If you just look into all the pleasures or joy that you get in life, you will note that they all come with a tax and this tax is sorrow.

In the next sutra, Patanjali says,

” परिणामतापसंस्कार दुःखैगुॅणवृत्तिविरोधाश्च दुःखमेव सवॅ विवेकिनः ”

” Parinaama taapa sanskaara dukhaihi guna vrittivirodhaascha dukhameva sarvam vivekinah ”

Every event causes some pain. An event could be very pleasant or joyful. But, it comes with a little pinch, a pain. That pain is that, however joyful an event is, it will end. And the ending of an event, however pleasurable and joyful, comes with a little pinch. The greater the joy it has given, the greater will be the pain when it ends.

Parinaama dukha – This is called parinaama, the effect or the result.

Taapa dukha – longing for an event. Waiting for a pleasurable event causes pain.

Samskaara dukha – the impressions of it, memories of it. Memories of a pleasure also bring pain. So before you have something, the feverishness to get it is painful. Then, when you have it, the fear of losing it is painful. And, when it is gone the memory of its joy is painful. So the whole thing is all pain from the beginning to the end.

A viveki or an intelligent person whose wisdom has been awakened sees the whole thing as a pain. So there is nothing that is not pain. Sarvam eva dukha mayam. Everything is painful. You say love is so beautiful, but love is also painful. How close can you get to the person you love? Bodies get close but still there is no satisfaction. Each one wants to enter the other’s body. How can it enter? How much it can enter? You get frustrated. Often, in the next life, a male takes up a female body and a female takes up a male body. This is because it is the most prominent craving, or longing in the mind. A male longs for a female and a female longs for a male. This is also the reason that in every male there will be female characteristics and, likewise, in a female, on account of some impressions of the previous birth.

Jai Gurudev