How to Become Free from All Misery

This material world is a world of miseries, and there is nothing we can do to change this fact. However through the science of Krishna consciousness we can elevate our consciousness beyond this material existence by no longer misidentifying with our material bodies. When we become solidly fixed in Krishna consciousness we will see that of the miseries are just something out there in the material existence and we will no longer feel pinched by them. Therefore we simply tolerate the without being disturbed by them. In this connection Srila Prabhupada has written as follows in his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam, Fourth Canto, Chapter 29, Verse 35:

"As stated in the Vedas, the living entity is always separate from two kinds of material bodies—the subtle and the gross. All our sufferings are due to these material bodies. This is explained in Bhagavad-gītā (2.14):

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino 'nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

'O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.' Lord Kṛṣṇa thus informed Arjuna that all the distresses brought about by the body come and go. One has to learn how to tolerate them. Material existence is the cause of all our sufferings, for we do not suffer once we are out of the material condition. The Vedas therefore enjoin that one should factually understand that he is not material but is actually Brahman (ahaṁ brahmāsmi). This understanding cannot be fully realized unless one is engaged in Brahman activities, namely devotional service. To get free from the material conditions, one has to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the only remedy."

If we take full advantage of Srila Prabhupada's guidance, our lives will be unlimitedly sublime.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Srila Prabhupada Blesses Us With the Supreme Wisdom

Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom

Question: How is Birth a Misery?

Hare Krishna Sriman Sankarshan Prabhu.
Salutations at your lotus feet.
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.

In today's "Thought for the day" you have included birth in the four fold miseries . Could you please explain how birth is a misery? Also for the three fold sufferings could you please direct me to the verses of the Srimad Bhagavatam where this topic has been dealt with? How can one avoid these sufferings. Has the Bhagavatam given any specific instructions on this?

I hope this meets you well.
Yours sincerely,

Dattatreya Parija

Answer: Incorrect Philosophy

From: ISKCON Austin, Texas USA

My Dear Dattatreya,

Please accept my blessings.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The Srimad Bhagavatam gives us some idea of what it was like in the womb:

"Deriving its nutrition from the food and drink taken by the mother, the fetus grows and remains in that abominable residence of stools and urine, which is the breeding place of all kinds of worms. Bitten again and again all over the body by the hungry worms in the abdomen itself, the child suffers terrible agony because of his tenderness. He thus becomes unconscious moment after moment because of the terrible condition. Owing to the mother's eating bitter, pungent foodstuffs, or food which is too salty or too sour, the body of the child incessantly suffers pains which are almost intolerable. Placed within the amnion and covered outside by the intestines, the child remains lying on one side of the abdomen, his head turned towards his belly and his back and neck arched like a bow. The child thus remains just like a bird in a cage, without freedom of movement. At that time, if the child is fortunate, he can remember all the troubles of his past one hundred births, and he grieves wretchedly. What is the possibility of peace of mind in that condition? Thus endowed with the development of consciousness from the seventh month after his conception, the child is tossed downward by the airs that press the embryo during the weeks preceding delivery. Like the worms born of the same filthy abdominal cavity, he cannot remain in one place."

The moment of birth is also quite terrifying to all of a sudden be squeezed through a small hole. This is why children cry at the time of birth. They don't come out smiling.

For the three-fold miseries read Srimad Bhagavatam 3.5.40

I hope this meets you in the best of health.

Your ever well-wisher,
Sankarshan Das Adhikari

The Most Urgent World Deliverance Mission

ISKCON Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ordered his disciples to become gurus and deliver the world. Sankarshan Das Adhikari has taken this order very seriously and is thus accepting disciples all over the world and has dedicated himself fully to the mission of making the entire world Krishna conscious as soon as possible. He requests your help in this most urgent world deliverance mission to save the suffering humanity from gliding down to the animal kingdom in their next births.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari email: sd@worldleader.com