Everyone in this world faces varieties of problems.
We are living in a strange relative world. After Diwali, there may
be a long queue of toothache patients outside the dentist’s clinic.
But the patient’s pain is the dentist’s joy. Thus one man’s food is
another man’s poison. These problems are relative, that is, they
may be of concern to one but not to another.
A problem can be considered real if it fulfills the
following three criteria:
It
is common to all.
Nobody wants it.
Nobody can avoid it.
In this light, the real problems of life are birth,
old age, disease and death and the threefold miseries,
namely
Miseries caused by one’s own bmind and body
(adhyatmika) e.g. stress, depression, backache, etc.
Miseries caused by other living entities
(adhibhautika) e.g. envious competitors, mosquitoes, germs,
etc.
Miseries caused by natrue (adhidavika) eg.g floods,
famines, earthquakes, etc.
Birth: Birthi
is an extremely painful periodd for the living entity. For ten long
months the human fetus lies cramped within the darkness of the
womb, suffering severely, scorched by the mother’s gastric fire,
constantly jolted by sudden movements, and feeling constant
pressure form being contained n the small sack, which surrounds the
body int he womb. This tight, constricting pocket forces the
chlid,’s back to rach constantly like a bow. Further, hungry worms
int he abdominal cavity torment the unborn child. Thec hild
passesstol and urine in the same pocket. After some time the same
stool and urnie, mixed with his hair, becomes his food. Such is the
misery of birth.
Old age: There is no indescribable
suffering in old age. No one wants to grow old. But tby the power
of inevitable time, everyone is forced to grw old. No one cares for
an old man. His relatives are contantly thinking, when will this
old man pass away? This is teh harsh reality. An aged person
becomes an unwanted burden in the family. These days many
youngsters prefer putting their old parent sand grand parents in
old age homes. There these old people don’t et any love. so they
tryto love cats and dogs in order to have something to live for
besides having to helplessly endure the intolerable mental agony of
neglect and disrespect, the old are also inflicted by their bodies
with an ever-increasing variety of painful and debilitating
diseases.
Disease: Today people are proud
that medical science has prolonged the average human life span. But
the fact is that we may be living longer than our ancestors, but we
are not happier than them. By prolonging our life, we are only
increasing our pain. There are so many different kinds of diseases.
Though medical science is trying to find out remedies for them,
medical history shows that by the time science finds the cure for
one disease, another, even more deadly disease comes up, as has
happened in the case of cancer, syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS, etc. We
may cure one disease for sometime, but we can not cure disesase per
se. The pain suffered through diseasse is a common experience for
everyone and needs no explanation.
Death: In the Garuda Purana, one of
the ancient Vedic scriptures, it is mentioned that death is
extremely paniful and the dying person experiences a pain that is
equivalent to the simultaneous biting of 40,000 scorpions. The
great sage Kapila informs his mother abouth the ghastly nature of
the death experience, “in that diseased condidion the dying
person’s eyes bulge due to the pressure of air from within, and his
glands become congested with mucus. He has difficulty breathing,
and there is a rattling sound within his throat... thus he dies
most pathetically” [Srimad Bhagvatam 3.30.16-18]. The soul is so
habituated to living in the body that he must be forced out by the
laws of ntaure at the time fo death. Just as a person suffers
greatly when he is forcibly evicted from his home, similarly the
soul suffers immentsely when he is focibly kicked out of the body.
In nature, we see that even the tiniest creatures display the most
amazing abilities and techniques for escaping death when their
lives are threatened. But as death is inevitable for all living
being, so are the fear and pain associated with it.
So it is very improtant to percieve the evils of
birth, old age, disease and death.
