as place of misery / suffering / prison / danger
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The example is given, sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah. 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-sparsah 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. Duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bg 8.15]. It has been described in the Bhagavad-gita, "This place is place for miserable condition." Duhkha alayam. Alayam. So long you are not annihilated, this place is duhkhalayam. It is miserable condition. We have several times explained.
(More...) 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. 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, mudha. 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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