Why are we suffering in this world?

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

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Then you will get a broader understanding of this.
Thank you. Why are all of us suffering in this world? Because of misdirected desires. Suppose a child starts building a castle on a beach.
The child may spend a huge amount of energy and time in building the castle. But when the tide rises, the wave comes up, the castle will be destroyed. Child will not be able to do anything about it.
So, similarly, we are at our core eternal beings. Now we may at this stage not realize that we are the Atma, we are eternal souls. But still we do long for something permanent.
If people are staying in a rented house, usually one of their aspirations is to have a permanent house, to have your own house because it will be a permanent house. So we long for permanence. And yet we look for the lasting in that which is fleeting.
We look for pleasure, we look for happiness in things which are temporary. And that causes great distress to us. So, this does not mean that we reject the temporary entirely.
When we are in the material world, we have material needs and we have to take care of those material needs. But what we do need to do is reject obsession with the temporary. We shouldn’t let the temporary things of this world gain a monopoly over our ambitions.
If all our ambitions in life are restricted only to seeking temporary things, I want a better house, I want a better job, I want more pay, I want a bigger car, I want this, all this, that is all that we are desiring. Then these things, they’ll come, they’ll stay for some time, they’ll leave. None of these things will be temporary, will be permanent.
If we look at our lives and we trace backwards deep enough, we’ll find that most of our sufferings are caused because of attachment to things which are not in our control, things which are temporal. So, now, the Bhagavad Gita gives us a vision of God as the source of both the eternal and the temporal. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabho mattaḥ sarvam pravartate.
So, from God comes the temporary, from God comes the eternal. That’s why the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t tell Arjuna to reject the temporary. Arjuna, in fact, wanted to renounce and say, why should I fight? Krishna told him, do your duty.
But do your duty with spiritual consciousness. So, tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu mām anusmara yudhya ca. mayi arpita mano buddhir mām eva iṣya samseha.
So, when we can see the temporary, see the things of this world as connected with God, with the source of everything, including the things of this world, and we use the things in a mood of service to God, then even the temporary connects us with the eternal. And to the extent we become connected with the eternal, to that extent, we become less and less afflicted by the negative changes in the temporary. That means, in this world, ups and downs will always be there, even if we become spiritually minded.
But if we have connection with the eternal, that will give us shelter, that will give us solace. So, our suffering right now is because of misdirected desire. Because we are seeking something lasting in things that are fleeting, things that are temporary.
But when we direct our desires towards the eternal, and the highest eternal reality is God, and then we connect the temporary with the eternal. Connect the temporary with the eternal means and we don’t see our family members as my family members. We see them as God’s family members entrusted in my care.
We don’t see our possessions as my possessions. We see them as God’s gifts entrusted in our care. And in that way, we spiritualize our whole life in a mood of service to God.
Then that, the external things, if we see them as independent sources of pleasure, when they go away, we lose the pleasure and we become miserable. But when we see the things of this world, not as independent sources of pleasure, but as means for connecting with God. And we understand that God is the supreme source of all pleasure.
The word Rama, it means, One who delights and one who gives delight. That is Rama. Padma Purana says that, that Rama is that absolute truth in whom Ramante yogino anante.
Yogis can delight unlimitedly. So, to the extent we see the things of this world as connected with God and try to use the things for furthering our connection with Him, to that extent, even if those things go away, our connection with God will remain and that will bring eternal shelter to us.