"The philosophical essence of Hegel and Marx is not "the self-deification of mankind" (whatever that can mean) but the view of human history as not only an organic stage in natural history but as a crux in that history, a "prehistory," opening the possibility (but far, far, from the certainty) of a new, higher, stage in the development of planetary consciousness (called "communism" [Marx] or "objective spirit" [Hegel])."
I don't know if we're on the same page here, but for me, Marx takes eastern philosophy one crucial step forward. (The dialectic is the western equivalent of the east's awareness of the falseness of duality.)
Eastern philosophy requires a coming to consciousness through awareness of social and other conditioning. That is, you cannot be free until you become aware of all that binds you, of all that has shaped you. To that, Marx adds the variable of history as a material force that must be factored into that coming to consciousness. That is we must understand what history is and how it shapes those forces that shape us.
OK. There's plenty here to have me pilloried so I'll stop now.
Joanna