When spiritualists also experience the craving for more when pursuing spiritual happiness, how is their experience different from material dissatisfaction?

We often condemn material pleasures, saying that these are unsatisfactory. But then we hear in scripture that even spiritual happiness never really satisfies the heart in the sense that the devotee is always wanting more and more, just as materialists want more and more. So how is the spiritual dissatisfaction different from material dissatisfaction? The answer is in three fundamental ways.

The first is the limitedness or unlimitedness of the source. The second is the accessibility of that source for us and third is the effect of that happiness, that experience and even the pursuit on us. So we could summarize this in the acronym SAC, Source, Accessibility and Consequence.

When it comes to material happiness, the sources of material happiness themselves are finite in terms of their capacity to provide us happiness. If we wanted to enjoy looking at beautiful objects or eating delicious foods, they’re themselves limited in number. We may argue that totally there are unlimited number of attractive objects in the world if we consider what is present all over the world.

But still, those attractive objects are interspersed with many that are not that attractive. All the food that we eat is not equally delicious and in contrast with it, Krishna by definition is unlimited and he is an ocean of happiness. No material object can be considered to be an ocean and even if it were an ocean, it’s all temporary whereas Krishna is eternal.

So both in terms of the quantity and the longevity, Krishna is eternal, unlimited and everlasting in terms of him being the source of happiness which is not true with respect to sense objects which even if numerous are still finite and are all vulnerable to the deterioration and destruction by the passage of time. Thus, somebody who by great struggle gets a particular sense object, they’ll soon find that that object will no longer with the passage of time remain that beautiful or attractive and they will need to crave for some other object. In the case of Krishna, it is not that the devotee has to crave for something other than Krishna.

The devotee’s longing is to experience more and more of Krishna itself. The difference is like if somebody is in a desert and they find what seems to be initially an oasis but it soon turns out to be a very small puddle of water and immediately after that they have to search for another puddle which initially seems like to be an oasis but turns out to be just another tiny puddle whereas Krishna is like an ocean of delicious nectarian water and we can drink in one area and after that we can drink in another area and we can keep drinking and relishing in different ways at different places within the vast ocean of devotion that we enter into through developing love for Krishna. So, the second is in terms of accessibility that attractive sense objects are not easily accessible to everyone and even if they were accessible, our own senses capacity to access them is limited.

Somebody may own a shop of sweets but they can only eat so many sweets. Somebody may be in a relationship with the most good looking person in the whole world but their own body’s capacity to enjoy the company of such a person physically is limited and it becomes increasingly limited with time. So, the access to the sense objects itself is limited because there is fierce competition for getting the sense objects and even if the best sense objects are available, the capacity of our senses to access them is again limited and that’s what leads eventually to frustration when people stop physical indulgence.

It is not so much because they are satisfied but it is because their body is exhausted even though their desires are still inflamed, they stop because their body cannot go on anymore. Not because they are completely satisfied with the indulgence whereas with respect to Krishna, yes, there is difficulty in accessing Krishna initially because of our lack of purification yet Krishna makes himself accessible to us through the temple deity images, through the sacred texts and through the holy names, through his holy names and if we become purified and our mind becomes focused on Krishna and thereafter attracted to Krishna, then that access can be there for us 24 hours a day and this access is a matter of our heart, our consciousness and it does not depend on our senses and their limited capacity and thus it is that a devotee can relish the remembrance of Krishna and the joy thereof unendingly, something which is just not possible within material gratification through physical sense objects. And last is the, in the acronym S.A.C., the consequence that when we seek material pleasures, we get increasingly infatuated with them and attached to them, even addicted to them.

That keeps our consciousness increasingly restless and increasingly contaminated by the craving for that pleasure. It’s as if a shackle is formed that even while we are enjoying one object, we are being dragged toward another object. Even before we have finished drinking the water from one puddle, it’s as if there’s an invisible rope which is pulling us towards another puddle and we lose all capacity to relish the pleasure, whatever is present and that’s why once a person is addicted, what indulgence offers is not so much the positive experience of pleasure as the experience of a temporary relief from the negative experience of an increasingly intense craving.

That’s why over a period of time addicts indulge not because the indulgence feels so good but because not indulging feels so terrible and unbearable. While in some ways great devotees may also experience express dissatisfaction and a divine kind of madness in their pursuit of Krishna, there is a categorical difference because Krishna is omnipotent and omnipresent. So, even when a devotee is experiencing separation from Krishna, still the devotee’s consciousness is absorbed in Krishna and in that absorption the devotee is still experiencing the presence of Krishna and there is joy in that.

So, just the remembrance of Krishna is like nectar and this nectar comes in different flavors. When that remembrance of Krishna is accompanied with union with Krishna, that means one can perceive Krishna and be with Krishna, then that is like sweet nectar and when that remembrance is accompanied with separation from Krishna, then that is like bitter nectar. But still it is nectar in the sense that it reaches the deepest core of our being, our soul and touches and enlivens it.

So, more importantly, this longing frees us from cravings for other things which often contaminate and entangle and degrade us. So, there is a categorical difference between the dissatisfaction experienced by a devotee in that the source is unlimited, it is always accessible and the consequence is that the devotee is always spiritually enlivened even if at a surface level it doesn’t seem to be constantly joyful.