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Darshan with Swami Krishnananda – 1998
by Swami Krishnananda


9. The End of Suffering

(Darshan given on February 19th, 1998)

A visitor: How to make good choices in life? How to make the best of this opportunity?

Swamiji: You know what you want in this life. Pursue that. That is the choice. Do you know what you want in this world? What do you want? You choose that. So the choice has been made immediately. What do you want from this world? Why are you hesitating? What do you want?

Visitor: It's the end of suffering. I want to...

Swamiji: Are you suffering?

Visitor: Yes, I think I am. The mind is always disturbing.

Swamiji: Who is creating the disturbance in your mind? Who is creating it? Bring that person.

Visitor: It's my own, you know. I know that everything is perfect.

Swamiji: Will anybody with some common sense create suffering to one's own self? Is it possible? If you deliberately want to create trouble to your mind by your choice, how will you find a solution to it, because you have created the suffering by your own choice, by maladjustment and incoherent thinking. And so, what is the good of “end of suffering”? It must be properly understood. It is a very deep psychological subject.

These are only words: end of suffering, end of trouble. Nothing can end. There is no such thing as ending of anything. Nothing will end. Everything will continue as it is. The only thing is, you must see them properly. You are not seeing things properly. Even a great joy can look like suffering under different circumstances. What do you say? Suffering will look like a joy under different circumstances.

People work hard with the sweat of their brow. They work in the hot sun because they want to maintain a family. Who asked them to maintain a family? Because it is a joy. So this suffering has brought joy also. What do you say? You ask a labourer sweating on the road, “Why are you doing this work?” “I have to feed my family.” “Why are you feeding the family?” “It is my satisfaction.” So the satisfaction is coupled with the suffering by working on the road. So which is the better thing, suffering or joy? It is a kind of discriminative understanding of the situations.

There are no joys and no sufferings in the world. They are only proper viewpoints of the same thing that is happening.

Visitor: In theory I can understand, but in the practice, in dealing with the daily life...

Swamiji: Who is doing the practice? Is it yourself or somebody else? Again you are bringing a contradiction. You are creating the trouble to yourself. You are doing the practice, and now you say, “I cannot do it.” Why should you not do it? You see, understanding your present position and circumstance is more important than jumping into high skies. Before you occupy a house, sweep the floor, remove the cobwebs, make it neat and clean. Then enter the house. Entering the house is not the only objective. It must be decent. So you may say “end of suffering” but whose suffering you are ending? Are you ending the whole world's suffering, or your suffering, or this man's suffering? You said suffering should end. Whose suffering? Your suffering or somebody else's? Or the whole world's?

You think over whether your mind is thinking correctly. Can you end world suffering? The whole creation is suffering. How will you end it unless you yourself are the Creator? What do you say? Am I talking some sense or not?

Visitor: Of course I understand.

Swamiji: Think over this matter. You cannot understand things like that in a few minutes. Very great research, internal research, is necessary. “I go there, I go here, I go to this Guru and that Guru, this course and that course.” You can pass your life like this only, but you will be the same person with no change inside because the understanding of life is the hardest nut to crack. Nobody can understand what life is. It is an eluding thing. It has eluded the grip of even the best of people.

There is suffering, there is joy, but really neither of them exists. They are only two different aspects of one circumstance.

Okay, now you meditate. Whatever you consider is best for you, meditate.

To another visitor: Then all the energy will be maintained in the body, very strong. A brahmachari is supposed to be very strong mentally, and also physically because he has conserved the energy. But if you go on indulging in sense objects, the whole thing will go away one by one. These five sense organs are like five holes in a water pot, and however much water you may pour into the pot, the five holes will take away all the water. So however much you may eat and gain nutrients, and do anything, it is of no use because this conserved energy will go away through the holes of the sense organs. For that purpose, one has to do some meditation.

Close the eyes: I am a part of the whole cosmos. I am a part of the whole universe. I am part of the omnipresent God Himself. So what do I want? Why am I running about? If your meditation, your consciousness, identifies itself with the whole Reality, which appears as sense objects, the objects of sense are only a misrepresentation of the whole universe in its integrity. If you take the whole universe, the sense objects are included in it, and you are also included, so there is no question of running after things. You have to entertain a universal awareness of your belonging to the whole universe. You may say it is God also. A person who is part and parcel of the entire structure of the cosmos doesn't want anything. He will not run after things. The universe will sustain him. God will protect him. But one who does not have the understanding of this kind, he will run after the sense objects.

It has nothing to do with sex. Sex is only a poor definition. It is a total energy conservation, and the depletion of it through sense organs. Sex is only one aspect of it. You go on saying 'sex', 'sex'. It is not proper. You should not use such words. It is a highly subtle subject. It is conservation of energy. That is a more proper thing than using the word 'sex'. Energy should not go out in any way. You must maintain it. But any kind of desire takes the energy out and makes you weak afterwards.