Why humans suffer?
In simple words, humans suffer because humans attach themselves to this material world. It turns into desire for more attachment and fear of loosing existing attachment. And this desire and fear create restlessness.
Why we attach ourselves?
Human body is a product of evolution. In past, As hunter gatherers human life used to be continuously in danger. Any animal could make us their food. So we had to run, hide or fight. In such cases, attachment to other humans (fighting in group) and material tools (weapons) were very important. We could not survive on our own. This is the reason we still want to get attached to things and humans.
How to end this suffering?
In Bhagavad Gita . three different Yoga are mentioned to end this suffering and detach ourselves. i.e. karma Yog, Gyan Yog and Bhakti Yog.
1. Gyan Yog – It is about knowledge of “Who am I”. It is a philosophy which helps to attain enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a mystic thing. Someone who is enlightened just knows the truth i.e. who am i. This topic requires an another detailed blog.
But let’s discuss in brief. The answer to Who am I could be found by continuous inquiry through neti neti (i.e. not this not that).
Then whatever remains is “I”.
It could be said that I am not the body, I am not the mind.
Why I am not the body? It is because we can observe and sense the body. we can observe something only if we are not the thing itself. In other words, A can observe B only if B is a different entity from A. So clearly I am not the body. There are other ways also to prove the same.
Why I am not the mind?
It is because we can observe our thoughts and emotions also. We can see what is going in our mind.
So I am not even the mind. And I am not even the things I could observe through my senses. I am beyond everything.
Upanishads says that we are the cause of this universe.
These all things could be verified through questioning and reasoning. But We can not believe anything unless we experience it. So there are meditation practices which can make you realize who you are.
When you realize self, it is called aatmgyan.
How this can end suffering? As we realize that we are not the body nor the mind but something beyond and we are the cause of this universe, we no longer find any need to attach ourselves with material things. Because we ourselves are the source of everything we want.
2. Karma Yog – It means to do right thing selflessly. In other words, Do your karma without getting attached to results.
Generally our tendencies (lust, anger, greed, attachment, envy) decide what work we do. And if our tendencies decide the work, we just become slave of our tendencies. We do not remain free. We easily get desperate if we see that our tendencies are not materializing. For example- Arjun put down weapons seeing his relatives in war against him. It was his attachment towards his brothers, gurus. Krishna therefore gave him knowledge of self realization to make him free from these different tendencies including attachment. We can see that these tendencies become hindrances to our work.
And once we go beyond these tendencies, we work with more intensity.
We can be selfless only when we attain self realization i.e. realization of who we are. Then we can do what is right, not what we want.
Believe me, doing something selflessly makes you so powerful that you can never become by working just for your desires
Definitely you will get money and it is necessary too to sustain yourself. But it should never be your driving force. Driving force should be your work. Therefore choose the work you are passionate about. Choose the work that is good for everyone. You can make this choice only if you have wisdom.
Another way to do selfless karma is to think karma as a service to god.
So there are three ways you can be selfless-
(i) Understanding of self and free from self
(ii) Controlling your mind through practice and regular meditation.
(iii) Surrendering to god i.e. Bhakti yog and doing work as a service.
Follow any two of the three ways.
I am sure that karma yog need another blog. So will discuss this in detail in another blog.
3. Bhakti Yog – Bhakti means to surrender everything to God. You do your work as a service to god. You do what is right. You chant mantra and you are ready to do whatever is needed as a service to god. This is a very simple thing. You just have to do your work as service and surrender everything to god. And you accept the result.
Atheist may face problem in bhakti but they can surrender themselves to the work itself. i.e. they can do karma yog.
I hope you got answer of Why humans suffer.
Refer what is philosophy here- What is Philosophy? Why should we learn philosophy?
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