Why Devotees Suffer? | Swami Sarvapriyananda

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practices but those practices signal God that this person is in the game he wants God realization then God takes over but there's a speculative philosophy someone very learned like Mr ch uh he is um reading lots of books by philosophers and all to find answer to his questions to Mr CH God cannot be realized through scholarship you can't argue your way to God who indeed can even understand the things of the spirit through reason no all should strive for Devotion to the Lotus feet of God infinite are the glories of God how little can you

fathom them can we ever find out the meaning of God's ways and then he explains this is all of it is a buildup to this he knows the sorrow that is in Mr ch's heart because he's lost his wife recently so that's why he has come to Sri ramak Krishna believed then he points out s this is the next part bishma those who know the story of the Mahabharata his great warrior and he was the senior most among the Warriors in that battle and finally he died a most painful death I would say he had

to lay on a bed of arrows uh and see it through the particular time came when he gave up the body he's lying there and weeping so Arjun asks Krishna why is he weeping he's such a great warrior it's so sad to see him weeping then Krishna says ask him when he upon being asked he says I do not weep for myself I weep for you panda Brothers The Heroes of the story the five brothers the P Brothers among whom Arjuna was uh the Third and uh he is the one to whom the Gita was

taught so the five Panda brothers who are the heroes of this whole story and with them they have the blessings of Krishna who is an incarnation of God so Krishna is with them all the time and yet how much they suffer all throughout the Mah the mahabat is mostly a record of their sufferings and their trials and tribulations and travails this is an interesting thing we often have this this idea see he's keeping he has got Mr CH in mind we often have this idea either um quite openly or covertly somewhere in our hearts if

I take refuge in God if I am spiritual if I you know if I'm prayerful and I believe in God um then I'll be protected from the miseries of Life true or not the answer is more complex than that in one sense yes but in another sense no um you will not change what is going to happen to you in life what goes on in Life Will Go On um Spiritual Development that means deep faith and devotion love of God protects you from the suffering that is within meditation not constantly dwelling on what's Happening in

my life and what's happening around me but dwelling on God all the time protects you from that suffering knowledge G that I am witness Consciousness I'm not affected by what happens to the body mind I'm ever the witness ever perfect ever liberated that that Clarity that protects you from that suffering Karma Yoga selfless action that way you are more concerned about the welfare of others than one's own little individual personal welfare that protects you from suffering but how does it protect you from suffering will it remove old age disease death the nasty behavior of others

um financial troubles will it remove no it won't then how does it protect you this I've mentioned a number of times very precisely the Buddha points this out a monk went to the Buddha and it's actually not a apocryphal I mean it's not a some later story there lots of social media stories are there anything wise and you attribute it to the Buddha um no it's actually in the original Pali scriptures the story so it's very beautiful and very elegant the M goes and asks the Buddha I have a question what's the question well you

said that suffering is old age disease these are the biggies you know old age disease this the biggies but there are lots of suffering there's financial problems there is social problems there is parking problems whatnot forest fire smoke problem Haze out there so all sorts of from minor irritations to Major aggravations all sorts of problems there's war and so on um but old age disease death our senior most member Bill con so he he's 98 going on 99 now he is he wants in while he tells me old age is not for CES Swami so

these are the big ones disease and chronic disease chronic pain and then finally death um the psychologist Rd laying uh he said human beings are afraid of three things first and most pervasive even if we don't admit it is a fear of death we we push it far into our subconscious most people say you don't think about death you don't but you are afraid and and if you don't think about death you're more afraid than others that's fried for you you know if you say I don't have a problem I'm I am perfectly normal then

you're really abnormal then there's something seriously wrong with you that that sort of a Fran approach there so what is it that you're suppressing so fear of death Rd langing said fear of death there's one thing of three things that human beings are afraid of first is fear of death second one is other people we're afraid of other people third we're afraid of our own minds any mature person will have these three fears so old age disease death and then you oh Buddha you said there is a way out of this and you have found

the way you you have become enlightened and you have found a way Beyond suffering Beyond this suffering the Buddha said yes what is the question well my question is but you are becoming old and you get disease once in a while and unfortunately I guess you're going to die one day you he lived to up to 80 but he did die and those of us who we are all following you we are all following you we to some of us have died some we're all getting old we all get sick so how did your teaching

take us or even you at least you are enlightened how did it take us Beyond suffering you see the logic suffering what is suffering the goal is to go beyond suffering what is suffering old age disease death and you get Enlightenment you go you have attained Bodi Nana and gone beyond suffering but you're still getting old you're still getting sick and one day will die the Buddha's answer was that listen oh monk the nature of suffering is like a man hit by two arrows one arrow is what the world throws at you old age disease

death you know the behavior of others um financial problems ups and downs of Wall Street War forest fires all of this is what the world throws at you that's the first Arrow the second arrow is your reaction to all of this and the second arrow is what causes the Real Pain yeah I often say the doctors know this very well the first Arrow disease some kind of sickness accident problem and doctors have seen all the time that how two patients react very differently one with a pretty serious condition might be calm and dignified another with

a minor little problem might completely fall apart so it's the second Arrow our reaction to the situations in life which really cause suffering to us and then the Buddha goes on to say that what I teaching you will remove the suffering caused by the second narrow your whole response to life will change remove he just said it will remove the suffering caused by the second Arrow about the first I cannot do anything so old age disease death will keep happening so that's what SRI ramak Krishna is trying to point out with the story of bishma

that he says bishma says I weap thinking that God himself is with the pandas and those who know the story of Mahabharata they know it's a story of war and evil and mistreatment and deprivation and so many problems huge problems and God was with the ones who suffered most so bisha says I am astonished I don't know how to explain this and this is exactly what was going to happen to Narendra very soon I was just thinking think about it this way Narendra who became vianda at the time when he had become a disciple he

had just started coming and then he had already started learning from Rak Krishna and when he was pretty Advanced and having extraordinary mystical experiences and doing an intense spiritual practice who could be more with God than Narendra Nat the young seeker of God the perfect student exactly at that time was most intense suffering in the worldly sense his father died he was a son of a rich family he didn't know what to do suddenly they were put in dire strait and they found that they have no money and in fact they were in debt and

relatives pounced on the helpless family and tried to even throw them out of their house um and occupy something you know so his old his widowed mother and his younger brothers and sisters who were just kids by that time and he was the eldest son of the house they thought he it's his responsibility and he went from door to door looking for a job he couldn't get a job helpless he goes to Sri ramak Krishna and we know the story but my point is look who is more spiritual than Narendra Nat at that point and

in a worldly sense he's suffering a lot so the two can go together we have this subtle thing that if I'm spiritual religious well you you can be spiritual or religious you can't be anywhere close to Narendra and look how he suffered now does that mean then we won't be religious or spiritual well then you're increasing the Quantum of suffering you get two arrows then at least the second Arrow you'll be safe from your spiritual practice will protect you from the second Arrow won't it at all change what will happen to me in the world

that also says it will change there is a secret to it though um the secret is this that what happens in the world is Brahman pure Consciousness existence Consciousness place is complete indifferent whether you are miserable suffering in terrible Dire Straits poverty stricken terrible condition or you are rich and happy and famous and people like you all of that is exactly equal to Brahman from Brahman perspective this is all name and form appearance that's from shiva's perspective but Shakti is the Divine mother so the mother is compassionate the mother understands our weaknesses our fibes and

is endlessly forgiving father is strict so the mother said what spiritual practice does MASH said it reduces the impact of your karma if you catch hold of God actually even the first Arrow will be blunted um so in her own words where you would have you know had a leg cut off you will get a pin prick so that that's a big big big saving for us so we calculate in that way it's a big saving for us and we know the story of how he goes to vivea goes to Sri ramak Krishna and he

is desperate and he doesn't know where to turn he's too proud to ask for help from others um even his own friend Rich friends you know his mother there sometimes no food in the house and not enough food and as the eldest son he was too proud to tell his mother that he was hungry he would say I have been invited by a friend of mine for a party or something like that so I don't need to eat today but he would go hungry the whole day so that his brothers and sisters could eat um

he wouldn't tell his friends sometimes you know he was always the leader of the group and singing songs and all of that and friends would sometimes notice why do you look so pale why do you look so unhappy in fact the only one who knew this and did something to help was the writer of this book master Mahar and because being very quiet and um uh self-effacing in nature he would anonymously send money to their house it's only much later that people found out but anyway Dire Straits now there's a point to the story what

happens next he goes to Sri Rak Krishna and tells him that you know this is very getting very difficult can you help me can you tell the mother K can you tell your mother and S ramak Krishna says it's Tuesday it's a good day Tuesdays and Saturdays are supposed to the days of divine mother in dakshineswar Kali Temple you dis is the temple and today is the evening it's a very good time to pray to the mother why don't you go and ask her said oh she won't listen to me uh did she listens to

no she he said she listens to you you go and ask her and then s ramakrishna said no you go ahead you go and ask and there he said something which people overlook he said it in Bengali just a little comment and observation but which is very important for the rest of us Ordinary People he said you don't accept the Divine mother that's why you suffer so now that lost gets lost in the drama of the whole story but it is it's a um it's a clue for all of us it's a subtle but powerful

instruction for all of us because yes we want meditation and knowledge and devotion all the spiritual practices which will remove the suffering of the second Arrow great that's great that's straight for straightforward like what the Buddha said but we also want to negotiate a little about the first Arrow it can what the what life is throwing at us you know it can be too much and too overwhelming can can I get a concession or can things be put off a little more you know a presidential pardon for the student loans or something like that I

know I took that money but can you can can I not pay it back so our karmic loans can I be let off the hook once in a while I know I used to do that I had this Sanskrit teacher when I was a little kid he would come and teach and he' get loads of homework to be fair it was not loads I was just lazy but it is just homework and Sanskrit grammar Ian come on a little kid so I wouldn't do it and the day he would come to teach me at home

I would desperately go we had a little Shrine with and go and pray that let him not come today I promise I'll do the homework next time and he would come on a old creaky bicycle and it would have a particular Screech I would be praying and God was very heartless as praying and praying little boy and they would be screet and and he is here so we would want it once in a while the teacher not to come you know um so s ramakrishna says if you it is possible to some extent that the

mother will help you and then we know rest of the story of course we know then vianda went Narendra went to the Temple of Kali then he came back and he said he was so overwhelmed there was a living Pres pres of the deity and S ramakrishna said then what happened he said I asked for devotion I asked for knowledge I asked for dispassion oh that's all right that's all right but did you ask for money so no I couldn't oh what a fool you are go back there's yet time go back and ask for

money so he goes back a second time and same thing I asked for devotion and knowledge and Enlightenment and uh and he's almost intoxicated coming face to face with the mother of the universe and S Ram Krishna Scrolls him again oh what a fool you are you should ask for money go back and ask this yet time third time also the same thing happens and then Narendra realizes this is this is your play you are doing this s ramakrishna was testing him and he was very glad that he didn't ask for anything worldly then s

ramakrishna blessed him he said all right I bless you that your family will not lack plain food and clothing it didn't say that they're going to be Wall Street multimillionaires you know billionaires no he just said they will not lack plain food and clothing that much was true they still had a hard time of it over the years but they were provided for this is this gentlemen um he has faith in God he is also overly intellectual overly in intellectual so s ramak Krishna first says you can't argue your way to God you can't read

your way to God and also he points out just because you are spiritual just because you are a good person does not mean you will be spared suffering because he's lost his wife he's very unhappy so he points that out people suffer terribly and then they say I've lost faith in God you know intensely I believe in God I used to but now I don't believe in God anymore I lost faith in God the answer to that is you expected something else of God other than God and the second thing is don't worry you haven't

lost faith in God any anybody who intensely believed in God might be upset with God uh but that faith will not go away it will come back again and it'll come back in a purer and higher form there are these two approaches to religion the lower and the higher um one is God for my life you know I have my life and there are certain things which are conveniences in my life um you know a washing machine is a convenience a wife is a convenience like that God is also a convenience in my life God

will make my life better most people are there you know when you go to the temples and churches most people who turn up there are not turning up for enlightenment and Liberation and salvation no no no that's something good to have later on but right now I want God to help me with my medical bills with my um you know relationship problems with my health problem so on so forth so I want God to help me God for my life but the higher religion spirituality which is what we are all here for is my life

for God my goal is God realization that's what s Ram Krishna is pointing at he will say later on the higher love of God is not for any worldly end you may get the worldly end don't worry about that that also you'll be protected you'll be taken care of at the very least plain food and clothing like s Ram Krishna said so you need not worry about that um but our love of God should be for God only for God realization and that's what God loves most he'll give the example of the rich man a

person who turns up at the door of the rich man and the rich man finally says what do you want nothing they said like you um similarly the rich man is God and I keep thinking about God I really don't want anything but I love God so that devotion without any personal motive behind it you may ask for the welfare of others generally don't I give ask for specific prayers you know let that person be cured or let that person for not for yourself some people ask can I ask for others you can see often

parents they are helpless they are so you know helplessly concerned about the Children's Welfare so it's cruel to tell them not to pray for the Children's Welfare so they will pray for the Children's Welfare that's good nothing wrong in it and in general add the welfare of all beings always let all good come to all beings that's what I want become Swami viandas messenger share the video with three of your friends [Music] [Music]