For souls who are living in the world of dualities, depression is an inevitable part of life. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says: 'O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.' Disturbances of the mind can be very difficult to deal with, and often impede our service. This article aims to pinpoint the cause of depression and outline how we can remain superior to this feeling.
Eternally, the spirit soul is blissful and knowledgeable, but this bliss is currently being covered by many layers of materialistic desires and misconceptions. There are many factors which can lower our mood which range from relationship problems to the weather, and all of these factors fall into three categories. Shrila Prabhupada described the threefold miseries of material existence as follows:
'adhyātmika, adhidaivika and adhibhautika. No one can escape the threefold miseries of materialistic life, namely miseries pertaining to the body and mind, miseries pertaining to the difficulties imposed by society, community, nation and other living entities, and miseries inflicted upon us by natural disturbances from earthquakes, famines, droughts, floods, epidemics, and so on.'
The body is also described as a network of ignorance. And what is it that the body is ignorant of? The eternal, blissful and knowledgeable self. Every living entity is an infintisemal spiritual spark of the supreme spiritual being, Krishna. As Krishna is perfect and complete, all of his emanations are also perfect and complete, hencewhy we are able to live harmoniously amongst other living entities in this material world. We parts are perfect and complete - we all have functioning senses - and the material nature is also perfect and complete - every living entity is provided with the specific necessities to sustain life.
'The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.'
Shri Ishopanishad
The body, being a network of ignorance, covers our perfect and complete spiritual senses, and causes us to believe that we are not eternal spiritual sparks, but temporary material bodies. In the conditioned stage, the jiva is always looking for pleasure, as our natural position is of blissfulness. This hankering instills a deep fear in the living entity, the fear of dying. Death for the conditioned soul means stoppage of all sense activity, which would mean leaving behind everything which gives us pleasure - friends, family, food etc. This state is very unnatural for the soul, who in actuality, is always enjoying with Krishna.
Service to Krishna is non different from Krishna himself, who is the epitome of bliss, knowledge and eternity. So keeping absorbed in his service will give instant satisfaction to the soul. There are countless ways to serve the Lord, including cooking for him, cleaning his temple, hearing or chanting about his glories, or simply remembering him. Even your mundane job can be connected to Krishna if you dedicate the results of your work for his sankirtan movement. This is as easy as giving a monthly donation for his preachers.
Ultimately, everybody wants to live and enjoy forever. Eternity bliss and knowledge is the living entity's birthrite. So if you would like to be reinstated in your natural position, and be aways happy, then attach yourself to the lotus feet of Shrila Prabhupada - the perfect representative of Krishna - and go back to your original home, the spiritual world.
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