Causes Of Sorrow

The world is filled with miseries. Most of the people are unhappy due to one or the other reason. Some are sad as they do not have any shelter; some are suffering from hunger and some do not have enough money to run their lives. Hence these kinds of people lack the basic infrastructure and hence their sorrow is understandable. However, many other people whose basic needs are fulfilled are also unhappy. Some of them are sad that they are not getting the job of their choice; some are not contented with the locations of their job; some are unhappy due to bitter relationships with their relatives or not getting the partners of their types; some are sad their dreams are not coming true and many such reasons.

Now if we analyze the causes of miseries, we will get many reasons. The first and the foremost reason for misery is desire. So if one can renounce his desires completely, then he can remain happy forever. Bhagavad Gita says, “If one can work without any desire, then he can attain God. Thus he can become free from all kinds of sufferings, pains, miseries and all sorts of negatives results. If one works without any desire, then he is free from all attachments and thus will gain freedom and then nothing can bind him. Desire is never ending and it is like fire which increases with addition of more fuels.” Hence if not freed from this enemy, then we have to take bath in the ocean of sorrow. Gautam Buddha stated, “Do not become attached to the things you like, do not cherish aversion to the things you dislike. Sorrow, fear and bondage come from one's likes and dislikes.” According to Vishnu Purana, “The whole world is steeped in sorrow. In boyhood playing things alone attract; in youth man longs for sense-pleasures; and when old age is upon the ignorant man, he passes through it helplessly. So even from boyhood, one should, with a discriminating mind, always endeavor for spiritual welfare without allowing oneself to be carried away by the inclination of the body.”

The other factor which really troubles us is ignorance. As Swami Vivekananda put, “The main cause for the misery is to consider pleasure the ideal to thrive for. The ideal which man should thrive for is knowledge.” On several occasions, we remain under the false illusions and try to achieve those goals which are not meant for us. There was an incident happened with Gautam Buddha. Once an old woman came to Buddha, begging for her son’s the life, who died due to a snake bite. She was very sad as he was her only son. Then Buddha promised her son’s life in return of a fist of mustard but the mustard should be brought from such a family which had never lost any family member. Then after sometime, the old woman returned to Buddha with much less misery. When Buddha asked her whether she managed to get the mustard, she answered, “In every family one or the other person has died. Hence now my sorrow has decreased.” From this incident, we can find that we are not the only ones suffering and like us there are many who are suffering. Once we have this knowledge we will get less discontentment. We must realize there are many ups and downs in our life. Hence both pleasure and sorrow are temporary and only thing which is permanent is knowledge of the truth. Swami Vivekananda said, “Both good and evil have equal shares in moulding character, and in some instances misery is greater teacher than happiness. If we study the great characters the world has produced, in vast majority of the cases, it was the misery that taught more than happiness, and it was poverty that taught more than wealth, it was blows that got the inner fire more than praise.” According to Vivekananda only fools go after the sense-enjoyments.

So what is the remedy of misery? The answer is simple, to forget it and not to brood on it. More we think about our miseries and dwell our mind on them, more they increase and torture us. We should always look ahead and never should look back. Knowledge is the cure of all diseases in the world. Hence misery is no exception. So knowledge should be used in right way to remove all the miseries in the world. Another way to reduce misery is sharing it with someone very close to us. The universal truth is happiness increases after sharing and sorrow decreases after distributing. According to Mahatma Gandhi, “If one believes in God then it is a shame to worry about anything.” If no worry is there, then there is no misery. Hence if we have true belief in God then we can reduce worries and hence ultimately grief can be overcome. Whenever we are sad, we can do meditation and some mental exercises and thus can focus our minds on God. Thus we can free ourselves from sorrows, worries and frustrations.

By: Ratnadeep

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