When the Gita says the world is duhkhalayam, does that mean we should face all duhkha passively?

Transcript

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Comfortable and confident. Hare Krishna.
Question. When the Bhagavad Gita says that this world is Dukhalayam does it mean that all of us have to accept all the Dukha passively and not do anything about it? Answer. Not at all.
We look at the same Bhagavad Gita which is spoken to counter the Dukha of the Pandavas. The Bhagavad Gita is spoken so that the Pandavas will fight a war. And the war was fought because the Pandavas were subjected to injustices and atrocities and that had to be countered.
So the essential point in the Bhagavad Gita says that this world is Dukhalayam is not that we subject ourselves passively to misery. The point is that in our efforts we don’t restrict our efforts to only solving problems at the material level. Because ultimately problems at the material level are unsolvable.
And that’s why we have to rise to the spiritual level of consciousness. But still even to rise to the spiritual level of consciousness certain amount of order is required in the world. And that’s why the Varanashram system is there.
That’s why the Rajarushis are there who are meant to rule with a spiritual vision. And that’s why the whole system of Vedic culture involves social administration in a very systematic way. In fact among all the great religions of the world, in no other religious tradition has been social administration been given systematic structure so that it is oriented towards spiritual advancement of people.
In the system of Varanashram with four Varanas and four Ashramas, it creates a social framework for people’s progressive spiritual advancement. And none in Christianity, Islam, nowhere is this given. So what does this indicate? That the very specification of such an arrangement indicates that how people live in this world is also important.
And taking care of their needs while they are living in this world is also important. Prithu Maharaj when the citizens come to him complaining that we are dying of hunger, the fire is burning us from within, he doesn’t say, oh now good, you are getting realisation this world is dukkha, lehma, shashvatam. That’s all.
He takes assertive action to correct the situation. So, in fact, I have given a whole class on this topic on my website applying dukkha, lehma, shashvatam to social policy. So, for more details you can hear that.
But the essential answer is that we do have to maintain order in this world and for that there are duties given for different Varanas and everybody has to do their duties. The point is that point of the dukkha, lehma, shashvatam is don’t get so caught up in trying to counter misery at the material level that one leaves no time or energy or thought for raising one’s consciousness to the spiritual level. So, we focus on doing dharma and dharma includes both material duties and spiritual duties.
Ultimately the spiritual duties will take us away from the miserable material world but before that we have our worldly responsibilities and to the extent people do those worldly responsibilities properly, to that extent they will live properly. There will be order in the world and this order will minimize the misery. There are certain unavoidable miseries but apart from that the miseries can be increased or decreased.
Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi is there for everyone. But Adhibhautika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika-Adhyatmika The essential point of Dukkha-Lamsha-Shatana is don’t become spiritually passive and only materially active. It is not that we have to become entirely materially passive and only spiritually active.
We have to have a balance between the two. And that is what the Bhagavad Gita demonstrates and that is what the Vedic scriptures, especially the description of Varanashram as a social order or as a social structure for spiritual advancement, demonstrates. Thank you.
Hare Krishna.