Suffering is Caused by Fallacious Thinking

Suffering is caused by the error of the sufferer. External means only help to suppress misery, they can’t eradicate it. One merely becomes oblivious to misery for some time. The desire for pleasure deludes us and brings us pain. Misery is wiped out only by the grace of Lord who takes away misery, with his knowledge and his remembrance. Once this happens, suffering never comes to him and joy never deserts him. Don’t you want such a life free from troubles and full of eternal joy?

Even if you attain knowledge of everything in the world, even if you acquire all the wealth of the world even if the whole world is favorably disposed towards you, you cannot make your joy permanent and eradicate misery forever. But the Lord’s grace, his knowledge and his love, will bring you to a state of eternal joy beyond the reach of sorrows.

Let me do this…let me get this job…let me earn some money…This is nothing but self-deception. Better it would be to pray to the Lord with utmost humility and distress, ‘O Lord! Grant me your love! Go after the Lord. Dollars are nothing. Kingdoms amount to nothing. All the means and possessions of the world are totally insignificant.
‘This goal cannot be attained through any means.’

External means cannot eradicate misery because misery is caused by the sufferer’s error. It is another error committed to try to eliminate misery by external means. One expects one’s spouse or friend to eradicate misery, or one thinks they can eradicate misery through unfair means. These things can only suppress misery or make one oblivious to it for some time. They cannot eradicate it. Unexpectedly, they actually enhance the misery instead. Misery is eradicated by knowledge of the sorrowless Lord and Divine love. Misery is eradicated by fervently calling out to the Lord, and by the Lord’s love and grace of the saints who have attained communion with the Lord. Therefore, get established in the knowledge of the great men.