How Does Arjuna’s Search for Material Happiness Lead to Spiritual Awakening?
Arjuna is currently focused only on material happiness. It’s not that a believer ignores material happiness, but as they search for it, they realize that true material happiness is impossible to achieve. This realization then leads to the search for spiritual happiness. Material happiness plays an important role in this journey because it inevitably brings sadness and frustration, which push a person to seek something deeper.
Interestingly, in life, the steps we take that seem to lead away from God often bring us closer to Him. This may seem paradoxical, but it’s true that steps connected to material pleasures or even hellish experiences can eventually guide us toward spiritual fulfillment. In fact, the journey toward spiritual happiness often begins only after the complete failure of our pursuit of material happiness.
There’s a story from Greek mythology about Sisyphus, who was punished by the gods to push a stone up a mountain, only for it to roll back down every time he reached the top. Sisyphus would then go back down, pick up the stone, and start over, endlessly repeating this futile task. This myth symbolizes how we humans repeatedly chase material happiness, thinking that next time we will succeed, but we always end up disappointed. This continuous cycle is crucial because it’s only after realizing the futility of this pursuit that the quest for spiritual happiness begins.
Material happiness, therefore, acts as a negative guide, showing us what doesn’t work and pushing us toward the spiritual path. It’s why even those seeking material happiness aren’t irreligious; they’re just looking for bliss in the wrong places. Eventually, they must realize that it cannot be found in material things and begin searching in a new direction—toward God, peace, or inner fulfillment.
Lao Tzu once said that although he read the scriptures, he gained nothing from them. However, he did learn one important lesson: that nothing could be gained from the scriptures themselves. This realization is valuable because it encourages us to seek truth not in words, but in life itself. Once we understand that happiness cannot be found in material things, we can begin searching for it within ourselves or in God. This second search only begins after the failure of the first.
So, Arjuna is indeed talking about material happiness. He wonders what he would gain from a kingdom without his loved ones, or from happiness that doesn’t last. But this questioning is the first step in his spiritual journey, making him a seeker of religion—not one who has attained it, but one who is eager to find it.