Saturday 10 March 2012

Eliminate the causes of sufferings and be happy



“O Hari, relieve me of sufferings;
O Hrisikesha, Thou art Ocean of Grace;
Into Ocean of maya I am diving deep;
O Madhava, lift me up.”



Happiness and sorrows are a part of our life. At some moment in life everybody suffers from pain, agony or heartbreak. Many times we face difficulties. And some times hope seems to fade away. In fact, at every moment of life we have one or more problem or difficulty. Many times being tired of the sufferings a question arises in our mind- “when the sufferings would end and when we would be happy??”. Everybody wants to be happy in life. And to achieve happiness people do everything that they could do. Many people even use immoral means to achieve happiness. However, they fail to find happiness. All they get is a moment of pleasure and life-long sufferings. The main question is why do we suffer? And how could we end all our sufferings? For this, first we need to know the causes of sufferings and then eliminate those causes. Only then we could achieve happiness.

The main cause of all our sufferings is our greediness, the negativity that is inside us. Out of this greediness a person’s desires increases all the time and due to this they are never satisfied with what they have. Even if that person is provided with all the wealth of the world, due to his greediness he could never be satisfied. Greediness forces a person to do wrong things. Greediness leads to hatred and jealousy. And slowly the person ends up loosing everything that he had. Greediness results in self-destruction. Thus, we should give up our greediness. If we don’t destroy greediness, it will destroy us. Suffering also comes from attachment. Thinking about sense objects brings an attachment towards them. Attachment breeds desire, and desire leads to frustration, which in turn leads to delusion. When you are deluded, you lose your memory and with the loss of memory, the power of discrimination is destroyed; with the destruction of discrimination your self itself is lost. Once a person gives up greediness and attachments, most of the sufferings would cease automatically.

All that we need is love and compassion. Love and compassion are the solution to all our problems. With love we could also win the heart of a person who hated us before. We should have love and compassion in our heart for all creatures (not only for human). We should make others more dearer to us. If a person doesn’t have love and compassion for others, nobody will accept him. He may be a very rich person, but if he has no love and compassion in his heart for others, nobody will like him. He would be lonely; he would be depressed and he might even start drinking, smoking or taking drugs. That person could never be happy. So consider others as good as your own self. To see all creatures as good as oneself is the best of all means of one’s worship. We all have some good qualities and some bad qualities. We all have our own weakness and, at the same time, we also possess some strength. Respect people for their good qualities but love them for their weakness. Even more important than the warmth and affection we receive, is the warmth and affection we give. It is by giving warmth and affection, by having a genuine sense of concern for others, in other words through compassion, that we gain the conditions for genuine happiness. More important than being loved, therefore, is to love.

Never engage yourself in caste discrimination. Having no caste discrimination between Brahmin and candela, treat everybody equally. Try to have the same attention to donors and thieves; try to have same regards for the pious and the mean. Many people also differentiate between religions. And it is not good. One should not differentiate between religions because all religions are same. Each religion teaches us the same things. Religions are different roads that lead to the same destination. People worship the same Gracious Almighty, but with different names. So respect every religion. It is the same Almighty who resides inside everybody’s heart. Our soul is nothing but a part of that Gracious Almighty. Lord Hari is prevailing through all creatures; regard them all with Visnu-consciousness. Knowing it well, love all and treat everybody equally with respect.

Thus, the first step towards ending our sufferings is to remove all our negativities like selfishness, greediness, attachment, ego etc. and developing love and compassion in our heart for all creatures. To eliminate these negativity only prayer is not enough, one must have to practice patience, concentration, generosity, love and compassion by body, mind and soul. We must have to train our body and mind. Never be selfish because being selfish you will not be able to achieve much. True achievement could be made only with selflessness. Have consciousness and mindfulness. Always be cautious on what you say and what you do. Try to realize which of your actions are going to have negative effect on you as well as on others. If you find that any of your action is going to have negative effect on you or on others, don’t do it. Consider the welfare of others as well. All suffering comes from the wish for your own happiness. Therefore exchange your own happiness for the suffering of others. Be selfless and dedicate yourself to the welfare of all. Take refugee in the Lotus feet of Almighty Hari and chant hari hari as much as you can. Acting in this way all of the sufferings will cease. And we will attain a state of mind where peace prevails and then happiness will follow.




O Mind, utter Sriraam, Krishna carefully,
Hold on Krishna’s feet whole-heartedly.
O Gopala, Garudaketu, I bow at Thy Feet;
Rescue me, O Hari, as Refuge I have sought.
                                       
                                                                        ...krishna...