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We are not meant for suffering. If we are sons of God, who is full with all opulence, why should we suffer

Expressions researched:
"we are not meant for suffering. If we are sons of God, who is full with all opulence, why should we suffer"

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

We are not meant for suffering. If we are sons of God, who is full with all opulence, why should we suffer? Does a rich man's son suffer anytime? If he suffers, it is due to his ignorance. Similarly, we are suffering, but our ignorance is so strong that we are suffering, but at the same time we are thinking that we are happy. This is the influence of ignorance.

Vaiṣṇava, a devotee of the Lord, is always anxious to reclaim the fallen souls, who, out of ignorance, they are suffering. We must know always that by ignorance only we suffer. Just like we have got practical experience: by ignorance if I take something which is not suitable for my constitution, I become ill, sick.

So that sickness is due to my ignorance. I have seen in Calcutta one neighbor, he died out of ignorance. He took too much pakorī one day, and they were fried in oil, and the next day he was attacked by cholera and died. So similarly, whatever suffering we are undergoing, that is due to our ignorance.

Actually, we are not meant for suffering. If we are sons of God, who is full with all opulence, why should we suffer? Does a rich man's son suffer anytime? If he suffers, it is due to his ignorance. Similarly, we are suffering, but our ignorance is so strong that we are suffering, but at the same time we are thinking that we are happy. This is the influence of ignorance.

Just like last night in the television, that gentleman was talking with me. He said that, "We have got good brain and we are utilizing it. So that is better for our advancement of happiness. Why Hare Kṛṣṇa?" His idea was, he plainly told me, that "If Hare Kṛṣṇa is so powerful, then why India is so poverty-stricken and they are suffering?"

So I replied that, "Do you think that your problems are solved because you have got a dozens or a hundreds dozens of skyscrapers? That problem is here also. It is not that because America is materially advanced, 'Oh, they are free from all sufferings.' Why there are so many hospitals? Why there are so many lunatic asylums? Why this confusion of the hippies? Why young boys are always disturbed for the draft board? So how can you say the American are free from all sufferings?"

This is ignorance. The sufferings are there, here or India or hell or heaven—anywhere within this material world there is suffering. But people are so foolish that simply having a nice motorcar or a skyscraper building, he thinks that "My all problems are solved." He does not know that, "This life is a flash only. I am eternal."

Suppose I have got some comfortable situation as born as American. How long shall I remain American? Say, fifty years or hundred years. That's all. Then finish; get out of the skyscraper building. Throw away your motorcar. Go to the graveyard. And then, what is next life? That I do not know. That I do not know. The life is continuous. Vāsāṁsi jīrnāṇi yathā vihāya (BG 2.22).

I am changing my dress. Supposing I have got very nice, good dress, American body, very fair complexion, comfortable life, all these things. That's all right. But do you think what is your next dress? Are you going . . . are you sure that you are going to be American again? Who can say? Is there any scientist, is there any astrologer who can say: "Yes"? No. Nobody can say.

But the śāstra can say. Śāstra means the authoritative scriptures. Just the other day we described about the symptoms of this Kali-yuga. So many things are foretold five thousand years before, and they are coming true in this age. For example, one small example: lāvaṇyaṁ keśa-dhāraṇam (SB 12.2.6). In this age people will think that by keeping long hairs they have become beautiful. This is stated in the Bhāgavata. A very small example. So many other things. Five thousand years before, ago, this was foretold, that in this age people will like to keep long hairs in order to become beautiful.

Page Title:We are not meant for suffering. If we are sons of God, who is full with all opulence, why should we suffer
Compiler:SharmisthaK
Created:2022-10-15, 08:08:05
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1