Hard Struggle for Happiness 15
and material existence. Theoretical negation of
material activities as propounded by Sripada Sankar-
acarya may be effective for an insignificant section
of mankind, but the best and surest way for everyone
to attain spiritual bliss was propounded by Lord
Sti Caitanya Mahaprabhu by means of devotional
activities. These devotional activities can change the
very face of material nature.

Hankering after material happiness is called lust,
and lusty activities are sure to meet with frustration
in the long run. The body of a snake is very cool,
but if a man, wanting to enjoy this coolness, garlands
himself with a venomous snake, he will surely be
killed by the snake’s venomous bite. The material
senses are compared to snakes; indulgence in material
happiness will surely kill our spiritual identity. There-
fore a sane man should be ambitious to find the real
source of happiness.

In order to find this source, however, we need
some knowledge of what that happiness is. There is
the story of the foolish man who had no experience
with sugar cane. When he asked his friend about the
characteristics of sugar cane, he was imperfectly
informed that sugar cane resembles the shape of a
bamboo stick. Consequently he began trying to ex-
tract juice from bamboo sticks, but naturally he was
baffled in his attempts. This is the situation with the
illusioned living entity who, in his search for eternal
happiness, tries to extract happiness from this mate-
rial world, which is not only full of miseries but is
also transient and flickering. In Bhagavad-gita the
material world is described as being full of miseries.
