Pleasure and Pain

God does not care for pain arising from worldly things, and God cannot bear pain, coming from (real) pangs for the sake of God.

Under God's auspicious dispensation, whatever favourable (pleasure giving) or unfavourable (painful) condition comes, it is only for our good.

Being in pain or pleasure, is not the fruit of past acts, but a fruit of foolishness. This folly is wiped out by good company (Satsanga).

Like an ever greedy person, an aspirant should grant pleasure to others. By this, he would rise above pleasure and pain.

To make efforts to seek pleasure, is to invite pain, and to strive for others' happiness, is to invite bliss.

To get pain or pleasure, is the result of one's acts, but to become happy or sorry is the fruit of ignorance and foolishness. To avoid the fruit of action, is not possible by our hands, but eliminating foolishness is entirely within the grasp of a person.

When man serves others under happy circum- stances, he does not become unhappy in painful conditions or does not desire pleasure for himself, then he is easily liberated from worldly ties.

Under the influence of nature-born pleasure, there is no end to the tradition of its succession.

In reality, happiness in favourable conditions is the reason for unhappiness under unfavourable circumstances; because a condition-bound pleasure seeker, cannot ever escape from unhappiness.

To give up the desire for happiness, unhappiness comes.

One who seeks happiness (for himself) from others, he would have to suffer great unhappiness.

We are ourselves the cause of our pain and none else. So long as we treat others as cause of pain, till then our suffering would not be wiped out.

By being happy with one's own happiness, one surely becomes unhappy and acquiring happiness from other's happiness, his pain is lost forever.

To treat the body as 'I' and 'mine', is the cause of all pain.

So long as we draw happiness from the world, till then nature's link would not be lost.

The deficiency of a thing does not cause unhappiness, pain arises from the desire to get a thing.

Things do not cause unhappiness, as unhappiness is the result of the absence of proper thoughts, not of things. So by reflection pain is eliminated.

Happiness lies in stillness (giving up thoughts of the world) and not in enjoyment.

Wherever one notices worldly happiness, examine the same with deliberation, one would find unhappiness there, because the world, in reality, is unhappiness personified - 'Duhkhālayam' (Gītā VIII. 15).

If one wants to hear, pain is caused by not hearing. You want to see, and being not able to see, causes pain. Want power and you are unhappy with powerlessness; you want youth and one is sad for being old. It means that deficiencies themselves do not make people unhappy, but because of desire, and by the feeling of want, that people feel unhappy.

If we are attached to the world, pain is endless. If we link ourselves with God, then happiness (bliss) is unlimited.

Should you want happiness, then bring happiness to others. Just as you sow, so would you reap.

When you notice worldly happiness around, be sure that there is some danger there.

Everything is God-Vasudevah Sarvam' (God is all) but He is not an object to be enjoyed. Anybody who wants to enjoy Him as object of enjoyment, suffers.

In a household, if a feeling exists in all, that they should have happiness, then everybody would be unhappy. However if they feel as to how others would become happy, then every being would be happy.

If you do not desire pain, do not seek worldly happiness.

"Let others be happy". If this feeling prevails, then all would be happy including himself, who wishes so. "Let me be happy," if this feeling prevails, then all would be unhappy, as well as the person concerned.

Why does worldly happiness not last? As it is not at all, of us and for us.

Happiness feels good, but its end is not good. Unhappiness makes one feel bad, but its result is good.

A state of unhappiness in God's regime comes for our highest good. So one should not wish to remove it, and bear it peacefully.

One who harms others, he in reality, harms himself most, and one who helps others to be happy, he verily makes himself happy.

To be happy on receiving pain, is one of the highest means of Sadhana.

Man is not free, to get rid of circumstances but he is quite free, capable and competent in not enjoying them or to be happy or sorrowful. It means that, in not being happy or unhappy, man is always free, capable and powerful.

Until favourable or unfavourable circumstances influence till then, the Yogas of Karma, Jñāna and Bhakti or any other 'Yoga' are not successfully mastered.

The world does not cause pain to anybody, but it is the acknowledged link with it, that inflicts pain.

By worldly happiness, worldly unhappiness can never be wiped out this is a rule.

On gaining ingress to the world, greed increases and pain results. But on achieving God, love increases and bliss wells up.

A sufferer of pain can in future, be happy, but one who causes pain, can never be happy.

One who, in order to seek happiness, does not establish a tie up with anybody, he lives happily and dies happily. But those who link themselves with others, intent upon seeking something, they remain unhappy while alive and die in unhappiness, as well.

Just as thirst for water makes a person unhappy, though water by itself does not cause unhappiness. It is the attachment to the world happiness, that causes pain, while the world by itself does not cause unhappiness.