as place of misery / suffering / prison / danger
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Imported quote 16323 The Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, as it is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 18.61), is the all-pervading omnipresent Supersoul. Therefore one who is a yogi can only worship Him because He is the substance and not illusion. Every living creature is engaging in the service of something else. A living being's constitutional position is to render service, but in the atmosphere of maya, or illusion, or the conditional state of existence, the conditioned soul seeks the service of illusion. A conditioned soul works in the service of his temporary body, bodily relatives like the wife and children, and the necessary paraphernalia for maintaining the body and bodily relations, namely the house, land, wealth, society, country, etc., but he does not know that all such renderings of service are totally illusory. As we have discussed many times before, this material world is itself an illusion, like the mirage in the desert. In the desert there is an illusion of water, and the foolish animals become entrapped by such illusion and run after water in the desert, although there is no water at all. But because there is no water in the desert, one does not conclude that there is no water at all. The intelligent person knows well that there is certainly water, water in the seas and oceans, but such vast reservoirs of water are far, far away from the desert. One should therefore search for water in the vicinity of seas and oceans and not in the desert. Every one of us is searching after real happiness in life, namely eternal life, eternal or unlimited knowledge and unending blissful life. But foolish people who have no knowledge of the substance search after the reality of life in the illusion. This material body does not endure eternally, and everything in relation with this temporary body, namely the wife, children, society, country, etc., also changes along with the change of body. This is called samsara or repetition of birth, death, old age and disease. We would like to find a solution for all these problems of life, but we do not know the way. Herein it is suggested that anyone who wants to make an end of these miseries of life, namely repetition of birth, death, disease, and old age, must take to this process of worshiping the Supreme Lord and not others, as it is also ultimately suggested in the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 18.65). If we at all want to end the cause of our conditioned life, we must take to the worship of Lord Sri Krsna, who is present in everyone's heart by His natural affection for all living beings, who are actually the parts and parcels of the Lord (Bg. 18.65). The baby in the lap of his mother is naturally attached to the mother, and the mother is attached to the child. But when the child grows up and becomes overwhelmed by circumstances, he gradually becomes detached from the mother, but the mother always expects some sort of service from the grown-up child, and she is equally affectionate for her child, even though the child is forgetful. Similarly, because we are all part and parcel of the Lord, the Lord is always affectionate to us, and He always tries to get us back home and back to Godhead. But we, the conditioned souls, do not care for Him and run instead after the illusory bodily connections. We must therefore extricate ourselves from all illusory connections of the world and seek reunion with the Lord, trying to render service unto Him because He is the ultimate truth. Actually we are hankering after Him as the child seeks the mother. And to search out the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we need not go anywhere else, because the Lord is within our hearts. This does not, however, suggest that we should not go to the places of worship, namely the temples, churches and mosques. Such holy places of worship are also occupied by the Lord because the Lord is omnipresent. For the common man these holy places are centers of learning about the science of God. When the temples are devoid of activities, the people in general become disinterested in such places, and consequently the mass of people gradually become godless, and a godless civilization is the result. Such a hellish civilization increases artificially the conditions of life, and existence becomes intolerable for everyone. The foolish leaders of a godless civilization try to devise various plans to bring about peace and prosperity in the godless world under a patent trademark of materialism, and because such attempts are illusory only, the people elect incompetent, blind leaders one after another who are incapable of offering solutions. If we want at all to end this anomaly of a godless civilization, we must follow the principles of revealed scriptures like the Srimad-Bhagavatam and follow the instruction of a person like Sri Sukadeva Gosvami who has no attraction for material gain.
(More...) So for diseased condition of the body or some mental dissatisfaction there are miseries. Then again, adhibhautika, sufferings offered by other living entities. Just like we are human being, we are sending millions of poor animals to the slaughterhouse daily. They cannot express. But this is called adhibhautika, sufferings offered by other living entities.
(More...) The spiritual master is that person who can deliver the fallen souls from the repeated cycle of birth and death. Within the material sphere of activities, no one can be considered fortunate or well off. The result of taking any kind of material body is frustration and misery due to the janma, mrtyu, jara, vyadhi [Bg 13.9]. No one can hope to escape these four factors of material existence, as long as he remains in the illusion of identifying his self to be his body. He may be learned, he may be rich, he may be strong, famous or socially well situated, but actually none of these are his natural state of being. No sooner are they obtained than again they disappear, like a will-o'-the-wisp, and therefore any "happiness" one may experience here is simply ephemeral and a shadow of reality. Being bound up by the result of his activities, every living being is forced to act in a certain way according to the modes of material nature he has contacted, and due to his association with such modes he goes up and down throughout the universe. Being always bewildered and illusioned, the foolish living being struggles uselessly to establish himself by means of family, friends, society, love, etc. Although he should be experienced enough to see that such endeavor is always ultimately defeated, still, due to his being in the darkest ignorance, he blindly continues on and never finds the happiness he so eagerly desires. Just as an ignorant animal, seeking water in the desert, runs further into the desert upon seeing a mirage and ultimately meets his death, so the materially illusioned person becomes more and more enmeshed in bodily activities. The more he tries to enjoy his body and its extensions by way of wife, children, home, community, nation, race, etc., the more entangled he becomes, like a fly which struggles to free itself from the spider's web but simply succeeds in attracting his captor and thus guarantees his death. For such persons, escape from the clutches of material energy is not possible except by one means. Only if one who is already liberated comes and unties the hard knot of anhahkara, false identification, can such bound-up living beings get free from the suffering conditions. If by good fortune one gets the fortune of a liberated soul, then immediately his good fortune begins.
(More...) Imported quote 16627 That is the position of the illusioned living being in his search after eternal happiness in the matter which is not only full of miseries but also the quality of material happiness is transient and flickering. In the Bhagwat Geeta the quality of the material world is described as full of miseries. The ambition of happiness is good but to derive it from the inert matter by so-called scientific arrangement is an illusion. Befooled person cannot understand it. Driven by a lust of material happiness he thinks as follows, as described in the Bhagwat Geeta.
(More...) Imported quote 18627 The example is given, sitosna-sukha-duḥkha-daḥ. The winter season and the summer season, they come and go. To somebody, winter season is very nice, and to somebody, summer season is very nice. In the Western countries they like summer season very much, and in this tropical country they like winter season very much. So actually, summer and winter, they are neither distress nor happiness. It is due to the touch of the skin. Matra-sparsas tu. Matra-sparsaḥ means it is due to the touching of the skin we feel like that, distress and happiness. Actually this material world, as certified by Krsna, it is place of distress. There is no happiness. Duḥkhalayam asasvatam [Bg 8.15]. It has been described in the Bhagavad-gita, "This place is place for miserable condition." Duḥkha alayam. Alayam. So long you are not annihilated, this place is duḥkhalayam. It is miserable condition. We have several times explained.
(More...) Imported quote 19072 So this is the safest position. Otherwise, this material world is full of danger. It is dangerous place. It is said in the Bhagavad-gita, duḥkhalayam. It is the place of miseries. You cannot become happy in a place which is meant for miseries. That we have to understand. Krsna says, the Supreme Personality, that duḥkhalayam asasvatam [Bg 8.15]: this material world is place of miserable condition. And that also asasvatam, not permanent. You cannot stay. Even if you make a compromise that "Never mind it is place of misery. I shall make adjustment and I shall stay here..."
(More...) Imported quote 21699 But, of course, everyone has got some sentiment. If you want that my sentiment be decried, what is the wrong if I say that your sentiment should be decried. In this world of duality, this is good and this is bad has no meaning, it is called manodharma, mental concoction. However, the real truth is that Krsna says that: duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bg 8.15], the world is a place of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. Now this is good misery or bad misery? Misery is misery; and you have to die, good die or bad die? So to us everything material, without connection to Krsna, is to be rejected as stool, otherwise we will waste valuable time needed to solve the real problems of life, namely, birth, death, disease, and old-age. I hope that this meets you in good health. Imported quote 23210 Prabhupada: Yes. So they are thinking that "This is improvement." What is this nonsense improvement? You are dependent fully on other elements. What improvement will do? And Krsna says, "This is a place for misery." How you will improve? This is folly. This is illusion. Krsna says, "This place is for suffering," and you are making improvement: "Yes, we are advancing. In future we shall live. Nobody will die." Therefore they are called rascals. Persons who are trying to do something which is impossible, they are fools, mūḍha. They do not see; still, they hope, "Yes, we are trying. We shall do in future." This is going on. This is the example by the ass. The ass...
(More...) The material world as an impermanent place that is full of miseries. There is no question of happiness in this material world, either individually or in terms of family, society or country. In Bhagavad-gita the Personality of Godhead Himself certifies the material world as an impermanent place that is full of miseries. There is no question of happiness in this material world, either individually or in terms of family, society or country. If something is going on in the name of happiness, that is also illusion. Here in this material world, happiness means successful counteraction to the effects of distress. The material world is so made that unless one becomes a clever diplomat, his life will be a failure. Not to speak of human society, even the society of lower animals, the birds and bees, cleverly manages its bodily demands of eating, sleeping and mating. Human society competes nationally or individually, and in the attempt to be successful, the entire human society becomes full of diplomacy. We should always remember that in spite of all diplomacy and all intelligence in the struggle for our existence, everything will end in a second by the supreme will. Therefore, all our attempts to become happy in this material world are simply a delusion offered by maya.
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