In reality, the cause of all illnesses is spiritual in origin. And the major cause is the forgetting of our loving relationship with Krishna, God, the Supreme Person.

The soul that loses all contact with God forgets its own spiritual identity and engages in countless material activities that entangle it in a web of karma. This karma causes it suffering, and instead of turning to God to alleviate its pain, the embodied spiritual being seeks material solutions which, unfortunately, in turn lead to other karmic reactions, and therefore other sufferings.

Throughout countless lifetimes, embodied spiritual beings have accumulated, through their thoughts, words, and actions, a significant mass of harm, wrongful acts, or sins, which bind them and cause them to suffer the resulting misfortunes and suffering today. ​​Therefore, it is through the pain and suffering endured and felt that we diminish and erase our transgressions.

Suffering is useful and necessary.

It is the actions committed in the past, or even in a being's previous life, that determine the conditions of their next birth or reincarnation, and existence. The suffering linked to wrongful acts has a double origin: the acts themselves, but also those committed in previous lives.

The origin of wrongful acts is most often ignorance. But the fact of being unaware that an act is wrong does not, however, prevent one from suffering its undesirable consequences if one commits it, consequences that give rise to other wrongful acts.

Furthermore, we distinguish two kinds of faults: those that have, so to speak, “matured,” and those that have not yet. By “matured faults,” we mean those whose consequences we are currently experiencing. The others are those, numerous as they are, that are accumulated within us and have not yet produced their fruits of suffering.

A person who commits a crime may not be immediately caught and condemned, but they will be sooner or later. Similarly, for some of our faults, we will have to suffer in the future, just as for others, “matured” ones, we suffer today.

Thus, faults and sufferings follow one another, plunging the conditioned soul into pain life after life. In its current life, it suffers the consequences of the actions committed in its previous life, and prepares, through its present actions, new sufferings in the future.

“Mature” or “completed” faults can result in a chronic illness, legal troubles, a low social standing, insufficient education, or a mediocre physical appearance.

The Lord tells us: Even if you wash yourself with lye, and even if you use a lot of soap, your guilt will remain marked before me.