Two things, that is explained. Aśraddadhānāḥ. What Kṛṣṇa is speaking, the instruction, if we have no faith to believe Him, and if we don't accept it, then the result is that he is losing the chance. He got this human form of life to understand God, but if he is missing this opportunity, then the result will be aprāpya māṁ nivartante. We have come from God. Either you go back to home, back to Godhead, or again we go back to the cycle of birth and death. Mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. The cycle of birth and death, it is called mṛtyu-saṁsāra. Saṁsāra means tribulation, tribulation, sufferings. Suffering... The ultimate suffering is mṛtyu, death. So death, again birth. That is also suffering. Although we forget, but to take birth is a great suffering. Great suffering means you have to enter the womb of the mother and you have to grow your body and there is risk of being killed also. Especially at the present moment they are killing the child in the womb. So just imagine how much suffering it is. And if he is killed, if the child is killed, then his term of imprisonment in that body is not finished. Therefore he has to enter again another body, again enter into the mother's womb. And, it may be, many hundreds of years may pass on before he can again see light. So it is great suffering.
Suffering means
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
The basic principle is to go forward in our spiritual understanding. That is the basic principle. We are suffering in this material world. We may say that "We have no suffering. It is very pleasing," but actually, in every step we are suffering. Just like this is winter season. To take bath in the winter season is suffering. And in the summer season, to take bath in the summer season, it is very pleasing. So either we are suffering or we are enjoying according to different season and circumstances, but actually we are suffering. Because... Take this winter season. We do not want chilly cold. Therefore we are covering. The cause is we are suffering. Therefore we are covering. And after covering, we are feeling some pleasure. This pleasure is, for the time being, absence of suffering. That's all. Actually, we are suffering, but by some arrangement, when we stop that suffering for the time being and feel, enjoying, that is material enjoyment. Actually there is no enjoyment. Because in the winter season by covering the body we are feeling pleased but in the summer season by covering the body we feel not pleased. So this is going on. So rejecting and... Why the same dress, warm dress, does not give us pleasure in the summer season? And the same dress, in the winter season it gives us pleasure. So we do not know whether dress is pleasing or suffering. Means sometimes it is pleasing and sometime it is displeasing.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So long you will have this material body, you will have to suffer. You cannot avoid it. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). That is stated in the Bha... Mātrā-sparśāḥ. What is the suffering? Suffering means on account of this body. The same water, it is very pleasing during summer, and the same water, it is very distressing in winter. So water is the same, but it is distressing and pleasing on account of this body. Very simple thing, one can understand. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ. The water is neither pleasing nor distressing. It is due to my this body and bodily concepts of life, we are suffering or enjoying, so-called enjoying, so-called suffering. Actually, I am the spirit soul. I am different from this body, gross body and subtle body. I have no suffering, no, I mean to say, enjoying. It is simply my imagination. Therefore a mukta-puruṣa, a liberated person, he is not affected by this so-called suffering or enjoying. That is called liberation.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he said that "I have already described the different kinds of hellish conditions. So unless one atones his sinful life, one has to suffer such hellish conditional life." Tasmāt puraivāśv iha pāpa-niṣkṛtau yateta mṛtyor avipadyatātmanā (SB 6.1.8). Therefore it is everyone's duty that before you meet death, you atone your sinful activities. And what is that example he's giving? Doṣasya dṛṣṭvā guru-lāghavaṁ yathā bhiṣak cikitseta rujāṁ nidānavit (SB 6.1.8). Just like when one is diseased, if he does not make proper treatment immediately, that disease may increase and cause fatal. Everyone knows that, that when he's diseased... So diseased condition means sinful condition. Diseased condition means suffering, and suffering means sinful, reaction of sinful activities. So the prescription is that as one goes to the physician, similarly, for treatment of his disease—otherwise it may prove fatal—similarly, one should atone the sinful activities as they are prescribed in different scriptures. That is the prescription.
So he is recommending, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, that this regulative life should be conducted: first of all tapasya. Tapasya means... Tapa. Tapa means voluntary suffering. That is called tapasya. The voluntary suffering means what is our enjoyment? First of all let us see. The enjoyment is if we can eat voraciously, eating, and if we can sleep thirty hours, and if we have got sex life without any discrimination, and don't care for defense. That's all. This is enjoyment life, material enjoyment means. Now, tapasya means denying all these things, denying. Eating as much as I require to maintain my body—this is tapasya, not that voraciously eating. Tapasya means practically not eating. That is tapasya: not eating. Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he was a very rich man's son. So he showed us the example, what is tapasya. He gradually reduced his eating, every alternate days a little butter. That's all. Raguṇatha dāsa Gosvāmī. And still, he was taking three times bath and hundred times... Sāṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ. He was offering obeisances flat hundred times and taking bath three times. Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, those who have gone to Rādhā-Kunda, you have seen, the extreme tapasya. He was very rich man's son. In those days his father's income was twelve lakhs of rupees. He left his happy home and joined Caitanya Mahāprabhu and exemplified tapasya. He showed.
So our proposition is that we are somehow or other in an envelopment of so many mistakes. And therefore we are suffering. Suffering means due to ignorance. Just like a man does not know the law of the country... A civil instance:(?) just like here in London the car is driven from the left side, in America the car is driven by the right side. So suppose one comes from America, he's driving the car from the right side, the police arrest. "Why you arrest me, sir?" "Because you are driving on the right side." "That I know. I do not know that you have to drive left side." "That does not mean you are free from criminal charges. Come to the court." So this criminality is happened on account of ignorance. So any criminal person wrongly-guided means ignorance. Therefore we have to develop real knowledge. The real knowledge is that God is one, God is great, we are part and parcel of God, and therefore we have to serve God. This is knowledge.
So we have got this body according to our past work. Karmaṇā daivā-netreṇa jantra jantor deha upapatti (SB 3.31.1). How one gets a particular type of body? Because according to his past karma. Nature will automatically act. Just like if you contact some contaminous disease, nature will act. You will have to undergo the process of disease or develop that disease. So nature's law is working so nicely. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ (BG 3.27). Everything is being done by the laws of nature. So, human body, when we are civilized, we should know that "Why I am suffering?" Although under the spell of māyā we take suffering as enjoyment. That is called māyā. Māyā means what is not. We are thinking we are enjoying, but actually we are suffering. In this material body we have to suffer. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). This example is given by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, that suffering means on account of this body. There is pinching cold, scorching heat. We feel these things on account of this body. At a certain circumstances, we feel pain; at a certain circumstance we feel happy. But actually, this so-called happiness and distress is due to the body.
So one should have the sense that so long we shall go on accepting this material body, the sufferings will go on. We simply forget. So this awakening of consciousness is possible simply by chanting this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. It is so simple thing. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, then you'll understand. Ceto-darpaṇa. Suffering means there are so many dirty things within our heart. That is the cause of suffering. Just like a criminal: he has got the dirty things within the mind, that "If I get such and such things, I'll be happy." And he takes the risk of criminality at the risk of life. A burglar, a thief goes, he knows that "If I am captured, I'll be killed, I'll be punished, I'll be handed over to the police," and so on, so on, and still he goes and steals. Why? That is śāstra, nūnaṁ pramattaḥ: he has become mad after sense gratification. Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ. Pramattaḥ means mad. Why he's taking so much risk? Nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma yad indriya-prītayā (SB 5.5.4), simply for sense gratification. That's all. Simply for sense gratification.
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 2
Anyone denying this surrendering process as recommended both in the Bhagavad-gītā and in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—and, for that matter, in all authorized scriptures—will be forced to surrender unto the laws of material nature. The living entity, by his constitutional position, is not independent. He must surrender, either unto the Lord or unto material nature. Material nature is also not independent of the Lord, since the Lord Himself has claimed material nature as mama māyā, or "My energy" (BG 7.14), and as me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā, or "My separated energy in eight divisions" (BG 7.4). Therefore material nature is also controlled by the Lord, as He has claimed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10). Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram: "Under My direction only is material nature working, and thus are all things moving." And the living entities, being superior energy to matter, have choice and discrimination either to surrender unto the Lord or to surrender unto material nature. By surrendering unto the Lord, one is happy and liberated, but by surrendering unto material nature the living entity suffers. So the end of all suffering means surrendering unto the Lord because the surrendering process itself is bhava-cchidam (liberation from all material miseries), svasty-ayanam (perception of all happiness), and sumaṅgalam (the source of everything auspicious).
Conversations and Morning Walks
1973 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prajāpati: This suffering comes from our sinful activities?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi (BG 18.66). I shall give you protection from sinful reaction of your life because you are suffering for sinful reaction. Suffering means if you disobey the laws of the state, you suffer. That is sinful. Because you have disobeyed the laws of the state, you are suffering.
Candanācārya: If one has difficulty becoming Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is that suffering?
Prabhupāda: No, what is the difficulty, first of all?
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Loving, but.... You are.... I love you. I say, "Do this." If you don't do it, then...?
Devotee: It's reciprocal.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You must suffer.
Yadubara: So the suffering is His mercy also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Suffering means he'll be purified. Suffering is the process of purification.
Ātreya Ṛṣi: And part of His laws.... It's within His laws.
Prabhupāda: You have infected some disease. You suffer. Then the enviousness(?) of Kṛṣṇa will go away by suffering.
Kathy Kerr: Do you consider that going..., your movement then is basically more of an educational movement than a religious movement.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Educational. It is religious, but it is not a man-made religious. Our idea.... I have already explained that our idea of religion means that like the sugar, it must be sweet. It is not that in Europe sugar is not sweet, in India it is sweet. Sugar, wherever it is, it is sweet. Similarly, the soul, the spirit soul is the same everywhere. So he, the spirit soul, is now embodied within this material body, and he is suffering on account of this material body. So we are teaching everyone how to get out of this material body and stay in his original, spiritual body. This is our real movement. This is another way..., another name is liberation. We are suffering within this body. Our suffering means on account of this body. So if there is such science how to continue our life without changing body, that science we are teaching. It is purely educational.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Mām upetya punar janma duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam. So long you have to accept another body, you must suffer. Suffering means this body. That Kṛṣṇa says. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (BG 13.9). Real suffering is here, that you have to take your birth, you have to die, you have to suffer from disease and old age. But your position is na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit. Your business is not to take birth and die. But why you are suffering? Nobody wants to die. You must die. Nobody wants to become old man. He must become. So you do not know what is suffering and how to mitigate it. And Kṛṣṇa points out, "This is suffering." Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. This is knowledge. So temporary... Suppose if there is any boil, and if you... Is that mitigation of suffering, do you think? "Oh, you are suffering?" The surgeon must come and operate and get out this pus and then suffering. So here Kṛṣṇa recommends, "This is mitigation of suffering. Stop your birth, death, old age and disease." So we do not know what is suffering and how to get out. Therefore we have to consult Kṛṣṇa in every step. Then our life will be... This is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You take instruction from Kṛṣṇa and try to abide by it. Your suffering will go.
| Page Title: | Suffering means |
| Compiler: | Rishab, Serene |
| Created: | 24 of Feb, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=8, Con=4, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 13 |