(3/7) Why Do We Suffer?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Masulipatnam, Andhra Pradesh
6 January 2019, evening, part 3

Why are we suffering from the threefold miseries (adhibhautik, adhidaivik, adhyatmik: the miseries caused by other souls, by the nature and by your mind)? Why are we suffering so much from birth, death, old age and disease? We suffer so much from mental disturbance and diseases – there is adhyatmik suffering, caused by the body and the mind; adhibhautik suffering coming from other souls created by Brahma; and adhidaivik suffering coming from demigods. There are so many ways in which we are suffering in this world. But why are we suffering? Because we have forgotten our real Father, we have forgotten our real Parent.

We think that we have got this human body and some parents in this birth, and these are our real parents, but it is not so. The father and the mother we have got in this life are temporary – in your next life, you will get another father and mother. Your real father is Krishna: Krishna is our father, Krishna is our mother. Because we forget Him, we are suffering now from so many problems in this world.

You can see that all over the world there are many poor countries, such as Nepal and Bangladesh, and there are also many rich countries, such as the USA, London and Russia. You may think, 'I have no money, that is why I am suffering,' but people in rich countries have a lot of money, even here in India there are many businesspeople who have a lot of money – do you think they are not suffering? They are also suffering, and because they have so much money, they are suffering even more than us. Why? Because they have forgotten Krishna, they have forgotten who their real father is, and, therefore, they do not practise Krishna consciousness properly.

There are many fallen souls, many devotees who came to the lotus feet of our Gurudev Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj and to Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad, who travelled and preached Krishna consciousness all over the world. Those souls came to them because they were suffering and searching for their real home, searching for home comfort. They sought main, real and permanent happiness, not happiness for only a few days. People are enjoying family life, but those souls felt very frustrated and very tired of family life – now that they have come to Krishna consciousness and surrendered to their guru and the Lord, they are very happy. Why did they come to the lotus feet of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad? Why did they come to the lotus feet of our Gurudev? Is it because they have no money? No, they have so much money. They came because they were searching the real property, real wealth and the hidden treasure. When they read Srimad Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita under their guru's guidance, they found real happiness.

But we, jiva souls who have taken birth in India, are unfortunate because many of us go to worship Kartik, Ganesh, Mother Kali and other places. There are many demigods in this world – 330,000,000 – but how many can you worship? If you worship one demigod and then maybe another five or six other demigods, but after that you become tired and cannot do more, and also all the other demigods will be unhappy (because you are worshipping other demigods and not them).

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

'Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the only master, and all demigods are His servants, so if you worship Krishna, you will be automatically worshipping all other demigods (it is not necessary to worship anybody else separately). And then, when you go to worship Mother Kali, Lord Ganesh, Lord Kartik, Mother Parvati or other demigods, what do you worship them for? For your own benefit (selfish interest)...

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Length: 33 min
Language: English

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Loud and Loving Call
2) Transcending Bodily Existence
3) Why Do We Suffer?
4) Srimad Bhagavad-Gita's Message
5) Fulfil Your Quest
6) History of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math (1)
7) History of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math (2)