Acharya Prashant explains that whatever we do, our entire human system, all the arrangements that man has established, ultimately serve one central purpose. This purpose is either to eliminate the suffering being experienced or to keep away anticipated suffering. This means all our activities, all our actions, all our thoughts, and all our plans are for this one central purpose: to somehow escape suffering. The suffering is either the one that has already befallen us or the one that seems imminent, where we feel something is about to go wrong and we must do something. A human being does anything only because they are either unsatisfied, afflicted, incomplete, sick, in greed, or in fear. Or, they have a thought or apprehension that something is about to go wrong, and before it does, they must act. So, our entire system is suffering-centric. However, for the suffering that torments us throughout our lives, we never seek its central treatment. We try to treat it in fifty other ways. One way is the search for happiness. Another way is to somehow forget the suffering. We are ready to do anything except the one simple, straightforward solution, which is to know the truth. The truth is that without the complete realization of the one who is suffering, suffering will not be eliminated. How can suffering go away if the very existence of the sufferer is suffering? The name of the sufferer's existence is suffering. How can suffering go away if suffering itself is the life force in every vein of the sufferer? It's like saying, 'My blood is impure, I want to remove the blood.' If the blood is removed, you won't survive. The way we live, suffering is our life force, our lifeblood. If suffering is removed, we won't survive. Therefore, a complete investigation of the one who is suffering is necessary. Who is this sufferer who calls itself 'I'? Is it possible for the sufferer to remain as it has always been, but the suffering goes away? It's not possible. It's like asking for honey to remain but its sweetness to go away, or for fire to remain but its heat to go away. The problem of suffering, which is our central problem, has made us run around. It is our engine and our fuel. We are not lovers of joy; we are afflicted by suffering. There is a big difference between these two. Joy is not the opposite of suffering. Living in love with joy is one thing, and living in fear of suffering, running here and there, is a completely different thing. We are people afflicted by suffering, and the very thing that afflicts us is our energy, our fuel, our engine. It's what makes us run. The speaker concludes that we are born with suffering, but there is a possibility that suffering may not remain in life. That possibility is through the path of knowing God, which will end suffering. There is only one way, and no other shortcut should be sought.
