HARD STRUGGLE FOR HAPPINESS

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Hard Struggle for Happiness

 

In the revealed scriptures the

Supreme Lord is described as saccid- ananda-vigraha. Sat means eternal,

cit means fully cognizant, ananda means joyful, and vigraha means that

He is a person. Thus the Lord, or the Supreme Godhead, who is one

without a second, is a fully cognizant and eternally joyful personality

with a full sense of His identity. No one is equal to Him or greater than

Him. This is a concise description of the Supreme Lord. The living entities

(jivas) are

minute samples of the Supreme Lord, and being so they therefore find in

their activities the desire for eternal existence, for complete

knowledge, and for happiness. These

 

 

desires are evident in human

society, and in the upper planetary systems (Svargaloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka,

Maharloka, Brahmaloka, etc.) the living entities enjoy a longer duration of

life, an increased amount of

 

 

knowledge, and a generally more

blissful existence. But even in the highest planet in this material

world, where the duration of life and standard of enjoyment are thousands

and thousands of times greater than

 

those on earth, there is still old

age, disease and death. Consequently the level of enjoyment is

insignificant in comparison to the eternal bliss enjoyed in the company of the

Supreme Lord. Loving service to the Supreme Lord in different

relationships makes even the enjoyment of impersonal Brahman as insignificant

as a drop of water in comparison to the ocean. Every living being desires the

topmost level of enjoyment in this material world, and yet everyone is

unhappy here. This unhappiness is present on all the higher planets,

despite a longer lifespan, higher standards of enjoyment and comfort.

That is due to the law of material nature. We can increase the duration

of life and standard to the highest capacity, and yet by the law of

material nature we will be unhappy. The reason for this is that the quality

of happiness which is suitable for our constitution is different from

the happiness which is derived from material activities. The living

entity is a minute particle of the

 

 

arrangement on land. He must be

supplied with water. In the same way, the minute sac-cid-ananda living

entity cannot be really happy through any amount of planning conceived by

his illusioned brain in this material universe. He must therefore

be given a different type of happiness which is spiritual in

essence. Our ambition should be aimed at enjoying spiritual bliss and not this

temporary happiness. Some philosophers claim that spiritual

bliss is attained by negating material happiness and material existence.

Theoretical negation of material activities as propounded by Sripada

Sankaracarya may be effective for an insignificant section of mankind,

but the best and surest way for everyone to attain spiritual bliss

was propounded by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by means of devotional

activities. These devotional activities can change the very face

of material nature. Hankering after material happiness

is called lust, and lusty activities are sure to meet with

frustration in the long run. The body of a snake is very cool, but if a man,

wanting to enjoy this coolness,garlands himself with a venomous

snake, he will surely be killed by the snake's venomous bite. The material

senses are compared to snakes; indulgence in material happiness will surely kill

our spiritual identity. Therefore a sane man should be ambitious to find the

real source of happiness. In order to find this source, however,

we need some knowledge of what that happiness is. There is the

story of the foolish man who had no experience with sugar cane. When he asked

his friend about the characteristics of sugar cane, he

was imperfectly informed that sugar cane resembles the shape of a bamboo stick.

Consequently he began trying to extract juice from bamboo sticks,but naturally

he was baffled in his attempts. This is the situation with the illusioned living

entity who, in his search for eternal happiness, ties to extract happiness from

this material world, which is not only full of miseries but is also transient

and flickering. In Bhagavad-gita the material world is described as being full

of miseries.

 

abrahma-bhuvanal lokah

 

 

punar avartino 'rjuna

 

 

mam upetya tu kaunteya

 

 

punar janma na vidyate

 

" From the highest planet in the

material world, down to the lowest, all are places of misery, where

repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of

Kunti, never takes birth again. "

(Bg. 8.16) The ambition for happiness is

natural and good, but the attempt to derive it from inert matter by

so-called scientific arrangements is an illusory attempt doomed to

frustration. Those who are befooled cannotunderstand this. How a person is

driven by the lust for material happiness is also described in Bhagavad-gita.

 

idam adya maya labdham

 

imam prapsye manoratham

idam astidam api me

 

bhavisyati punar dhanam

 

" The demoniac person thinks:

`So much wealth do I have today, and I will gain more according to my schemes.

So much is mine now, and it will increase in the future, more and

more.' " (Bg. 16.13) This atheistic or godless

civilization is a huge affair contrived for the gratification of our senses,

and now we are all mad after money in order to maintain this empty

shell. Money is sought after by everyone because that is the medium of

exchange for objects for sense gratification. Obviously the

expectation of peace in such an atmosphere

 

 

of gold rush pandemonium is a

utopian dream. As long as there is the slightest tinge of sense

gratification or desire for sense gratification, peace will remain

far, far away. This is because by nature we are all eternal servants

of the Supreme Lord and therefore cannot enjoy anything for our

personal interests. It is therefore

 

necessary for us to learn how to

employ our senses in the transcendental service of the Lord, and to utilize

everything to serve His interest. This alone can bring about much desired peace.

A part of the body cannot

 

 

in itself be independently happy. It

can only derive its happiness and pleasure out of serving the entire

body. The Supreme Lord is the whole, and we are the parts, but we are all

busily engaged in activities of self-interest. No one is prepared to

serve the Lord. This is the basic cause for our conditioning in

material existence and for our resultant unhappiness. From the highest executive

in his

skyscraper office down to the

 

 

coolie in the street--all are

working with the thought of accumulating wealth, legally or illegally.

Actually it is all illegal, for to work for one's self-interest is both

unlawful and destructive. Even the cultivation of spiritual realization

for one's own self-interest is unlawful and destructive. The point

is that all activities must be directed to the satisfaction of

Krsna and His service. Those who are not engaged in the

transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord wrongfully think

that they are accumulating so much money day after day.

asa-pasa-satair baddhah

 

kama-krodha-parayanah

 

 

ihante kama-bhogartham

 

 

anyaye nartha-sancayan

 

 

" Being bound by hundreds and

thousands of desires, by lust and anger, they secure money by illegal

means for sense gratification. " (Bg. 16.12) Consequently, although there is no

lack of money in the world, there is a scarcity of peace. So

much human energy is being diverted to making money, for the general

population has increased its capacity to make more and more dollars, but in

the long run the result is that this unrestricted and unlawful monetary

inflation has created a bad economy all over the world and has provoked

us to manufacture huge and costly weapons to destroy the very result

of such cheap money-making. The

 

leaders of the big money-making

countries are not really enjoying peace but are making plans to save

themselves from imminent destruction by nuclear weapons. In fact, huge sums

of money are being thrown into the sea by way of experiments with these

dreadful weapons. Such experiments are being carried out not only at

huge costs but also at the cost of many lives. In this way the nations

are being bound by the laws of

karma. When men are motivated by the

impulse for sense gratification, whatever money is earned is spoiled,

being spent for the destruction of the human race. The energy of the

human race is thus wasted by the laws of nature because of man's aversion to the

Lord, who is actually the proprietor of all energies. Wealth is worshiped and is

referred

to as Mother Laksmi, or the goddess of fortune. It is her

position to serve Lord Narayana, the source of all the naras, or living beings.

The naras are also meant to serve Narayana under the guidance of the goddess of

fortune. The living being cannot enjoy the goddess of fortune without serving

Narayana, and therefore whoever desires to enjoy her wrongly will be punished by

the laws of nature. These laws will make certain that the money itself will

bring about destruction instead of peace and prosperity.

 

unlawfully accumulated money is now

being snatched from miserly citizens by various methods of state

taxation for the future civil and international war fund, which is

spending money in a wasteful and destructive manner. The citizens are

no longer satisfied with just enough money to maintain a family

nicely and cultivate spiritual knowledge, both of which are

essential in human life. Now everyone wants money unlimitedly to satisfy

insatiable desires. In proportion to the people's unlawful desires, their

accumulated money is taken away by the agents of illusory energy in the

shape of medical practitioners, lawyers, tax collectors, societies,

constitutions, so-called holy men, famines, earthquakes, and many

similar calamities.