DIFFICULT VERSUS IMPOSSIBLE

Giving up meat is difficult but getting happiness form it is impossible. Giving up drinking is difficult but getting happiness from it is impossible. Spiritual life is difficult but material life is impossible.

Firstly, it should be clear why getting happiness from meat eating, drinking is impossible.
We don't believe that getting happiness from these things is impossible, otherwise why would we do these things.
We believe that doing these things will give us happiness, that is why we are doing these things in the first place.
And that belief can be so strong and unshakeable that even if we see with our own eyes the these things lead to suffering, still we will think that we will get happiness from doing these things.

Right now I am posted in medicine and we have to go to the ward and take cases. Just yesterday I have taken a case of a 30 year old male, liver cirrhosis, almost 10L fluid is collected in the abdomen. The abdomen is so distended that the pressure is pushing the diaphragm and the lungs and the patient is having difficulty in breathing. So much that he cannot walk 10 steps without feeling breathless. He cannot sit up straight without supporting himself with his hands. So much discomfort.
His entire routine from morning to night consisted of drinking and sleeping. While we were taking his case, his mother was standing by his side, very anxiously she was asking us whether he will be alright.
After seeing such cases everyday, even medical professionals do these things.
There is no one who has not heard or seen how alcohol can destroy the life of not only the person consuming it but also those living with him.
Yet somehow we believe that we will become happy by consuming alcohol.
Itna "blind faith" hai. Then the mind will tell us,'Aree itna jyada thodi pina hai, thoda sa pine se kya ho jayega' When that thoda can turn into an uncontrollable addiction, no one can predict.
But is getting happiness from these things really impossible?

yaḥ śāstra-vidhim utsṛjya
vartate kāma-kārataḥ
na sa siddhim avāpnoti
na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim

He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination. (BG 16.23)

cintām aparimeyāṁ ca pralayāntām upāśritāḥ kāmopabhoga-paramā etāvad iti niścitāḥ āśā-pāśa-śatair baddhāḥ kāma-krodha-parāyaṇāḥ īhante kāma-bhogārtham anyāyenārtha-sañcayān

They believe that to gratify the senses is the prime necessity of human civilization. Thus until the end of life their anxiety is immeasurable. Bound by a network of hundreds of thousands of desires and absorbed in lust and anger, they secure money by illegal means for sense gratification. (BG 16.11-12)

In the purport Srila Prabhupad writes, "We have personal experience of a person of such demoniac mentality who, even at the point of death, was requesting the physician to prolong his life for four years more because his plans were not yet complete.
Such foolish people do not know that a physician cannot prolong life even for a moment.
When the notice is there, there is no consideration of the man’s desire. The laws of nature do not allow a second beyond what one is destined to enjoy."

"The demoniac person, who has no faith in God or the Supersoul within himself, performs all kinds of sinful activities simply for sense gratification." "But one who is demoniac has no knowledge of Vedic scripture, nor has he any faith; therefore he feels free to do anything for sense enjoyment, regardless of the consequences."