दुःख
Dukkha
duḥkha / dukkha (Pali)
In simple words
Dukkha is usually translated 'suffering', but it also means that nothing in life fully satisfies. Many Indian traditions begin with this problem and ask how to get free of it.
What is it?
Dukkha (Pali; Sanskrit duhkha) is the first of the Buddha's four noble truths: life as ordinarily lived is marked by pain, change and a deeper unsatisfactoriness that comes from clinging to what is impermanent. Hindu darshanas also treat freedom from duhkha as the goal: Sankhya opens by naming threefold suffering, Nyaya defines liberation as the end of pain, and the Gita calls the world of rebirth transient and full of sorrow. The traditions differ on the cause of suffering and on what remains when it ends.
Scholar’s note
Buddhist analysis distinguishes the suffering of pain, the suffering of change, and the suffering inherent in conditioned existence. Sankhya Karika 1 names threefold suffering (internal, external, and from supernatural causes). Nyaya Sutra 1.1.2 traces a chain from false knowledge to pain. Gita 6.23 defines yoga as disconnection from contact with suffering.How its meaning differs
Dukkha is the first noble truth; its origin is craving (tanha), its cessation is nirvana, and the eightfold path leads there. It is a mark of all conditioned things.
Sankhya begins with the threefold suffering and holds that discriminating knowledge of purusha from prakriti ends it permanently.
Nyaya holds that false knowledge gives rise to faults, activity, birth and pain; removing false knowledge through valid knowledge ends pain, which is liberation.
Advaita attributes suffering to identifying the Self with body and mind; the Self, being bliss, never truly suffers.
Jain thought traces suffering to karmic matter bound to the soul through passions; stopping and shedding karma frees the soul's innate bliss.
Devotional traditions often see suffering as a consequence of forgetting God, and sometimes as an occasion that turns the heart toward God.
Where it appears in the Gita
Pleasure and pain come and go — endure them
सुख-दु:ख आने-जानेवाले हैं, उन्हें सहो
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदु:खदा:।
Contacts with sense objects bring pleasure and pain through the favourable and unfavourable; they come and go, are impermanent — bear them.
इन्द्रियोंके विषय अनुकूलता-प्रतिकूलतासे सुख-दु:ख देनेवाले, आने-जानेवाले और अनित्य हैं; उन्हें सहन करो।
5.22Pleasures born of contact are wombs of sorrow
संयोगजन्य भोग दु:खके ही कारण हैं
ये हि संस्पर्शजा भोगा दु:खयोनय एव ते।
Pleasures born of sense-contact have a beginning and an end and are sources of sorrow; the discerning do not delight in them.
इन्द्रियों और विषयोंके संयोगसे होनेवाले भोग आदि-अन्तवाले और दु:खके ही कारण हैं; विवेकी मनुष्य उनमें रमण नहीं करता।
6.23तं विद्याद्दु:खसंयोगवियोगं योगसञ्ज्ञितम् ।
जिसमें दु:खोंके संयोगका ही वियोग है, उसीको ‘योग’ नामसे जानना चाहिये। (वह योग जिस ध्यानयोगका लक्ष्य है,) उस ध्यानयोगका अभ्यास न उकताये हुए चित्तसे निश्चयपूर्वक करना चाहिये।
8.15मामुपेत्य पुनर्जन्म दु:खालयमशाश्वतम्।
महात्मालोग मुझे प्राप्त करके दु:खालय अर्थात् दु:खोंके घर (और) अशाश्वत अर्थात् निरन्तर बदलने-वाले पुनर्जन्मको प्राप्त नहीं होते; (क्योंकि वे) परम सिद्धिको प्राप्त हो गये हैं अर्थात् उनको परम प्रेमकी प्राप्ति हो गयी है।
13.8इन्द्रियार्थेषु
इन्द्रियोंके विषयोंमें वैराग्यका होना, अहंकारका भी न होना और जन्म, मृत्यु, वृद्धावस्था तथा व्याधियोंमें दु:ख-रूप दोषोंको बार-बार देखना।
Where else it appears
Follow this idea
Trace the idea from one source to the next.
- 1Thinkerगौतम बुद्धSiddhartha Gautama, the BuddhaThe Buddha's four noble truths start from dukkha.
- 2Conceptप्रतीत्यसमुत्पादPratityasamutpada — dependent originationDependent origination explains how suffering arises through conditions.
- 3Textसाङ्ख्यकारिकाSankhya KarikaSankhya opens by naming threefold suffering and seeking its end.
- 4Gita verseBhagavad Gita 2.14The Gita's advice to endure the passing contacts of pleasure and pain.
- 5Gita verseBhagavad Gita 5.22Pleasures born of contact have a beginning and end and are sources of pain.
- 6Gita verseBhagavad Gita 6.23Yoga defined as disconnection from union with suffering.
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