not the rejection of human dignity but its deepening. True human fulfillment lies in responsibility, self-understanding and inner growth. Life becomes meaningful not through the pursuit of happiness alone but through the conscious effort to become better – to align oneself with truth, conscience and something higher than the individual.
Meditation is that conscious effort that helps you not only to align yourself but become better. As you go deeper in your meditation practice, you realise that not only were you distracted by the outside world but most of your desires and wants were not your own in the first place.
And when one becomes meditative, the inner growth starts happening. And then not only do you start living a fulfilling but also you start to make things around you beautiful as well.
Start your meditation journey today.