Cycle of Enjoying or Suffering
Life in the material world is a continuous cycle of enjoying and suffering the results of one's past activities. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that this duality is inescapable for the conditioned soul. Driven by the desire to lord it over material nature, the living entity is awarded a specific type of body by the laws of karma. This body acts as a vehicle, or machine, through which one experiences the destiny they have created for themselves.
Machinery of Body
Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that the material body is not the self; it is merely a machine manufactured by the external energy to fulfill specific desires. Whether one is a demigod like Lord Brahmā or a worm in stool, the principle remains the same: the body is awarded to facilitate a specific mixture of enjoyment and suffering based on previous work.
- Beginning from Lord Brahma down to the worms in the stool, gradually, according to your work, according to your desire, you manufacture your different types of body and enjoy and suffer. That's all.
- These machines (bodies) are manufactured by the material ingredients of the external energy, and thus the living entity enjoys or suffers according to his desires. This opportunity is given by the Supersoul.
- By nature's arrangement the material body is given to the living entity for his suffering or enjoying. Different types of bodies are acquired for different purposes.
Inescapable Destiny
Once a body is accepted, the program of happiness and distress is fixed. Śrīla Prabhupāda uses the analogy of dust particles blown helplessly by the wind to illustrate how the living entity is carried by the waves of time and karma. He warns that this destiny cannot be changed by material adjustment; one is bound to experience the results of their own making.
- Within the jurisdiction of the time element, everyone enjoys or suffers the result of his own karma. As, when the wind blows, small particles of dust fly in the air, so, according to one's particular karma, one suffers or enjoys material life.
- We get different types of body, and according to the body, our material sufferings and enjoyment are fixed up, already.
- It is his (living entity) free choice to accept a spiritual body or a material body, but once the body is accepted he has to enjoy or suffer the consequences.
Mental Platform
Ultimately, Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals that the duality of enjoyment and suffering is a mental concoction. The spirit soul has nothing to do with material qualities, but due to identifying with the mind and body, it mistakenly accepts these temporary states as reality. He describes this as riding on the "chariot of the mind."
- All bodies in heavenly planets and hellish planets arise from mental concoctions, and the sufferings and enjoyments of material life are simply on the mental platform. They take place on the chariot of the mind (mano-ratha).
- In conditional life, we take birth, remain for some time, and enjoy or suffer. But really there is no question of enjoyment. There is only suffering.
Conclusion
The cycle of enjoying and suffering is the definition of material existence. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that as long as one identifies with the body and engages in fruitive activities, they are bound to receive another body to experience the reaction.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Enjoy Or Suffer. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.
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