View source for Well, we can admit that we're not happy all the time, but what is the meaning of happiness without distress? If there's no distress, how can I be happy?

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{{terms|"If there's no distress, how can I be happy"|"Well, we can admit that we're not happy all the time, but what is the meaning of happiness without distress"}}
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{{compiler|MadhuGopaldas|Rishab}}
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{{first|19Jul11}}
{{last|15Aug12}}
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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1975]]
[[Category:Questions On... Pleasure and Sense Gratification]]
[[Category:Questions On... Reward, Punishment, Suffering]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1975 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1975 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="MorningWalkOctober201975Johannesburg_0" class="quote" parent="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="221" link="Morning Walk -- October 20, 1975, Johannesburg" link_text="Morning Walk -- October 20, 1975, Johannesburg">
<div class="heading">So that is material knowledge. In order to taste happiness, you have to suffer. That is material happiness. And happiness, pure, is spiritual happiness. Here, in order to enjoy happiness, you have to suffer; then you can taste. Therefore that is not real happiness.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Morning Walk -- October 20, 1975, Johannesburg|Morning Walk -- October 20, 1975, Johannesburg]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: (break) ...Vedic culture, there is descriptions of many demigods, and the karmīs, they would generally worship these different demigods for material benefits. Why didn't they just try to get the material benefits without worshiping the demigods, like they are doing today?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: What is that?</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Today people are making money and trying to enjoy material life...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Who is making money? Who is making money?</p>
<p>Harikeśa: The government. It is printing it up.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Do you think everyone is making money?</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: So it's a big illusion? It's a big illusion?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone simply working hard like asses. That's all. This is their happiness. Just like the hog, he's working very hard to eat stool, and he is thinking happy. He is getting fatty. Do you think to work hard day and night and eat stool is happiness?</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: But he is thinking; therefore he is getting fat. You generally find the pigs are fatty because they think, "Oh, I am very happy." Yes. One man gets fatty when he thinks that "I am very happy." You know that?</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: No.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: This is psychology. When he thinks, "I am very happy," he gets fatty.</p>
<p>Harikeśa: But if I think I'm happy, isn't that enough?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: They think. That is another thing. But you do not know what is happiness. These rascals, they do not think that what is happiness. Suppose I have arranged for so-called happiness. Then I am going to die also. Who will enjoy this?</p>
<p>Harikeśa: But I'm not worried about it.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is the proof that you are a rascal. "Fools rush in where angels dare not." That is the proof. The hog is thinking, "I am very happy." Therefore he is hog. He is not a human being. Hog proves that he is hog by thinking that "I am very happy. I am getting fatty." (break)</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ...suffer. Kṛṣṇa says, duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam ([[Vanisource:BG 8.15 (1972)|BG 8.15]]). That's a fact. So why is it that people are thinking they are happy?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That I have repeatedly said. Therefore, because they are thinking like that, therefore they are rascals. That is the proof. There is no happiness; still, he is thinking, "I am happy." That is the proof that he's a rascal. (break)</p>
<p>Harikeśa: Well, we can admit that we're not happy all the time, but what is the meaning of happiness without distress? If there's no distress, how can I be happy?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So that is material knowledge. In order to taste happiness, you have to suffer. That is material happiness. And happiness, pure, is spiritual happiness. Here, in order to enjoy happiness, you have to suffer; then you can taste. Therefore that is not real happiness. (break)</p>
<p>Harikeśa: A sandtrap. This is where the ball goes in and it's very difficult to hit it out of there.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh.</p>
<p>Harikeśa: So you're not supposed to hit it in there.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh.</p>
<p>Harikeśa: It makes it more difficult.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes they hit a golf ball, Śrīla Prabhupāda, two hundred yards, and it goes into the hole.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: The same thing. In order to feel the happiness of playing, he has to go in this way. It is unhappiness.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Such standard of religion the Western countries are not used to.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Where is religion in Western countries? There is no religion. All bogus thing. Religion means to surrender to God. Then where is God, and whom to surrender? They surrender to senses, that's all. So unless there is God, what is the meaning of religion? That is not religion. They have created something, civilized human society. There must be some religion. Just like aristocracy means he must have a good dog, that's all. There is no religion in the world except Kṛṣṇa consciousness. All bogus.</p>
<p>Harikeśa: What is the Pope doing, then? (laughter)</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: He's another big bogus man. The Pope's assistant died in the prostitute's house.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: In Paris.</p>
<p>Harikeśa: The Pope comes out on his balcony, and thousands of people cheer and scream.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: The same thing, that small animals praising the big animals, that's all. At least they say something about God. They are not zero, but they have no clear conception of God.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But everyone is thinking that their religion is the best. Even the Christian may be ignorant, even the Jew may be ignorant, anyone—doesn't matter—they're thinking that theirs is the best.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is the proof that everyone is fool. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.31|SB 7.5.31]]). First of all... Therefore we have to understand from Bhāgavata that what is real religion. Real religion means love of Godhead. So instead of love of Godhead, the love of doghead is increasing. So where is religion? Everybody should keep a dog and serve him, and where is God?</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Well, they think that God is in the other world, so that in this world we can serve our wife and family, and when we go to the other world we'll serve God.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Then God is separated from this world. How much imperfect knowledge it is. God has created this world, and He has nothing to do with. Just see. They say God created this world, but He has nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: That's a very imperfect understanding.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: (break) ...you were with Meher Baba?</p>
<p>Harikeśa: No, I was never with Meher Baba. (laughter) I just bring up all these points just so you can defeat them. I was with Maharishi.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Maharishi? Oh. You got his mantra? How much you paid for that?</p>
<p>Harikeśa: Thirty-five dollars. (laughter)</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: And what was the mantra?</p>
<p>Harikeśa: "Aing."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: "Aing"? That's all?</p>
<p>Harikeśa: That's all. And they told me, "Never tell anybody else, 'cause if you tell somebody else the whole thing is ruined."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh, you are also ruined? No, he is also ruined? No?</p>
<p>Harikeśa: I don't know.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Everything ruined means he also ruined.</p>
<p>Harikeśa: For you.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No. Yes, that Maharsi Baba. Because he gave the mantra, so if you disclose it, everything is ruined including himself. He is also ruined.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: He can't sell any more mantras.</p>
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