How devotees’ suffering is different from that of nondevotees

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So I’ll discuss briefly about this conversation on the cause and the remedy for suffering. The charts were very well made.
And the presentation was also quite good. Some of the charts were very graphic, especially the person falling into the well and being saved. So good artistic presentation.
Now, we will read this conversation. I’ll read it out and I’ll quickly comment on a few points in it. Many of the points were covered quite well overall in your presentation.
So, Shri Prabhupada starts by talking about… So, now, you remember yesterday we discussed about the fixing of the match, the cause of suffering. So, why is there discrimination in this world? So, the atheistic attitude here is that, okay, everything is it destined? If God exists, is everything destined? And my suffering is also destined. However, God is not the cause of our suffering.
Actually, our suffering is caused because of defiance of God. So, once a devotee went to a doctor, this doctor happened to be an atheist. And this doctor saw the devotee and he said, you believe in God? He said, of course.
Oh, really? He said, there is so much suffering in this world. If God were good, there would be no suffering in this world. The very fact that there is suffering indicates that there is no God in this world.
There is no God at all. So, the devotee was silent and he went out. And after a few minutes, he rushed back into the clinic and he said, there is no doctor in this city.
What do you mean? He said, I am a doctor. I just treated you. So, come on.
He took him out of the clinic and just next to him he saw, switch this off. You don’t need it actually. So, he took him out of the clinic and he showed him, outside his clinic on the footpath, there was a beggar.
And the beggar was coughing piteously. He said, you see his suffering? He said, yes. The very fact that he is suffering proves that there are no doctors in the city.
He said, are you a nut? He said, he is suffering because he is not coming to me. He said, exactly. People are suffering because they are not going to God.
The existence of disease does not prove the non-existence of a doctor. The existence of disease simply proves the non-compliance of the patient with the doctor. Similarly, the existence of suffering in this world doesn’t prove the non-existence of God.
It simply proves, demonstrates the non-compliance of people with the will of God. In the Bhagavad Gita, 1858, Lord Krishna describes, He says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. If, however, you do not become conscious of me and act out of ego, then you will be lost.
It’s a very direct phrase, become conscious of me, become Krishna conscious. So, first point which Krishna is making in this verse is that by becoming conscious of him, we will go beyond problems. Now, let us try to understand this a little bit better.
So, certainly our suffering is not entirely distinct. Some sufferings will come in their own way. But even those sufferings that come in their own way, they are caused by our past defiance of God’s way.
So, somebody is sick right now, the doctor is giving treatment, still the patient stays sick because the momentum of the past disease is there, it will take some time to get curbed and cured. Similarly, because of our past bad karma, some karmic reactions will keep coming. So, our karma is like an infection.
So, the suffering is because of our actions, it is not because of God’s actions. Now, moving forward from here, if our sufferings are because of defiance of God’s laws, then what about a devotee? Devotee also suffers. So, let’s look at devotee suffering in two different ways.
One point is, if we understand clearly, what is the cause of suffering? The cause of suffering primarily is attachment. Avidya kama karma bhi, Kunti Maharani says that, because of ignorance we have attachment, we have kama and then we do activity and that causes suffering. So, simple example to understand this, how attachment causes suffering.
Say, in India, the national game is cricket. Officially it is hockey, but actually it is, from the point of view of opposition of people, it’s cricket. So, now, suppose an African person comes to India and most African countries, apart from South Africa and a few other countries, they don’t even know about cricket.
So, then there is a, say, India-Pakistan match going on and Indians are caught up in it, what is going to happen, what is going to happen, what is going to happen? So, now, the same cricket match is going on and that person may be watching the TV also, but there is no suffering for that person, whereas for the Indians there is huge suffering. Why? Attachment. So, what, the events on the cricket field in and of itself do not cause suffering to anyone.
The events on the cricket field cause suffering to people because people are attached to those events. So, kārikāraṇa kartrūtve hetu prakṛtir ucyate, puruṣaḥ sukha duḥkhā nāma, bhoktrūtve hetu ucyate. Now, Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita describes in 13th chapter, 21st verse that kārikāraṇa kartrūtve, whatever happens in this material world, it is because of the changes of matter, but what effect they will have, whether they will cause us happiness or distress, puruṣaḥ sukha duḥkhā nāma, bhoktrūtve hetu ucyate, bhoktrūtve, because of the desire to enjoy, because of the attachment, there is suffering.
So, if there is no attachment, there will be no suffering. Another example is, suppose somebody has got a car, a brand new car, proudly driving in the car. Nowadays, many of the advertisements are also so perverse.
There is a car advertisement which says, there is a person driving a car and there is a girl looking at him, admiring with wide eyes and there is somebody glaring in the background. And the advertisement says, ride this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes. Enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes.
What a perverse standard of enjoyment. It’s not even possess the car and enjoy the car. It is worse than that.
It’s make other people envious and enjoy their envy. It’s really a degraded standard of enjoyment. But suppose this person is driving his car and as he is driving, he comes to a signal and stops and suddenly, somebody hits the bumper of the car, screams.
He is furious. There is a small scratch on the bumper, but there is a big rash in his heart. My car, what happened to my car? Why? Because there is attachment.
Now suppose, the same person earlier had an old car, which is old now and he is riding in the car, his new car and somebody else has purchased the old car and then that old car is going by and somebody comes and hits the bumper of that old car. What happens to him? Nothing. Why? It is the same car, same person was also using the car, but there is no attachment to the car.
So, the suffering is not caused so much by the event as our emotional investment in the event. The suffering is not caused as much by the event as our emotional investment in the event. So, India lost a cricket match to Pakistan.
Well, that event does not cause much suffering as long as we are not emotionally invested in it. So, if I am emotionally invested in something, that causes me suffering. So, my old car which I have sold away now, I am not emotionally invested in that car anymore.
That is why I do not suffer when that car meets some accident or has some mishap happening to it. So, now as far as devotees are concerned, there is suffering at the bodily level in terms of the event. There will be disease, there will be old age, there will be death.
So, at the external level the events will go on, but because devotees are not so attached to their body, they understand that I am not the body, I am different from the body and the body is a temporary possession that I have. So, therefore, because one is not emotionally invested in the body, that is why the suffering is much lesser. It is not that the suffering is not there.
The suffering is much lesser and of a different nature. For example, if a person is travelling by a car and the car has a puncture. Now, the car getting a puncture is not the same as the person getting a fracture.
Puncture and fracture both are mishaps, but a puncture does not cause as much suffering as a fracture. Why? Because I understand a fracture has happened to my body, the puncture is to the car outside. So, when a devotee, a spiritualist understands that actually the body is just like a car.
So, when the body has some problems, that is like a puncture to the car. So, a puncture to the car is not a suffering, it is an inconvenience. It is an inconvenience, it is not exactly a suffering.
So, for a devotee, also a devotee may go through bodily sufferings, a devotee may also take some treatment for the bodily sufferings and even mental situation may be problematic and devotee will try to solve those problems. But it is an inconvenience, it is not a suffering. What is the difference again between a car getting punctured and a hand getting fractured? Again, it is the amount of emotional investment.
So, if I am not emotionally invested in it, I won’t suffer so much. So, at a first level, the devotee suffers less because the devotee is less emotionally invested in material things. At a second level, a devotee suffers less because the devotee is not doing anything more that will cause suffering.
What is the second level? It is like there are two people in a hospital, both are sick and both are suffering right now. But patient A has not yet been diagnosed and is not yet being treated because there is no proper diagnosis. Patient B has been diagnosed and is being treated.
Right now, both of them are in pain. But there is a world of difference between the future trajectories of both these people. Patient A, the disease is not diagnosed, not treated, so it is going to get worse.
And who knows, he may be eating things or doing things which may even aggravate the suffering. On the other hand, patient B, he knows the diagnosis and prescription is there. So, now he is not doing anything that is going to aggravate the suffering and he is doing things which is going to cure the suffering.
So, similarly for devotees, a devotee is like patient B, a non-devotee is like patient A. Non-devotee doesn’t know what is the cause of the suffering and doesn’t know what is the cure for the suffering. Actually, to live in the material world without spiritual knowledge is like somebody is running a race, blindfolded and somebody else, there are people who are whipping the person from all sides. Now, all that a person knows is that I am getting whipped.
He doesn’t know from where the whip is going to come next, why the whip is going to come and what I am supposed to do. Just get whipped, whipped, whipped, that’s all. That’s what material life is actually.
One just doesn’t know how one is going to solve the problem. So, that is the position of a non-devotee. Non-devotee is like a sick patient who is not yet being treated.
So, that’s why the suffering between a devotee and a non-devotee is hugely different. Second point is that the devotee is not doing anything to increase the suffering, rather devotee is doing a lot to decrease the suffering. So, in that sense, from the future, the prospects are much brighter.
Third point is that a devotee is connected with something bigger in the suffering, that is God. It is said when problems come, don’t tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big God is. Don’t tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big God is.
This is not just a play of words, it’s actually a state of consciousness associated with what is being spoken. Suppose a person is walking on a road, and then the person sees giant buildings, skyscrapers on both sides. Now, as compared to those buildings, the person appears tiny, insignificant.
Now, that same person, if he is travelling in an aeroplane, the same buildings are there and maybe he is going just exactly above the same road which he was walking along or riding along. But now, those buildings appear small. Why? Because that person is at a much higher level, at a much higher level.
So, actually, when we are alone in this world, unconnected with God, at that time, our situation is like the tiny person dwarfed in comparison with the skyscraper. So, we are small and our problems appear big. Our problems appear unsolvable.
See, the biggest problem in a problem is our attitude towards the problem. The biggest problem in a problem is our attitude towards the problem. The problems are there, but often, our attitude towards the problem either minimises the problem or maximises the problem.
How does that happen? Suppose somebody insults me. Now, naturally, I will feel bad if somebody insulted me. But I have a choice.
Either I can dwell on that insult and I can burn and I can think, I will get back at that person. How dare he speak like this? I will show him who I am. Who does he think he is? I can just keep dwelling and dwelling and dwelling and dwelling on the problem and what will happen is I will simply burn myself by that.
So, now, that event of the insult has happened. It’s gone now. But my attitude, my attitude of just hanging on to the problem mentally and emotionally and letting myself burn from it, it causes me far greater suffering than what it would otherwise have.
On the other hand, okay, somebody insulted me. I withdraw from the situation. Then I calm down.
I examine. Is there some truth in it? Is there something which I have done wrong? I will correct it. If there is nothing wrong that I have done, then let me just neglect it and move forward with my life.
Now, this is very easy to speak, but very difficult to apply. The reason why it is difficult to apply is, in this world, problems come with an inbuilt mental glue. Problems come with an inbuilt mental glue.
That means whenever a problem comes, the problem just stays in the mind. You notice that? The problem is there. It is just, it doesn’t go out of the mind only.
I have this problem, I have this problem. It just glues on to the mind and because of which we constantly keep thinking about it and we keep worrying about it and we let ourselves get de-energised because of it. So, this inbuilt mental glue is what saps our energy.
That means, okay, there has been some misunderstanding in some relationship or I have got some disease. Okay, I have a disease. I have to take the treatment, whatever it is.
I have to do the needful at a material level to tackle the problem. But often when we let the problem dwell in the mind, then that saps our energy, sucks and saps our energy and that’s why we suffer far more than what we need to. Now, as I said, the biggest problem in a problem is our attitude towards the problem.
So, what is the attitude? Actually, we let the problem dominate our mind. We let the problem practically take over our mind and we just are not able to think about anything else. Now, what happens by the process of Krishna Consciousness is, it gives us an alternative, satisfying and empowering object of thought.
It gives us an object of thought. What happens when we have problems is the problem itself becomes the default object of thought. We keep thinking about it and we get disempowered, de-energised by it.
But for a devotee, whenever there is a problem, okay, I’ll think about it, what can I do with it to deal with it, I’ll deal with it. But beyond that, there is no need to dwell on the problem. We can think about Krishna, we can connect with Krishna and because Krishna, thinking about Krishna is itself satisfying and empowering, so we feel energised.
So, earlier I gave the example of a person alone at the foot of a skyscraper and a person above in an aeroplane. So, what Krishna Consciousness does is, it lifts us above the situations because we understand this problem may be very big, but actually the problem is material, whereas I am spiritual. The problem will pass and I will continue to exist and I am spiritual and I am not alone.
Krishna is with me and Krishna will help me to deal with the problem. So, because of this understanding that the problem is temporary, I am eternal. A devotee is concerned but not disturbed by problems.
A devotee is concerned but not disturbed because a devotee’s core sense of self-worth doesn’t come from the external situation. Devotee knows, okay, whatever goes wrong, now I am still a soul, Krishna still loves me, I can still go on with life. For a materialistic person, if things go wrong in life, then material life is all that there is for such a person.
For some people, end of life, end of the world, the person gets devastated. So, a devotee is concerned but not disturbed by the problems because Krishna Consciousness lifts a person up and this is something which all of us have to experience practically, that you know how, if you have practised Krishna Consciousness for a year or so, now if you keep practising it, you will see that many situations, for example, there is exam and before the exam, there is stress, it’s natural, there is tension before the exam. But if you keep practising Krishna Consciousness nicely, you develop your faith in Krishna by the practise of Krishna Consciousness and you will find that your composure before you start practising Krishna Consciousness and after you start practising Krishna Consciousness will be hugely different because you know that there is a higher reality beyond the agitating reality that is there in front of us.
See, how it is, how does our composure improve by the practise of Krishna Consciousness, how can we stay calmer because we try to control certain things in life but when we say there is a problem, that means there is a situation which we can’t control or remedy. Then in material life, either things are going right or things are going wrong. Either I can’t control things and things are going right or I can’t control things and things are going wrong.
But a devotee understands that ultimately Krishna is in control. So, when things are not going right, that doesn’t mean that they are going wrong, they are not going right according to my plan. But still there is a higher plan over and they are going right according to that plan.
So, I just have to wait and do the right thing just like if a patient wants to be healthy but there is sickness coming in. When the doctor is treating the patient, if the patient doesn’t know that the doctor is treating, the patient will think, oh what is this, I am suffering worse and worse. But the doctor has a particular plan.
Things may be going wrong from the patient’s perspective but when the patient understands that I am in a treatment and even if there is a pain, the actually things are going as per the doctor’s plan. The doctor knows what is happening and what is to be done and I simply need to cooperate. So, this is a critical point.
So much of our mental energy gets lost because we get unduly agitated by problems. But when we understand that Krishna is in control and we understand we are spiritual and indestructible, then much of that anxiety subsides because we know that whatever I have to do, I will do it. Beyond that, let me focus on Krishna.
Let me understand how Krishna is working and even solve the problem. So, it’s not that problems go away by magic. Problems may still be there but problems don’t dominate us because we connect with the reality higher than the problems.
Now, there are materialistic people who try to deny all the problems and just imagine that everything is alright. They say, why do you think that there are problems in life? There is old age, disease. Don’t think about all these things.
Just enjoy life. You are being pessimistic. Actually, there are two kinds of love.
There is a love that hides and there is a love that guides. The love that hides. If the children are small, the parents, if they have family problems, financial problems, they may not tell the child.
That is love. Love that hides. But if the child has got a disease and the child has to be given a treatment and the parents don’t tell the child what is the disease, the child will not take the treatment seriously.
So, at that time, the responsibility of the parents is, you have got this disease, it’s curable but you have to take these medicines. You take this medicine very, very carefully. Otherwise, the disease can become very complex and you will suffer.
So, there, also there is love. Love doesn’t hide the problem. This is the love that guides.
So, the love that hides tries to wish away or deny the problems. There is a love that guides, equips a person to face the problems. So, materialistic people try to imagine that there are no problems, whereas Krishna encourages devotees, his love is not a love that hides.
Krishna’s love is the love that guides. He tells us this world is a place of suffering. But the same verse which talks about the world being a place of suffering, that same verse gives whom? In 8.15 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, he says, if you worship me, he says that if you worship me, you will come back to me and you will not stay in this material world.
So, he says, those devotees who worship me, they won’t come back to this world. So, we often quote this Dukkhale Mashashvatam verse. This world is Dukkhale Mashashvatam.
But Krishna doesn’t emphasise that. Krishna says, Dukkhale Mashashvatam is there but you don’t have to stay there. You can come out of here.
If you worship me, if you become devoted to me, you return back to me. So, Krishna consciousness recognises the problems but then remedies the problems also. Now, Sri Prabhupada in this conversation also talks about Mayavadis.
The Mayavadis try to deny everything. So, if you ask Mayavadis, why is there suffering in this world? Actually, they will say, why am I suffering in this world? They will say, you are an illusion, the world is an illusion, therefore suffering is an illusion. That is their answer.
Now, I may say everything is an illusion but I am suffering. Just the idea that everything is an illusion doesn’t remove my suffering. Their problem is that they excess of a good thing makes it bad for them.
Excess of a good thing makes a thing bad. We know this. There are so many good food items.
You may eat them, it is good. But if you eat too much of them, they can spoil the health. So, what happens is, the good thing about the impersonalists is that they recognise this world is a place of suffering.
They also recognise the cause of the suffering. What is that? You remember I said, event doesn’t cause a suffering. What causes suffering is? Our emotional investment in it.
Our attachment to it. So, the impersonalists recognise this world is a place of suffering. They recognise our attachment causes suffering.
Therefore, they say, okay, why am I getting attached? Because the things in this world are so attractive. So, these are the three causal things. Say, suffering is caused by attachment.
And attachment is caused by attractive things. So, they think, okay, if I have to solve the problem of suffering, I have to give up attachment. But if things are attractive, how can I not become attached to them? So, they say, actually, things are not attractive.
The attraction of this world is an illusion and there is nothing attractive. So, they say that if you want to become free from suffering, become free from attachment, and to become free from attachment, actually, all the attraction of the world is an illusion. This is correct.
This is a good thing to recognise the attraction of the world is an illusion. But the excess that they do is that everything attractive is an illusion. Everything, so materially attractive things are a cause of bondage and suffering.
The material attractiveness is an illusion in the sense that it is temporary. But the impersonalists, they extrapolate and they think everything attractive is an illusion. So, Krishna’s attractive form is also an illusion.
Krishna’s beautiful pastimes, they are also an illusion. The relationships with Krishna, they are also an illusion. And in this way, they reject the spiritual reality also.
So, for the sake of giving up, escaping suffering, they reject all of reality. And basically, they go into an existence which is just having no variety, no activity, no happiness, and just this existence which is a barren liberation. Their conception of liberation is barren.
The barren land means land which does not produce anything. So, barren liberation is a liberation which does not lead to anything productive. It does not bring any happiness.
Actually, the impersonalist idea is to reject everything because they think that it is all an illusion. However, the devotees understand that what is illusion is not the activities that we are doing, the relationship that we desire, nor the forms that are there. It’s the misrepresentation.
It’s material things are illusions, spiritual things are a reality. So, we redirect our attraction from matter to spirit. And then, the more we become attached to Krishna, the greater is the happiness.
So, till now, we discussed the point about how a devotee doesn’t suffer. A devotee suffering is less. But now, we will discuss the concluding point, how a devotee gets access to a happiness that is unknown to materialistic people.
So, a devotee at a material level may suffer like non-devotees also. But internally, the devotee is not suffering so much because the devotee is not emotionally invested, devotee is not attached. But beyond that, a devotee is getting happiness from a higher stratum.
What is that higher stratum? That is the connection with Krishna. See, in this world, there are different kinds of happiness. And one needs some sort of aesthetic appreciation to relish different kinds of happiness.
So, for example, if somebody goes to an art gallery. Now, a person who is an art buffoon, who doesn’t know anything about art, okay, this looks good, doesn’t look, and he’ll go away. But a person who is an art connoisseur, oh, this painting is made using these paints and this colour, see this depiction, see this representation, so beautiful.
An art connoisseur can absorb a painting for a long time and can relish the painting. So, what is the difference between an art connoisseur and an art buffoon? It’s the capacity to appreciate the aesthetics. So, just as a person with aesthetic appreciation can find happiness, where other people cannot.
Similarly, there is devotional aesthetics. As we become spiritually advanced, our spiritual sensibility, our spiritual aesthetic sensibility awakens. And then, in connection with Krishna, we experience immense happiness.
So, the advanced devotees, just by chanting Krishna’s names, by taking the darshan of Krishna, by contemplating on Krishna, can experience enormous happiness. आनन्दां बुधिवर्धनं प्रतिपदं पूर्णामृतास्वादनम् सर्वात्मास्नपनं परंभिजयते श्नी कृष्णसंकीतनम् So, आनन्दां बुधिवर्धनं. Now, we wonder, what is this? Are you talking about something mystical? There is some higher stratum happiness coming down? Actually speaking, this is not something which is very difficult to experience.
Now, all of us, if we do kirtans, when there is kirtan, there is some higher happiness that we experience. And where is this higher happiness coming from? That is coming from our Krishna connection. Now, beyond that, other people are also there.
Suppose, if you do some Harinam kirtan in the devotees do Harinam Sankirtan in the public streets. So, devotees are dancing in ecstasy and people around are just gawking. Why are you so happy? I am so miserable.
What right do you have to be happy? Isn’t it? So, this happens because people just, they are not connecting with Krishna. So, they are not experiencing any happiness. So, this is actually a devotional awakening of our devotional aesthetics.
And because of this, a devotee experiences a higher happiness. And we may experience it in a little glimpse right now. But as we make more and more spiritual advancement, the more the happiness we will experience.
So, I will conclude with a real life incident of how devotees, the spiritual happiness is so extraordinary that even the material sufferings and the material pleasures, they all become pain as compared. So, devotees do kirtan all over the world. So, the devotees were in Russia.
Russia, a lot of outreach is happening. So, on the banks of the Volga river, every year there is a festival of folk songs. So, different people from different parts of Russia come and they sing their folk songs.
So, the devotees also went and they said, we will sing the folk song from India. And that was the Hare Krishna Mantra. So, they had all their small, small, they had their pandals and different cultural groups were doing their singing.
And now, the people were going from stall to stall. And the devotees, when they started singing, this was, people just kind of crowding over there. Why? Because they found that here, there is not just a performance which you do not just have to watch, you can participate in it.
You can sing, you can dance. So, the one hour they planned to have kirtan, then about 45 minutes class and then again about half an hour, 45 minutes kirtan. But when they started the kirtan, the whole pandal became crowded and just the devotees had put the Hare Krishna Mahamantra in Russian written on top and they started singing and singing and singing.
And these were new people, so they did not know anything about kirtan. So, they were looking at the letter and they were just looking at the letter and repeating them. And when the time for the lecture came, the devotees stopped singing, but the people kept singing.
And nobody was ready to stop. And the devotees said, let us continue the kirtan. And the kirtan went on, 7.30, 8, 8.30, the devotees were playing mridanga, their fingers had become sore, the devotees were singing, their throats had become sore.
But the people were so ecstatic that they just felt, let us continue. Then, it became 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock, 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock, at 1.30, the amplifier started giving out smoke. And then, the devotees said, now this is Krishna’s signal, they ended the programme.
And the people were, their faces were flushed, eyes were bright, they were so happy. And the next morning, the devotees woke up and they were doing chanting. So, one of our leaders, Jayapada Kamharaj, he was leading that group.
So, then he came along, he said that, when Russian devotee came, he says, Maharaj, one young couple, they were there for yesterday’s programme, they want to meet you and ask you some questions. He said, yes. He called them.
Now, they didn’t know English, so the devotee was translating. So, he said, this, they were typical young couple, you know, scantily dressed and Russia has also become very westernised after the fall of communism. So, they came along and they said, now yesterday, we had come here to the banks of the Volga as a tourist, we were here on our honeymoon.
They said, the boy was saying, yesterday night was the best night of our honeymoon. Yesterday night, we were singing and singing and singing and we were so happy. So, Maharaj was smiling, everybody was smiling and then he said, but we have a question.
Now, we were more happy than ever before in our life, singing this song. Can you tell us, what was this song? What is it and what does it mean? So, they had no idea of Krishna, they had no idea of the Hare Krishna mantra, they had no idea of its meaning, but still, they were experiencing a happiness far higher than ever before in their life. What is this spiritual happiness? So, it comes down from a stratum of reality, which other people have no comprehension about and that happiness, when you start experiencing it, the sufferings of this world and the pleasures of this world, both become pale and stale in comparison.
They don’t matter so much. They will come, they will go. So, Krishna consciousness raises us to a far higher level.
So, Bhagavatam describes that when the devotees, when they get absorbed in remembering Krishna, then they get such joy in that, such delight in that, that whatever miseries come in this world, the miseries may be there at a material level, but a devotee’s consciousness is absorbed in Krishna and because of that, the devotee doesn’t suffer those miseries. So, we experience this happiness coming from a higher stratum occasionally, but as we will keep advancing more and more, this occasional experience will become regular and eventually it will become perpetual. Occasional means once in a while, regular means repeatedly and perpetual means constantly and at that time, even in this life, you will become happy.
So, that’s how the process of Krishna consciousness is the solution to suffering. So, I’ll summarise. I started by talking about the suffering between a devotee and a non-devotee.
What is the difference? A devotee suffers less because the devotees are less emotionally invested in the things of this world. Second is the devotees suffer less because they are not doing anything to further aggravate their suffering, rather they are doing everything to minimise and eliminate their sufferings, like a patient who is getting treated properly. And thirdly, in the first, I discussed the examples of an African and Indian with respect to cricket or a person owning a car, a new car and an old car.
So, emotional investment, right knowledge and third point I discussed is that Krishna consciousness gives us a satisfying object of thought, which frees us from problem consciousness. Problems dominate our mind, like a person dwarfing a skyscraper, but Krishna consciousness lifts us up, like an aeroplane taking a person above the skyscraper. That’s why we don’t feel dominated by the problem.
The problem is there, a devotee is concerned, but not disturbed by the problems. And beyond all this, a devotee experiences happiness from a higher spiritual stratum that makes material problems and even material pleasures irrelevant and insignificant. So, thank you very much.