This dark corner of the creation, known as the material world, is not our real home.
It is the temporary abode of those eternal souls who have shown some envy to the Lord and His associates in the vast realm of the spiritual kingdom, and whose diseased mentality would create disharmony in the pure, loving exchanges of the spiritual world.
These souls require to learn some lessons regarding their constitutional position in this reform school situation of the material universes, and to thus again experience real joy in the reawakening of their relationship with Krsna, the Reservoir of All Pleasure.
The lessons here are learned through experiencing many births in various species, giving the soul the opportunity to try to find pleasure in almost unlimited extrapolations of potential sense pleasure.
However, those attempts to enjoy always result in frustration, as the soul remains separated from God, and its pure relationship with God, by various layers of gross and subtle impurity.
There are also those compassionate souls who enter these dark regions of material existence by their own will, saddened to see the severe sufferings of this world, or by the beckoning of the Lord, in order to enlighten these misguided souls as to what will make them really happy.
Happiness is not found in pursuit of the longings of the mundane mind or in trying to satisfy the cravings of the material senses.
Real joy lies in the reawakening of the soul to its proper relationship to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is our Best Friend, the Supreme Enjoyer, and the Owner and Controller of all that be.
However, the example and teachings of these well intended and gentle souls is not always well received by the inmates of the material realm, who are hell bent to try to enjoy in more and more perverse ways, driven by the insanity of insatiable sense desire, and who see the endeavors to invite them and others to reform as a threat to their hedonistic goals.
It is a joyful business to preach the glories of the Lord, and also a dangerous one, as there will always be those who are causelessly envious of the Lord and His devotees.
There may be physical attacks or even psychic attacks upon these bonafide preachers as can be seen by many examples throughout devotional history, the most famous of which was Jesus Christ, who was crucified by the most despicable of envious factors.
This material world is a dangerous place. The veil of material covering over the soul in material existence is thick and seductive. By God’s grace and the efforts of the pure preacher, that covering may be pierced.
The pure preacher takes the risk of speaking strongly in order to cut through the layers of illusion for the sake of liberating those who are starving to hear transcendental truths, knowing that the reward may be crucifixion, literally or figuratively.
The cross is that risk that the preacher takes, entering into the cesspool of this material world for the sake of the innocent.
It is the symbol of how the envious persons see the intrusion of purity into their world of illusory sense pleasure, and what their malefic intent is for the one who brings the message of Love of Godhead into what they perceive as their personal domain.
For one who teaches the science of love of Godhead to those who are ready to hear, that person is very dear to the Lord. In spite of the efforts of the demonic class of men, the devotee sees those risks as only a very minor inconvenience on the path of ultimate victory, the pleasure of the predecessor bonafide spiritual teachers and Supreme Lord Himself, Sri Krishna.