Question: Are birth, old age, death and disease, real problems of human life?
Answer: No. The real problem of human life is a beginningless lack of awareness of Bhagavān. All other problems, whatever they may be, stem from this original problem.
Question: But Śrī Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā that seeing these as a source of misery is proper knowledge (Gītā 13.9)
Answer: Cultivating the awareness that birth etc. are misery is a part of sādhana for the jñāna mārga, not the bhakti mārga. Śrī Viśvanātha makes this point in his commentary on this verse – that the bhaktas must only do one-pointed bhakti to Bhagavān. The rest of the items will arise in the devotees’ awareness on their own.
On the bhakti mārga, Śrī Caitanya asks for bhakti in every birth- mama janmani janmani īśvare bhavatāt bhaktirahaitukī tvayi. If birth was the problem, why is Śrī Caitanya not praying for a solution to janma or birth? No, He is asking for bhakti only. An uttama bhakta does not care about future birth, but about bhakti. Mahāprabhu says in the same context that He is ‘patita’ – fallen (beginninglessly, of course) in the ocean of material existence which is full of suffering. So the bhakta is not unaware of this fact but is also not trying to solve this problem.
Question: But what is the harm in seeing these as real problems?
Answer: The harm is that one develops a desire for mukti when these things are presented as being the real problems of life. One’s whole purpose and attitude toward bhakti becomes permeated by such a desire. Then, one cannot practice uttamā bhakti. In fact, wanting to be free from old age and death is a specific type of mixed bhakti, as Śrī Viśvanātha points out in the 7th chapter, verse 29 of the Bhagavad-Gītā. There he mentions that those who do bhakti with the desire to go beyond old age and death, are sa-kāma bhaktas. Clearly, they are not uttama bhaktas. Their destination will not be the same as an uttama bhakta.
These kinds of ideas are why many devotees do not take up bhakti seriously. Once they take dīkṣā, they believe that they will not take another birth again. So they slacken in bhakti. The purpose of bhakti is bhakti, not solving the problems of birth, old age, death and disease.
Question: Some say that technology and science only create new problems but do not solve the real problems of human life.
Answer: And what are the real problems?
Question: As I mentioned, birth, old age, disease and death.
Answer: So we have seen above that these are not the real problems of life. Therefore, the statement that science/technology does not solve the real problems of life is a strawman.
No scientist or engineer claims that they want to solve the ‘problem’ of birth. Most people see birth as a wonderful thing. We sing Happy Birthday to You on every child and adult’s birthday.
It is undeniable that human life expectancy has greatly improved since the advent of modern science. Just do a search on wikipedia for the data. Disease has also significantly gone down – think about the amazing discoveries of the polio vaccine and the discovery of penicillin. As for death, the focus of medical science has been on treating disease. This has automatically extended life. So the claim that science/technology has only created new problems is patently false.
And what do those who proffer such wild claims have to offer? Have they discovered any antibiotics? Have they developed surgeries? These same critics of science/technology go to the best hospital when they fall sick.
What are the problems created by science according to them?
Question: They say modern science gives temporary relief but no permanent solution. They say that we have made taller buildings but we have shorter tempers, wider freeways but narrower viewpoints, bigger houses but smaller families, more conveniences but less time, etc.
Answer: What permanent solution? If mokṣa is the goal, science never claimed that it is going to bring mokṣa. The very idea is ridiculous.
What data is there that we have ‘shorter’ tempers and narrower viewpoints than our predecessors? Just study the Mahābhārata if you want to know about tempers and narrow viewpoints. How many people were killed in the Mahābhārata war? How attached was Dhṛtarāṣṭra to his sons?
About bigger houses and smaller families, the reason we have smaller families is because we are not having 6, 7 or 10 children. Conveniences like microwaves and computers have freed our time to do things that are more important or fulfilling. That some people misuse technology does not imply that technology is the root of that problem. It is the human mind alone that is the root cause of problems. Aśvatthāmā misused the Brahma-astra on the Pāṇḍavas. Now we should blame the Brahma-astra as the root cause of problems? Every yuga has technologies, and some in those yugas have misused those technologies.
The beauty of science is that it has explained our natural world in a way that was never done before. If a bhakta wants to remain in ignorance, he or she is welcome to reject science. In my view, only a closed mind with narrow viewpoints would want to do so.
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