It's good that you're suffering" – The Problem of Compassion

I know that such principles are inherent in similar religions, but this still worries me. As I already mentioned somewhere on Reddit, I was born and raised in Eastern Europe, more precisely in Ukraine, in Kyiv. Where is the largest temple in Eastern Europe, actually. And I want to share something that was probably not told to those devotees who were born and raised in Western Europe.

As you know, there was a real Hare Krishna boom here in the past, with many followers. Why? Well... actually, it's quite simple. After the collapse of the USSR, our people, in general, turned out to be susceptible to all kinds of religions, cults, conspiracy theories, and other nonsense. People who had lived for 70 years in an environment where they could only watch what was allowed by the Party, only know what was permitted by the Party, suddenly found themselves in a world with a huge amount of different information that had previously been unavailable to them. Suddenly, television was no longer controlled only by the government, nor were books or newspapers.

Yes, there were devotees even before the collapse, which is also easy to explain. In the USSR, people considered anything foreign and new to be interesting. It was usually better than what could be found in an ordinary store (like clothing, for example), and it wasn’t so mass-produced—it was unique. My mother told me that although "in theory" everyone at school had the same uniform, of course, there were cool kids whose parents somehow had access to pioneer scarves from East Germany. The fabric was slightly different, so you could tell them apart. When I, as a child, watched a documentary about how Eastern European ISKCON started, I noticed that Western gurus said... well, said(oh lol, i used translator and forgot that in english it´s same words), it was Niranjana Swami, that people in the USSR were very interested(!) and that it was so great(!).

So, after the collapse of the USSR, all the world's shit poured onto these people who once showed off their German scarves. On TV, people were "charging" water to heal with it. There were classic, completely insane sects—Maria Devi Christ, for example. Baba Vanga. Some books on alternative science, medicine, fortune tellers, psychics: "You have a little gnome sitting inside you, I'll clean him up and remove him,", astrologers... On top of all this, there was an economic crisis. Everything had to be rebuilt from scratch. Nothing was clear, there was no money, bandits, privatization.

And what am I getting at? I remember this narrative that Western gurus told us... that all this was actually great. "Western people live too happily and prosperously, they don’t feel the need to lead a spiritual life. They are materialistic, they think about money, work, family. But you (Eastern Europeans) are amazing, you are so engaged, so spiritual, you are interested." And when I listened to such conversations—I regret that I can't provide exact quotes, this is purely my memory... Even though I loved Krishna and wanted to be a good devotee, something about it just... didn't feel right.

I only felt happy for "people from the West with money"—they are happier, is that really bad? Should I despise them, or pity them? Does Krishna love them less just because they are doing well? Why are you saying that it's good that we are less happy than they are? Yes, I understand, it’s supposedly easier to turn to God in suffering, but a compassionate person would feel something mixed—"this is sad, but at least there is some benefit"—not "hehe haha."
It is the opposition to compassion (wow you feel bad, well that's actually good), humility (you are better/more open spiritually) and THIS is what we should be like? What mindset should we have?

My family was not wealthy by Ukrainian standards. I never had pocket money, I got a phone later than other kids, I didn't have cool Spider-Man backpacks, and once my parents forgot to give me money and food for a school trip, so I was very hungry the whole day... Are the "authorities" really glad when things like this happen? Was it good that I was left without food and my stomach growled while I watched other kids eat ice cream, just because I could have thought, "Krishna, please give me food"? This is... this is just cruel.

And I just wanted to get this off my chest ,_,