cause of suffering

 
The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries.
Material sense pleasures are due to the contact of the material senses, which are all temporary because the body itself is temporary. A liberated soul is not interested in anything which is temporary. Knowing well the joys of transcendental pleasures, how can a liberated soul agree to enjoy false pleasure? In the Padma Purana it is said:    (More...)
"The mystics derive unlimited transcendental pleasures from the Absolute Truth, and therefore the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is also known as Rama."    (More...)
"My dear sons, there is no reason to labor very hard for sense pleasure while in this human form of life; such pleasures are available to the stool-eaters [hogs]. Rather, you should undergo penances in this life by which your existence will be purified, and, as a result, you will be able to enjoy unlimited transcendental bliss." (Bhag. 5.5.1)    (More...)
Therefore, those who are true yogis or learned transcendentalists are not attracted by sense pleasures, which are the causes of continuous material existence. The more one is addicted to material pleasures, the more he is entrapped by material miseries.    (More...)
All the Vedas, all the book of knowledge, their business is how to search out God. Vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. So the whole Vedanta is description of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But because in this Kali-yuga people will not be able to study Vedanta nicely on account of lack of education, therefore Vyasadeva personally wrote a commentary on the Vedanta. That commentary is Srimad-Bhagavatam. Bhasyam brahma-sūtranam. The Srimad-Bhagavatam is the real commentary on the Vedanta-sūtra written by the author himself. The Vedanta-sūtra is also given by Vyasadeva, and under the instruction of Narada, his spiritual master... [aside: Get this light on.] ...he wrote commentary on the Vedanta-sūtra. That is Srimad-Bhagavatam. And Srimad-Bhagavatam also begins with the same aphorism, janmady asya yataḥ anvayad itaratas ca arthesu abhijnah sva-rat [SB 1.1.1]. So actually, Vedanta-sūtra is explained by the author of the Vedanta in Srimad-Bhagavatam. So some rascals, without understanding Vedanta, without reading the commentary, natural commentary of the Vedanta-sūtra they are posing themselves as Vedantist. That means they are misguiding people. And because people are not educated, they're accepting these rascals as Vedantists. Actually, the so-called Vedantists, they are bluffers. They are not Vedantists. They do not know anything of the Vedanta. That is the difficulty. Otherwise, what is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, that is real Vedanta. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said, jivasya tattva-jijnasa. That is Vedanta-sutra-bhasya. Find out this verse.    (More...)
One is bound to be thus entangled by materialistic life as long as Krsna is veiled to one's sight. Man cannot continue to live by thinking that life has no meaning. He will give it the meaning of sense enjoyment if no other is available. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." This means that death is inevitable and life has no meaning, so let's squeeze out as much sense gratification as possible in our brief sixty of seventy years. But according to Bhagavad-gita, the man who lives only for the senses lives in vain. "An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kunti, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them." (Gita 5.22) It is said that the wise dwell in the world like the lotus leaf on water. The leaf of the lotus, although on the water, remains dry, and in the same way the wise man, though in the world of the senses, is unattached to them. He witnesses the flux of existence but is not carried away by it, for he is established in the divine consciousness. Consequently he does not experience nausea or fear even in the midst of the most terrifying calamities, for his consciousness is nonmaterial. Those who delight only in the senses are constantly in a state of anxiety. "Their belief is that to gratify the senses unto the end of life is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus there is no measurement of their anxiety." (Gita 16.11) And those who say that life is absurd and meaningless, that there is no Absolute in control, and that the universe results simply from a chance combination of material elements are declared in the Gita to be demonic in nature. "Those who are of demoniac quality … say that this world is unreal, that there is neither any foundation, nor any God in control. They say that it is produced of sex desire and has no other cause than lust." (Gita 16.8) Thus being under delusion, men are unaware of the purpose of life, which is to extricate oneself from the material desires causing conditioned existence and to enter into a relationship with the Divine who bestows total spiritual freedom upon the individual.    (More...)

Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/?qg=6793