This is why people sometimes say, “Why this repetition of misfortunes, or what have I done to God to suffer so much?”

Over the course of countless lifetimes, incarnate spiritual beings have accumulated, through their thoughts, words, and actions, a significant amount of harm, culpable acts, or sins that compel them, and today they endure the resulting misfortunes and suffering. Thus, it is through pain or suffering experienced and felt that we diminish and erase our faults.

In this world, human beings are in permanent contact with material energy and, as such, must endure the repetitive cycle of birth, illness, old age, and death.

While there are numerous hospitals and clinics where material illnesses of the body can be perfectly treated and cured, there is not a single hospital center that can cure the material illness of the spiritual soul, which each of us truly is. The true seat of illness is the heart.

By engaging in the Lord's service, we free ourselves from all karma, good or bad. We finally understand that all our suffering is due solely to our past karma. We know well that the condition of both the body and the soul depends on Krishna.

In reality, the devotee takes care of their body out of duty, so that they can better serve the Lord. Whatever their situation, the devotee maintains a spiritual outlook and uses their body only for spiritual purposes. This is true medicine, the medicine that puts an end to all illnesses.

Every action itself generates an effect, thus strengthening the material chain that keeps its perpetrator ever more imprisoned in matter, and consequently suffering. This chain of actions and the resulting consequences can only be broken when one places oneself in the service of God and acts for Him.