From Material Miseries

to Spiritual Bliss
karma-jam buddhi-yukta hi
phalam tyaktva manisinah
janma-bandha-vinirmuktah
padam gacchanty anamayam
Translation by SPrabhupada
The wise, engaged in devotional service, take refuge in the Lord, and free
themselves from the cycle of birth and death by renouncing the fruits of action in
the material world. In this way they can attain that state beyond all miseries.
BG 2.51
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
What are Miseries?

Misery is Mental or emotional unhappiness
or distress, a cause or source of suffering.
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
This world is Mrtyu loka (a place of miseries).
The miseries of life are present everywhere
within the material world.
Janma- birth (misery in the womb),
Mrtyu - death,
Jara- old age and
Vyadhi - diseases,
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
There are three kinds of miseries due to our
material conditional life:
Adhyatmic
Adhibhautic
Adhidaivic,
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
Adhyatmic
Adhyatmic are suffering pertaining to the

body eg, fever, pain, headache etc.
Mind, when one has suffered a great loss
the mind is not in good condition. This is
also suffering.
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
Adhibhautic
Adhibhautic, are sufferings caused by other living
entities.
e.g Just like we are human being, we are sending
millions of poor animals to the slaughterhouse daily.
Similarly we have to suffer from suffering caused by
other living entities. We can hide from material laws,
state laws but we cannot hide from God's law
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
Adhidaivic
Adhidaivic refers to Suffering caused by
nature, such as famine, earthquake, draught,
flood, climatic changes, pestilence, so many
things. Even ghost-haunted, ghost cannot be
seen, but suffering of delirium is there.
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
What is the aim of Life in the miserable
world?
to end the miseries of life and not to
increase them.
The Vedas prescribe two different types of
occupation for the human being: pravtti
and nivtti-mrga.
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
1) pravtti-mrga, or the path of sense enjoyment,
inferior path
2) nivtti-mrga, or the path of renunciation, the path
of sacrifice for the supreme cause and which is
superior.
Actual life is spiritual existence, or brahma-bhta
existence, where life is eternal, blissful and full of
knowledge
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
What to do with the miseries?
1. One must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.
Lord Krishna said that miseries are nonpermanent and one must learn to tolerate
them as mentioned in BG 2.13:
matra-sparsas tu kaunteya
sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah
agamapayino 'nityas
tams titiksasva bharata
English Translation by Srila Prabhupada
O son of Kunti, 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.
From Material Miseries
to Spiritual Bliss
2. Surrender unto Krishna .
So the best thing is, to listen to Krishna. In BG Ch 18 V 66 Krishna says

sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah

English Translation by S Prabhupada

Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all
sinful reaction. Do not fear.



What to do with the miseries?