Karma Phale Ase Saba Nana Vesa Dhari

The living entity, although a pure spirit soul, is forced to take birth again and again in many different kinds of bodies as a reaction to his previous material activities, or karmas. Although these bodies are merely like external costumes or garments to the eternal soul, the embodied spirit soul becomes so infatuated and preoccupied by the experiences of enjoyment and suffering they provide that he forgets his eternal relationship with Śrī Hari (Kṛṣṇa), the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Therefore Maya, the illusory material energy of Lord Kṛṣṇa, gives the conditioned soul various kinds of material suffering. In the midst of this suffering, sometimes the conditioned soul gets some momentary respite. Like criminals in olden times who were punished by being dunked in the water until they almost drowned, and then lifted at the last moment to get a breath of air only to be dunked again in the water, the conditioned soul is forced to suffer the reactions for his previous sinful activities, but when there is some temporary relief from the almost constant suffering of material life, he foolishly considers that to be happiness.

A terminally diseased person, bedridden and compelled to experience so many inconveniences and miseries, sometimes feels a little relief from pain, if someone were to ask at that moment, “How are you doing?” he may reply from his sick bed with a smile, “Today I am quite well!”

Hearing him say that he’s “doing well” even under those appalling conditions makes me smile at its absurdity. Although the actual condition of material life is miserable, a materially conditioned person considers it happiness when he gets some temporary or partial relief from suffering.