Five Causes Of Frustration

“She gathered more ropes from the house and added to it, but at the end she found the same shortage. In this way, she connected all the ropes available at home, but when the final knot was added, she saw that it was still two inches too short. Mother Yashoda was smiling, but she was astonished. How was it happening?” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 1, Ch 9)

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1. The cars on the road won’t move

“Are you kidding me? Why are you people not moving? I chose this time of day intentionally. There is not supposed to be any traffic. I cannot sit here and wait around forever. I have to be at some place at a specific time. It is entirely your fault. You people are strolling along, as if it is an easy Sunday afternoon. Just ridiculous.”

2. The sun hasn’t been out in weeks

“I swear, I live in the worst part of the world. We are supposed to have four distinct seasons, but that is nonsense. You have the season of ice, the season of rain, and the season of allergies. I could tolerate it all were it not for the lack of sunshine. Why is it always overcast? When the sun does come out I almost want to send it back. Don’t waste your time on this awful place, pal. Don’t even bother shining here.”

3. The spouse is constantly yelling

“Can you at least take ownership of something? Cleaning the house. Tidying up. Cooking. Taking out the trash. Literally, just pick one thing and do it. Stop involving me in everything. As soon as I highlight your utter laziness, I hear yelling and screaming as a response. Who would ever choose to live this way? What a nightmare!”

4. The employer refuses to give a raise

“I am doing the work of four people. Delegating has not helped matters, because the less intelligent people on the team keep asking me for help. They are so eager to show off how much they can do, but later I have to clean up their messes. I have to compensate for their incompetence. To make matters worse, they earn the same salary as me. How is that fair? You need to pay me more.”

5. The ropes are not long enough

Shri Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita how lust is at the root of our problems. Lust is kama, which starts out as basic desire. I want to do something. I anticipate a certain situation. I expect a specific landscape for the field in which I plan to operate. I may have become accustomed to certain conditions based on time and experience.

But then something goes wrong. An unplanned emergency. There is frustration. My desire is not met. That desire could be intense, and so the same kama can accurately be described as lust. When the lust is not satisfied, when the initial desire grows in intensity, I am bound to feel a sense of frustration.

ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते
सङ्गात्सञ्जायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते

dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ
saṅgas teṣūpajāyate
saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ
kāmāt krodho ’bhijāyate

“While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.62)

This frustration is due to both my fallibility and the nature of the playing field, kshetra. I cannot always get what I want. I am not entirely in control of outcomes. I am not satya-sankalpa. What to speak of interference, of colliding desires, I also must receive the cooperation from nature itself. This cooperation must be there every single time.

प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि
गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः
अहङ्कार-विमूढात्मा
कर्ताहम् इति मन्यते

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate

“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 3.27)

This limitation to the human experience juxtaposes well with the supreme standing of the one who is known as God. In the personal form, where there is a distinct identity separate from other identities, God is known as Krishna. This also describes a person who is all-attractive.

Shri Krishna is satya-sankalpa. Whatever He desires, whatever ideas He contemplates, there is always success. No one can get in His way. He has control over the entire material energy. He is the entire universe and more.

We can take the same desire, which is kama, and turn it towards the interest of Krishna. This kama then turns into bhakti. It is devotion. We may experience the same kind of frustration, on occasion. The lack of fulfillment could be in an area as basic as trying to wrap rope around an object. This is what once occurred with mother Yashoda. Dutiful to her role as parent, she tried to bind her naughty child to a mortar as a form of mild punishment.

The same attempt might get a parent arrested today, charged with abusing a child, but there was no hint of abuse in this case. The young child had broken a pot of yogurt in anger. He then ran away, fearing the punishment that was coming once the mother discovered the damage.

This child happened to be the same Krishna, and so the frustration from the mother turned into a wonderful incident. Krishna finally relented. He allowed the doer to succeed in their desire. Yashoda bound Krishna, who thus earned the name Damodara. That vision of Damodara has since been celebrated by devotees aspiring to reach the same closeness to the one who is everything and more.

In Closing:

Of limitations shastra enjoining,
Like when many ropes adjoining.

But child cannot be bound,
Only more frustration found.

Since to devotion connected,
In that endeavor protected.

Krishna Himself giving the consent,
On Yashoda’s desire to relent.