Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2.15, the God Krishna says, “That person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both situation is certainly eligible for liberation.”
A diseased person happily consumes the bitter medicine with the hope that it will help him get cured. A person opts for a painful surgery to get removed the specific organ/object from his body to live better. Likewise, the distressful situation should be considered as the pathway to happiness. This understanding alone can bring so much of comfort and happiness in everyone’s life.
Our whole life has become a kind of struggle to possess material objects that can please our senses and provide illusory comforts. Every moment we are into the war like situation to accumulate material objects that can bring pleasure.
That big car, house, comfort, lavish lifestyle, etc. More we get habitual of these more distressed we become. And once we are trapped into the net, it’s never ending situation. Recently, I was told by a son of billionaire that he wants to buy a studio apartment and wish to live a simple and ordinary life.
The true happiness comes with the realization that nothing is permanent. The happiness of being millionaire is only until you live in the society of poor people. You move to a society of billionaires and then your’s being a millionaire will be a painful experience. Your state of happiness changes based on the lens from which you look at life.
The liberation is felt only when you put in use your material possession for the right purpose. When your capacities and capabilities are used for helping the needy ones. You choose to live life within the necessities rather than being surrounded with self-pleasing objects and comforts. You are bound to suffer the biggest distress – the complete waste of life in trying to gain the pleasure while swimming against the flow of the river.