Returning to the Eternal Religion
255
is not an easy thing, and  māyā , or the illusory, material energy, tries especially hard to again entrap those who have left her service to become devotees. Therefore, in order to withstand the attack of  māyā  and remain strong under all conditions of temptation, young or inexperienced devotees in the neophyte stage of devotional service will sometimes adopt an attitude against those things or persons which may possibly be harmful or threatening to their tender devotional creepers. They may even overindulge in such feelings just to protect themselves, and thus they will appear to some nondevotees, who are perhaps themselves still very much enamored by the material energy of  māyā , to be negative or pessimistic.
But the actual fact is that this material world is a miserable, negative place, full of danger at every step; it is  duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam , a temporary abode of death, birth, disease, and old age, a home of suffering and pain only. To come to the platform of understanding these things as they are is not very common, and therefore persons who attain to it are described as “great souls.”
mām upetya punar janma duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ samsiddhim paramāṁ gatāḥ
This means that those who have understood that the material worlds are places of misery and temporality ( duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam ) never return here again, and because they are  mahātmānaḥ , the great souls, Kṛṣṇa keeps them with Him because they have qualified themselves to escape this nasty place by becoming His pure devotees. This verse is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, or God Himself, in the  Bhagavad-gītā  [Bg. 8.15]. Who can be a more final authority? The point is that to make advancement in spiritual life, one must view everything material with a pessimistic eye unless it is utilized to serve and please Kṛṣṇa. We are not very much hopeful for any lasting pleasure or satisfaction for our deepest cravings within this realm of gross matter.
You refer to the word “love” several times in your letter, but the actual fact is that there is no love in this material world. That is false propaganda. What they call love here is lust only, or desire for personal sense gratification:
kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavaḥ