“Hardships make the Viveka in a human being blaze forth and give him the power of reflection. Pleasures make one forget even fresh experiences and turn one into a dullard. So even if you do not look on hardship as a friend outright, it is certainly no enemy! The pleasures and pains that have fallen to one's lot through prārabdha should be thought of as the prasāda of Paramātma. Only then is one released from bondage. That Viveka is Jñāna. Its absence is Ajñāna. One who has Ajñāna may be counted blind. Pleasure and pain are like Jñāna and Ajñāna. Must not the blind man have someone to show him the way? He cannot come alone. In the same way, if you desire pleasure, pain is bound to come along with it. Only when pain comes along with pleasure is the value of pleasure understood.” When Kṛṣṇa Paramātma had taught this, Arjuna took it up: “Mādhava! If one takes up titikṣā as you said and conquers pleasure and pain, what is the gain? One could say: patience, and that is all. There is nothing beyond that, is there?”