Material Suffering

The conditioned living entity constantly places himself in the fire of material sense gratification. This means that everyone who is thinking, "I am this body," is burning with the fire of passion and lust to control, own and manipulate this dull material world. Such illusioned souls try frantically to find some love in this temporary form, and the ultimate end is destruction. The Supreme Personality of Godhead states that they certainly lead a life of sin, "for a person delighting only in the senses lives in vain." (Bg. 3.16) In his purports to Srimad-Bhagavatam Srila Prabhupada explains this further:

Everyone, no matter what his position in life-whether he be a successful businessman, president, dictator, or a low-grade drunk on the street-suffers in material life. Everyone is forced by the laws of nature to accept death, everyone is forced to accept disease, and everyone is forced to accept old age and birth. This is the real problem of existence. It is not enough to simply think, "How much can I make today at my job? How much sex life can I enjoy? How much food do I need?"

How is it that everyone desires an eternal life of happiness but that the body does not at all permit this? It is because bodily existence is not our real existence. The problem is that the conditioned living entity tries to make the body something which it is not. This body is not the reservoir of all pleasure. When one desires water he must go to a source where there is sufficient water stored up, but in the illusioned state of existence, when one desires pleasure he runs to bodily sense gratification and thus dies of spiritual thirst. An intelligent person who wants the real nectar of existence does not turn to bodily sense pleasure because the body is the reservoir of our misery. The body is simply made of dull, unconscious elements, which are no different from the elements that make up the wood on the floor or the elements that are in dirt. Certainly no one would jump on the floor and embrace it and say, "Oh, I love you." But we try to embrace this body, saying, "Oh, I love you," when that is not what we really desire to contact. Even science tells us that the body, if taken apart and divided into its main constituents, would be worth only $1.75 on the market. We cannot carry on a conversation with that little bottle of elements. In other words, we are not actually attracted to the material shell of the body but to the life force within the body which makes the entire machinery active. If this is not so, then why is no one attracted to a corpse?

The cause of all disturbance and havoc in the world is this false identification with the body. This misidentification can be immediate, in which case the conditioned soul thinks, "I am this form of flesh and bones," or it can be extended, in which case one thinks, "I am this country," "I am this race," "I am this husband-wife relationship," "I am this business firm," etc. All this is false identification. Actually we are none of these things. To say that we are Americans or Indians is false. We are pure spirit souls, parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, and our true identity, our true existence, is that we are His eternal servitors. One's identity in material life is designated by the service that one renders, but everyone's real service is simply to surrender everything to the Supreme Lord, and when we exist in that state of consciousness, Krsna consciousness, we become fully satisfied.

It makes no difference what one's material designations are-the point is that with one's working energy one should please the Supreme Lord. When man's interest is in temporary bodily designations, how can he expect to have a united cooperative planet? We are busy trying to think of ways to maintain and increase the false prestige of bodily labels while with equal skill we are forgetting where everyone's personality came from to begin with.

It is important for those who have taken the human form of life to realize that all living entities have the absolute identity of being eternal servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. To serve the Lord means to serve the Lord's unalloyed devotees. That is the real method of spiritual life. In our wretched conditioned state, how can we know for sure what Krsna desires from us unless we go to one who knows perfectly well what will please the Lord? So we should scrutinizingly search out one who has no other business than to please the Personality of Godhead. Krsna Himself states this in Bhagavad-gita:

When one finds such a pure devotee, all material opulences, fame, possessions, etc., become insignificant compared to a moment's association with him. The pure devotee of the Lord has the power to lift one to the platform of transcendental loving service to the Lord and thereby alleviate the fears, anxieties and burdens of illusory material existence. Just as the sun draws moisture from a contaminated place and purifies it, so the pure devotee purifies our material consciousness by showing us how to serve Krsna and thereby perfect our lives. The power of this association is confirmed in the Srimad-Bhagavatam by the sages of Naimisaranya:

If we desire to attain this purified consciousness, we must understand our spiritual nature. This is not possible if we associate with people who are simply interested in sense gratification. If we always associate with people who are thinking, "I am this body, and my main business of life is sense gratification," then we will also come to think in the same way: "I am this body, and my main occupation is sense gratification. I have nothing to do in this life but enjoy myself." Association is so strong in affecting one's consciousness that even if one does not engage in the exact activities that someone else does, just by associating with him one acquires his mode of consciousness. For example, one may know people who try to elevate their consciousness through chemicals. He himself may not use them, but if he has close association with people who do, then it is certain that his consciousness will be affected and that he will begin to think and act like them. The idea, then, is to always remain in a purified state of consciousness through close spiritual association. That very association has been made easily accessible in this age through the chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. These holy names of the Lord have been praised by Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu as follows:

Krsna has so mercifully given us His holy name to take shelter of, and when a conditioned soul hears the chanting from the lips of the Lord's pure devotee he can be inspired to render devotional service to the Lord and thereby free himself from all material misery.