Why does suffering exist — what does Premanand Maharaj Ji say?

The question of suffering — why does God allow it, why do good people suffer — comes often to Shri Premanand Maharaj Ji. He does not give easy answers. He says: suffering is not punishment. God is not sitting somewhere assigning pain to those who deserve it. Suffering is part of the fabric of this world, which is itself a world of change and impermanence. Everything here rises and falls. That is its nature.

But Maharaj Ji also teaches something more specific about suffering's role in spiritual life. He says: God is closest to those who are in pain. When everything is going well and comfortable, the mind rarely turns to God. It is in grief, in illness, in failure, in heartbreak — when the ordinary supports of life give way — that the soul turns back toward its source. Suffering, painful as it is, often does what prosperity cannot: it creates the longing for God.

He does not romanticise pain. He does not say suffering is good or that we should seek it. He says: when it comes, do not waste it. Don't just suffer — turn toward God in your suffering. Let the pain crack open the heart. Let it make you softer, more compassionate, more humble. And reach for Radha's name — not because it will necessarily remove the pain immediately, but because her presence in your pain changes the quality of how you bear it. She has never abandoned a devotee who called to her in their hour of darkness.

Based on Shri Premanand Maharaj Ji's satsangs.