MISERY HAS A GREAT VALUE - from Mahabharata

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MISERY

 

Mahabharata-Santi Parva CIXL

 

Persons conversant with the Vedas have said that death and immurement

are both painful. Life is dear unto all. All creatures are made

miserable by grief and pain. All creatures wish for happiness. Misery

arises from various sources. Decrepitude is misery. The loss of

wealth is misery. The adjacence of anything disagreeable or evil is

misery. Separation or dissociation from friends and agreeable objects

is misery. Misery arises from death and immurement. Misery arises

from causes connected with women and from other natural causes. The

misery that arises from the death of children alters and afflicts all

creatures very greatly.

 

Some foolish persons say that there is no misery in other's misery.

Only he who has not felt any misery for himself can say so in the

midst of men. He, however, that has felt sorrow and misery, would

never venture to say so. One that has felt the pangs of every kind of

misery feels the misery of others as one's own.

 

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Misery has a great value

 

 

Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa on misery

 

Kedar Nath Bandyopadhyay wrote:

 

One day I started for my office and crossed the Ganga (Ganges river)

by boat, but due to some family trouble, my mind was very disturbed.

It occurred to me that it would be better to go to the Master (Sri

Ramakrishna Paramhansa) than to the office, so I took another boat

and landed at the temple ghat of Rani Rasmani

 

The Master was standing on the western verandah of his room, looking

at the ganga. As I walked up to him, he said: "What? You ran away

from your office? That is not good. Live in this world like a

crocodile. It lives under water, but sometimes it raises its snout

above water, takes a deep breath, and again dives below the surface.

People are submerged in their worldly life and they come here only

when they are suffocating at home. Does anybody tread the path of

religion without first undergoing sorrows and sufferings? Misery has

a great value. It helps a person find the path to God."

 

The Master continued: "I know you are married. Do you have a mother?"

 

'Yes, my mother is still alive," I replied.

 

He was silent for some time, and then he said: "All right, now stay

at home. A little misery is good. It helps one to make progress in

spiritual life. If there were no misery, would anyone chant the

Lord's name?"

 

(From the book 'Ramakrishna as we saw him' By Swami Chetanananda,

Advaita Ashrama)

 

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>From The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7, verse 16:

 

Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna, and they are

the distressed,

the seeker of knowledge,

the seeker of wealth and

the wise.