Balancing Benefit and Enjoyment

Everything in this world can be divided into 3 groups.
First - Beneficial
This is called श्रेयः in Sanskrit.
Second - Enjoyable.
This is called प्रेयः in Sanskrit.
Third - a mixture of both beneficial and enjoyable.

A bitter medicine, it is a life-saver, but not enjoyable. This is an example of श्रेयः.
Alcohol, enjoyable, but bad for health. This is an example of प्रेयः.

Now take milk, it is both beneficial for the body and enjoyable.

But the point is that nothing is exclusively beneficial or exclusively enjoyable.
The bitter medicine is beneficial only when taken in the prescribed dose.
If you gulp down a full bottle or two/three strips of tablets, it will only harm you.

Alcohol is bad for health.
But in some medicines, alcohol is there.
Some ingredients of the medicine may not be soluble in water. In such cases, alcohol is used.
For some medicines, alcohol is used as a preservative, it keeps the molecules stable.
In some medicines, alcohol enhances absorption.

So nothing is exclusively beneficial or exclusively enjoyable.
It depends on how you put it to use, make use of it.
So what should you do?
Take what is good and reject what is bad.

But how do you know what is good and what is bad for you?

You may not know, but our Maharshis knew.
They had no hidden agenda.
They were not selling a product or a service.
They were not printing books to be sold and make money out of.
They were not trying to increase views on their YouTube channels.
They were not even trying to attract people into their religion.
In fact, they never had a religion.
They gave wisdom purely in our interest.
Their aim was universal welfare.
They never sided with human beings even.
They never even thought that all the resources in the world have been created for humans to enjoy.
They cared for plants, animals, insects, rivers, air, mountains, everything.
The wisdom that they have given us is good for everything, everyone.

If you follow their advice, we can easily distinguish between what is good for us and what is not good for us.
This is the meaning of the first shloka of the dwiteeya valli of the first chapter -

अन्यच्छ्रेयोऽन्यदुतैव प्रेय-
स्ते उभे नानार्थे पुरुषं सिनीतः ।
तयोः श्रेय आददानस्य साधु
भवति हीयतेऽर्थाद्य उ प्रेयो वृणीते ॥ १॥