by David Bruce Hughes

We all have problems. Our problems are of three kinds: created by natural law, created by other living entities, and created by ourselves. Although the problems of life are innumerable, nevertheless they have a simple, natural solution.

Problems created by natural law include hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Problems created by others comprise the laws, obligations and restrictions of human society, the ordinary difficulties of social relationships, and such annoyances as animal bites and insect stings. The problems created by oneself include all those resulting from desire and ambition—especially hankering and lamentation—and the ultimate problems of birth, old age, disease and death.

Everyone feels deep down inside that there should be no problems, that life should be smooth and effortless. And indeed, we all have experienced times when our affairs go well and life seems happy. But at any moment our bliss can be shattered by the unwelcome appearance of a problem—or several of them at once.

Our problems begin even before birth. The womb of the mother is an uncomfortable situation, tightly restricted and full of miserable conditions. Then we are squeezed like toothpaste through the birth canal and out into the cold, hard world.

But gestation and birth are only the beginning of our problems. Each stage of childhood and adolescence has its own peculiar array of difficulties all too familiar to parents and doctors. Children often long to grow to adulthood because they think adults are all-powerful beings free from the problems of childhood. What children don’t know—perhaps because we try so hard to hide it from them—is that adulthood brings a raft of daunting problems of its own.

Through our own ambitions, we create the unpleasant sensation of unfulfilled hankering or desire, and by attachment to the inevitable losses of life we experience the unfortunate emotions of grief and lamentation. These emotional tribulations are due solely to our own desire and affection for the temporary objects and relationships of this world. Yet who can imagine a life free from desire, or without attachment to family, possessions and the rest?

Yet all these various dilemmas pale in significance before the ultimate problems of life: birth, old age, disease and death. No one can avoid being thrust into this world of problems and suffering at birth, and no one can avoid the aging process, resulting in deterioration of the body, loss of vital function and final separation of the soul from the body at death. These four are the cause of all the other pressing problems of life. And of these four main problems, birth is the root of all the others.

Taking birth in a material body is the beginning of a chain of cause and effect that instigates all the other problems of life. If we could avoid birth, we automatically solve all the other problems of life, including the problem of death. However, no one can remember asking or choosing to take birth in a material body, and thereby become subject to all the other problems of life. We are thrust into life without our foreknowledge or consent, and left to deal with all the problems of existence however we can. This is the existential human situation.

Once we become literate and mature enough to be able to take advice from others, we find that countless people before us have attempted to solve these same problems of life. We can read so many books and find so many advisers, many of whom are delighted to charge us for their professional services. Yet none of these would-be counselors have themselves solved the problem of birth and death in the material world, nor can they show us how to nullify the root cause of these primal problems of existence.

No one who is subject to birth and death themselves can solve this problem for another. Clearly, to solve the problems of birth and death requires intelligence greater than human. Luckily, not only does such an intelligence exist, but He has left clear instructions on how we can solve the problem of birth and death—and even offered to help.

The Bhagavad-gita is the best-known scripture of the ancient Vedic tradition. In eighteen chapters of concise, elegant Sanskrit codes, Bhagavad-gita reveals a plan for the perfection of human life, leading to the complete solution of all problems. Bhagavad-gita discusses a series of tattvas (spiritual truths) that lead the student progressively to the perfection of spiritual life.

The speaker of Bhagavad-gita, Lord Sri Kṛṣṇa, is not an ordinary human being, or even a great human being. According to the Vedic tradition, He is God Himself, incarnate in human form for our benefit. Believing that Sri Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead certainly enhances the value we can realize from the pages of Bhagavad-gita. But even if we lack this faith, we can employ the wisdom of Bhagavad-gita to enhance our understanding of life and find solutions to our problems.

Jiva-tattva

The first tattva explored in Bhagavad-gita is jiva-tattva, or the truth of the soul. According to Bhagavad-gita, the soul is an eternal, indestructible subatomic particle of pure consciousness. The soul is absolute, being of the same transcendental spiritual quality as God, and therefore no force in the material world can affect the soul. The soul is life itself—maintaining and activating the body and mind, and demonstrating its attributes of consciousness, desire, energy and activity through them.

This apparently simple truth has tremendously profound implications. First, we do not have a soul; we are a soul. We are conscious; more, we are consciousness itself. Consciousness is the basic fact of our existence. Consciousness is so fundamental that without it, there are no other issues.

Consciousness never leaves us, because consciousness is what we are. Sometimes we are conscious of being awake and active; sometimes we are conscious of being asleep and active in dreams. During deep sleep, we are conscious of nothing; yet, although the mind and senses are inactive we are still conscious.

Consciousness is eternal and transcendent by its very nature. Thus, the first goal of spiritual progress is not to attain eternal life, but to realize that we already have it.

If we are eternal, then we existed before this short life, and will continue to exist forever after it. This temporary body is not the self, nor is it our real identity. Both our real self and our real identity are the eternal soul.

Yet we tend to identify not with our intrinsic nature as a conscious soul, but with the temporary material body, mind and senses. Thus we are not fixated on our consciousness, but identify with its contents. This confusion of context and content is actually the source of all our problems.

As a soul, we are constitutionally unaffected by the pleasures and pains of the body and mind. All the events of this life never touch or change the fundamental quality of consciousness, just as the passage of clouds, dust and odors through the air never affect the basic nature of the sky. Similarly, a man may see a movie of a tiger attacking someone. But when the movie is over, he walks out of the theatre unaffected.

We suffer from the problems of life because we think that we are the body and the mind, and that the events and problems of material existence are happening to us. We do not realize that we are viewing a program similar to a movie, and that we are separate from both the projector and the screen. The projector of temporary material cause and effect is showing a constantly changing movie on the screen of the body and the mind; but as conscious souls, we are simply spectators.

Vastu-tattva

The second great truth discussed in the very beginning of the Bhagavad-gita is vastu-tattva, or the truth of real existence. Kṛṣṇa expresses this tattva very succinctly in a single verse: “Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that there is no endurance of the nonexistent, and no cessation of the existent.”

In other words, only things whose existence is eternal really exist. Temporary objects have only relative existence. As noted before, without consciousness, the material world is simply irrelevant. Therefore, the very existence of the material world is dependent on the pre-existence of consciousness, or spirit.

Everything in material existence is temporary. Just as there was a time before creation when this material universe did not exist, in the far future there will come a time when it will cease to be. Similarly, all entities within the material universe go through the seven stages of creation, gestation, birth, growth, maturity, dwindling and destruction. For example, we all experience these stages in connection with the material body.

Thus, there is no permanence of material existence, qualities or conditions. The only constant in material existence is change. The material energy is in a constant state of flux. Because of this impermanent character, all material beingness is relative. Relative beingness is not only temporary; it is dependent upon something more permanent, on the beingness of the Absolute. The Absolute is God and the unchanging spiritual world.

The solution

Therefore, if we are searching for peace, contentment and the solution to our problems, we should cultivate our faith in that which is permanent and thus fully real. Instead of identifying with the temporary material body and looking for solutions in the changing, uncertain illusions of the mind, let us put our faith in the eternal, unchanging Absolute—the soul, God and the spiritual world.

All of our problems are due to accepting the unreal for the real, the temporary for the permanent, the body and mind instead of the soul and God. We have cheated ourselves by investing our identity in the temporary content of our consciousness, instead of identifying with our eternal consciousness itself. Because of this existential error, we are suffering from a whole collection of problems that have nothing to do with our real self.

If we are not the material body, we cannot be born. If we are the immortal soul, we cannot become sick or die. If we are Absolute and changeless, no one can put us into disgrace or make us suffer. And if we are citizens of the spiritual world, we cannot take birth in this material world and endure so many problems and difficulties.

The cultivation of this spiritual consciousness is the solution to all the problems of human existence. By turning this one switch, we can affect everything. Taking full shelter of consciousness, of the soul, is the ultimate resolution of all material pains.

Like all great ideas, this solution is simple and elegant. And of course, it is much easier said than done. A lifetime of carefully building our spiritual knowledge and cultivating faith in God—and in our real selves, the soul—is the price we must pay for this solution. Bhagavad-gita goes on to present guidelines for this cultivation, and includes a broad discussion of various reliable methods for developing spiritual realization.

In the final analysis, the problems of this material existence are nothing but an impetus that motivates us to search for their solution. When we finally tire of the obvious, ordinary—and ineffective—solutions presented by our senses and minds, we begin to dig deeper. Finally, when we become fortunate, we discover the transcendental knowledge of Bhagavad-gita and realize the eternal spiritual wisdom of the soul.