Question: Why are people suffering? Knowingly or unknowingly people are put into difficulties, and thereby they go away from devotional service. How can one fix one’s mind upon the Lord who is the creator of this universe?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Thank you for your compassionate question. The root cause for all suffering is ignorance or forgetfulness of our loving relationship with God.
It is not difficulties themselves that cause one to ‘go away from devotional service’. Rather it is due to ignorance of God’s true nature as well as one’s own that people turn away from the Supreme Lord.
To be even more specific, the root cause of this ignorance is a lack of connection with the pure devotees of God — the bona-fide representatives of God. Such saintly devotees are dedicated to teaching forgetful souls how to regain their lost relationship with God, and how to practically live a pure God-centered life. As soon as one gains the association and guidance of a saintly devotee, and as soon as one takes that relationship seriously, one can *immediately* experience transcendental happiness and relief from all material difficulties. Externally it may appear to others that there are many difficulties in their life. But subjectively a person who has firmly taken shelter of a bona-fide representative of God feels complete tranquillity and joy in any situation. There are many examples to illustrate this, such as the lives of the Pandavas, Sudama Vipra and even the life of Srila Prabhupada — so-called difficulties did not deter them, rather it increased their devotion and caused their lives to shine brighter. Our real suffering is NOT poverty, disease, crime or quarrels — these are but mere symptoms of the real disease. The real suffering is a lack of scientific education about a God-centered way of life, due to neglecting to respect the saintly Acharyas.
In fact, objectively a true shelter-taking individual is undergoing the beginning of the end of all their troubles due to past sinful reactions.
Modern civilization does not train people to respect and value such saintly Spiritual Masters. Rather it systematically undermines the importance of such persons and instead glorifies ordinary conditioned souls such as scientists, philosophers, social workers and political leaders, who are all subject to many defects. Or else, going to the other extreme, people are misled into indiscriminately worshipping pseudo-spiritualists. The result is that even pious and religiously-inclined people are becoming misled by faith in materialistic or pseudo-spiritual ideas & goals which lead them into endless difficulties. The further that society walks away from the auspicious path laid by the bona fide Acharyas, they find themselves in newer and more complex network of difficulties, which makes it even more difficult for them to turn to God and surrender.
Unless there is saintly association in one’s life, not just nominally but *actively guiding* one’s life (i.e. one conducts one’s practical life based on their teachings), it is very difficult for a common man to go beyond material encumberment and become fixed in devotional service. (Please see SB 7.5.32)
When guided by the wisdom of bona fide acharyas, such a person/family/community/society becomes progressively free from all unpleasant conditions of material existence. This is exemplified in the Vedic culture where the whole society was organized under the guidance of brahmanas and sages, resulting in so much prosperity and general well-being of society.
The material world is designed to be a place full of troubles. Nobody here can avoid the basic principles of material existence such as disease, loss, old age, death and so on. But one can live in this material world and still remain unaffected by its suffering, just like a lotus leaf on water, by proper association and training. Srila Prabhupada gave the example of a kitten and a mouse — both are carried in the mouth of the cat, but the kitten experiences affectionate shelter while the mouse feels mortal fear. Similarly, although the material world is so troublesome, it ceases to be fearful for those who have the shelter of pure devotees in their lives.
Therefore all the scriptures glorify the association of saintly devotees:
*mahat sevam dvaram ahur vimukteh / tamo dvaram yositam sangi sangam*: “Rendering service to the Mahatmas, highly advanced spiritual personalities opens the door to liberation from material bondage; whereas associating with those who are materially attached leads to darkness. (SB 5.5.2)
*tulayama lavenapi na svargam napunar-bhavam / bhagavat-sangi-sangasya martyanam kim utasisah*: “The value of a moment’s association with the devotee of the Lord cannot even be compared to the attainment of heavenly planets or liberation from matter, and what to speak of worldly benedictions in the form of material prosperity, which are for those who are meant for death.” (SB 1.18.13)
*sadhu sanga sadhu sanga sarva sastra koy / lava matra sadhu sanga sarva siddhi hoy*: Even a moment’s association with a sadhu can lead to all perfection.
The remedy for all difficulties and the highest welfare work, therefore, is to educate people to value such saintly association and create opportunities to make such association available to them. Even other activities of bhakti, such as temple worship, study of scriptures, chanting, offering prayers etc are all meant to be centered around this primary principle of sadhu-sanga and sadhu-seva — then we can firmly fix our mind upon the Lord without fear of deviation in any condition of life.
