When this world is duhkhalayam why are the distressed only one of the four categories of people coming to Krishna

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Question, when this world is a place of misery, why is misery considered to be only one among the four reasons why people come to Krishna? Shouldn’t all people be miserable if the world is a place of misery? And shouldn’t misery be the reason why everyone comes to Krishna? So, why are they distressed only one of the four categories, when all four categories should be miserable when this world is a place of misery? Answer, there are two different points here which are being confused. One is the nature of the world and the second is the impetus for practicing spiritual life.
So, the nature of the world is that it is a place of misery. Now, at this, and that applies to everyone. And these are ultimately birth, old age, disease and death, and also the Trivitta, the bodily mental problems, the social problems and the environmental problems.
So Adhyatmik, Adhibhautik, Ayudhyaivik. Now the significant point of this is the same Bhagavad Gita, which talks about Dukkha, Lamashashvatam also has Sukhe, Dukhe, Sameghrutva, Labha, Labhau, Jaya, Jayo. So that there is Sukha and Dukha also.
That means that this world is Dukkhalayam, but it is not constantly Dukkhalayam. There are phases of intense misery, there are phases of less misery, and there are phases of pleasure also, and there can be phases of intense pleasure also. So duality is the essential nature of the world.
Now within this duality, I have analysed another article called Dive Deep into Misery of how the duration, D, I, intensity, V, variety, and E, extent, duration, intensity, variety, and extent of misery is far greater than that of pleasure. So yes, this world is much more a place of misery than it is a place of pleasure. The body can give us pleasure through the senses during youth and maybe up to middle age, but in old age it gives us so much suffering and for so long sometimes we have terminal diseases come up.
So I won’t go into that point. Overall, yes, it is true that the misery is more than the pleasure, but there is pleasure also in this world. So this world is Dukkhalayam in the sense that ultimately it is a place of misery and in overall balance also the misery is more than the pleasure.
This is with respect to the nature of the world. Second is the impetus for taking spiritual to spiritual life. Now misery does not necessarily make people take to spiritual life, come to Krishna.
It depends on one’s past upbringing, one’s upbringing, one’s past life inclinations and of course Krishna’s mercy. Many people when they are miserable they may just try to drink themselves to forget misery. They just drink and drown themselves in drink.
Some people may turn towards addiction. Some people may turn towards movies and video games and some people, probably among the most white specters, they say that there is no problem that sex can’t solve. Now all these don’t solve problems, just make people forget problems.
So or some people just turn on television and try to forget everything. So distress does not make everyone come to Krishna. So there are people who are distressed and who try other things apart from Krishna.
So now people are miserable in the world, but not everyone is all the time miserable and among those who are miserable also, they may not necessarily come towards Krishna. So that’s why there’s only one of the, that’s just one impetus. Now I have written an article on this site of is frustration necessary for taking spiritual life? Is it that the frustrated take to spiritual life? No frustration is neither necessary nor sufficient.
It’s not necessary because as the Bhagavad Gita points out, there are other kinds of people also may come to Krishna. People may inquire inquisitively, what is the spirituality stuff? People may seek new knowledge. There must be something beyond the temporary.
I don’t want to die and yet I have to die. What is it within me that makes me long for immortality? Is that longing for immortality fulfillable? That makes people come towards spirituality also. So that’s the second category.
And then of course there are wealth seekers, they are not necessarily miserable, although absence of wealth can be misery, but they may just want more than what they have. So these are different categories of people who come to Krishna. That means the impetus for coming to Krishna can be variegated and although Krishna says this, but He does not say that that should be the primary impetus to take spiritual life.
He says among the four categories of people, special is the Jnani, one who understands philosophical knowledge and then comes towards Krishna. So among the impetus for coming towards Krishna, philosophical understanding and the desire thereof of a relationship with transcendence, that is the best impetus for coming to Krishna because that is the impetus that will be studied because miseries come and miseries will go after some time. Of course, they will come again, but when they go, we may feel no need to continue spiritual life.
So the point is that not everyone is distressed all the time in this world and not everyone who is distressed comes towards Krishna. So if we consider this as the circle of people in this world, within that there is a circle, maybe large circle of people who are presently distressed and others who are not presently distressed. And among those who are distressed in this circle, there will be a very small circle of people who come to Krishna during their distress.
Now by our preaching, when people are in distress, they can come more towards Krishna. But the people who are outside the circle of the distressed, they are also categorized as inquisitive or knowledgeable or wealth seekers and they may also come towards Krishna. So we have to understand the impetus for coming to Krishna and the miserable in this world, they are not, leave alone identical circles, they are not even always overlapping circles.
But there is a part of it which overlaps. But the impetus for Krishna can be, coming towards Krishna can be many. And that is why there are four categories of people who come towards Krishna and not just one who is distressed.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.