Five Blockers To My Happiness

“For as long as there is not devotion to Shri Rama and the release of material desires, which are like an abode of grief, the living being should not expect to find welfare and peace of mind, even in a dream.” (Dohavali, 131)

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तब लगि कुसल न जीव कहुँ सपनेहुँ मन बिश्राम।
जब लगि भजत न राम कहुँ सोकधाम तजि काम ॥

taba lagi kusala na jīva kahu~ sapanehu~ mana biśrāma।
jaba lagi bhajata na rāma kahu~ sokadhāma taji kāma ॥

1. A related ticket in IT

“You want a status update? I am waiting on IT to give me permission to the server. Until that happens, I cannot do anything. This is a blocker for me. If you want to speed up the process, maybe talk to the people in charge. Tell them to get on it.”

2. Graduation

“How can I make any long-term plans? I have yet to graduate. I need to complete the course of study before I can apply for jobs. This is a blocker for me. You should be patient. You should realize that I am on track.”

3. A raise

“The wife is hounding me about improving the home. We need to redo the kitchen. She wants another bathroom added. It is annoying to have to listen to her, but my hands are tied. I am waiting on a raise from the place of employment. This is a blocker for me. I am not about to invest in projects requiring substantial amounts of money if our finances are not in order first.”

4. A family

“How can I think about going back to school? I realize that will eventually yield financial benefits in the job market, but my time is running short for starting a family. This is a blocker for me. It is better that I start now, while I am still young. If I am too old, I will not have the requisite strength and energy for taking care of young children.”

5. Good health

“This health scare has been a real wakeup call. I cannot even think about changing the daily routine until I can start doing things on my own again. Getting up out of bed. Fixing meals. Driving around town to complete errands. Let me learn to walk before insisting that I run.”

…

Goswami Tulsidas explains that there are actually only two blockers. Those blockers apply to every person, to every situation, to every circumstance, and to every period of living. How can any assessment have such blanket applicability? How is it possible to make an appropriate diagnosis before even meeting someone and understanding their specific difficulties?

The explanation applies based on the nature of the world. It is a place of illusion. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that while the impersonalist may describe this world as false, mithya, taken to be a shadow of something, that something still must exist.

As an example, if I mistake a rope for a snake, there is a sense of relief, in the immediate term. At least I am not around a snake. At least that rope is otherwise harmless. The truth is that while the rope is not a snake, the concept of a snake is real. I can only mistake something for another thing if that other thing exists.

In the same way, the material world is a shadow of the eternal, imperishable realm. This is described in Bhagavad­-gita, with the Sanskrit word apareyam. The material world is inferior. There is another, higher realm. That place never gets destroyed. Neither is it ever created.

अपरेयम् इतस् त्व् अन्यां
प्रकृतिं विद्धि मे पराम्
जीव-भूतां महा-बाहो
ययेदं धार्यते जगत्

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ
prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho
yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

“Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.5)

The first blocker to general welfare and peace of mind is desire itself. The result of unchecked desire is taking up residence in a place full of grief, shokadhama. Everywhere you turn there is misery and suffering. No one is happy. They only think that fulfillment is on the way, with their pressing issue, requiring urgent attention, but the end-result is always continued misery.

The second blocker is actually more important. The removal of this blocker automatically takes care of desire. There is a lack of devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Tulsidas worships Him as Rama. Others may choose a different visual manifestation which represents the same personality, but the impact is the same.

Devotion to Rama already includes jnana and vairagya, knowledge and renunciation. Through knowledge I know what is important. Through realigning priorities I know what things to renounce and what to keep. My material desires are gone, but I still work in such a way as to look for success.

I want to please the Supreme Lord. I want to work for His benefit. Nothing can hold up this endeavor. Someone else may try to obstruct, but since the service is based on consciousness, there is nothing an outside force can do to thwart the desire. There is no blocker for the soul fixed in their desire to please God the person, and therefore the nature of the residence automatically changes from full of distress to extended peace and auspiciousness.

In Closing:

That room of happiness to construct,
But so many others to obstruct.

Only if this thing care of taking,
Or first proper resolution making.

Truth that desire itself in the way,
But when with Rama to stay.

Then no force can interfere,
Vaikuntha created right here.