Disclaimer: This translation does not guarantee complete accuracy, please confirm with the original page text.
## The Sorrows of Human and Divine Existence
**Chapter 4, Verse 67 of the Yoga Shastra**
**The Sorrows of the Animal Realm:**
Goats and other animals are eaten. Aquatic creatures with five senses often swallow each other. The saying "fish swallowing fish" is well-known. In the ocean, large fish swallow small fish. Fishermen catch fish in the water with nets, herons eat them, some skin them, cook their flesh and eat it, others kill them for their fat. On land, weak deer and other animals are eaten by strong, flesh-hungry lions, cheetahs, wolves, etc. Hunters, poachers, those who enjoy hunting or are flesh-hungry or fond of sport, inflict violence on many creatures. Poor land animals have to endure hunger, thirst, cold, heat, carrying excessive loads, being beaten, and being scolded with whips, goads, etc. They have to endure such pain. Birds that fly in the sky, like parrots, pigeons, eagles, sparrows, partridges, etc., are eaten by birds of prey, vultures, cats, etc. Flesh-hungry butchers, hunters, etc., catch them using various methods, inflicting various kinds of torture, and kill them. Poor animals are always afraid of water, fire, weapons, etc. They often die bound and enslaved. How can we describe the many sorrows they experience due to their own karmic bonds?
**The Sorrows of the Human Realm:**
In the human realm, a human born in an uncivilized land commits so many sins that it is impossible to even describe them. Even those born in civilized lands, many become Chandala, Mlechchha, Bhangi, butcher, prostitute, etc., and earn many sins and experience sorrow. Even those born in the Aryan lineage, by acting like uncivilized people, experience sorrow, poverty, and burn in the flames of misfortune. Seeing others with more wealth and themselves with less, or feeling resentment in their hearts due to being enslaved by others or working for them, humans live in sorrow. Surrounded by sorrows like disease, old age, death, loss of loved ones, or becoming infamous due to low deeds, humans live in a pitiful and sorrowful state. Old age, disease, death, or slavery are not as painful as hell or the womb. The pain experienced by a being when it exits the womb is truly infinite times greater than the pain of being in the womb. In childhood, humans are covered in feces and urine, they play in it. In youth, they engage in sexual activity, and in old age, they are afflicted with respiratory diseases, asthma, cough, etc. They are not ashamed, even though they are like pigs eating excrement in childhood, like lustful donkeys in youth, and like old bulls in old age, not remaining in human form. Humans see their mother's face in childhood, a young woman's face in youth, and their children's faces in old age, but they do not see their inner self, their true self. Driven by the desire for wealth, humans are engrossed in farming, jobs, business, animal husbandry, etc., and waste their lives. Sometimes they steal, sometimes they gamble, sometimes they engage in evil with the wicked. In this way, humans adopt the causes for repeated transmigration in the world. Blinded by delusion, humans end their lives indulging in sensual pleasures when happy, and in misery and weeping when unhappy, but they do not understand the path of righteousness. This means that the soul, capable of destroying an infinite number of karmic aggregates, even after attaining humanhood, becomes sinful by committing sins. Having obtained the human body, the foundation of the three jewels of knowledge, vision, and character, they fill it with sin, like filling a golden vessel with wine. Like a crow throwing away a gem to chase after a bird, they lose their precious human life, even though they have received it, like a rare gem, more valuable than the Chintamani, a wish-fulfilling gem, in the ocean of existence. Even after attaining humanhood, an extraordinary cause for attaining heaven and liberation, humans engage in actions that lead to hell. Even the gods of the Uttara-Vimana, who strive with great effort to obtain humanhood, use this human life for sin when they obtain it. The sorrows of hell are indirect, but the sorrows of birth and death are direct. How can we describe them in detail?
**The Sorrows of the Divine Realm:**
Even among intelligent gods, who are under the sway of sorrow, anger, despair, envy, and misery, sorrow reigns supreme. Seeing the great prosperity of another, knowing their own meager good deeds earned in past lives, gods grieve for a long time. If another powerful god is after them and they are unable to retaliate, they experience sorrow.