Why is there so much suffering in the world and so few attain the vision of God and are liberated?

 (from "Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita"): 

Hari and others: “Well, why does it take so many people so long to find Him?”

Sri Ramakrishna: “You know what the reason is? A person doesn’t feel yearning for God until all work and desire for enjoyment are over. A physician says: “Let a few days pass. Then the ordinary medicine will do him good”.

Narada said to Rama: “Rama, how can Ravana be killed, if you stay in Ayodhya? You have come down to earth for that purpose”. Rama said: “Narada, let the right time come. Let Ravana’s past actions begin to bear fruit. Then the ground will be prepared for killing him”.

Hari: “Well, why is there so much suffering in the world?”

Sri Ramakrishna: “This world is like play. In this game there is sorrow and happiness, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, good and bad – everything. If there were no sorrow, no sin, the play couldn’t go on.

In the game of blind man’s buff you have to touch the granddame. If you touch her in the beginning of the game, she is not pleased. God [the granddame] wills that the play continue for some time. After that: “Among a hundred thousand kites only one or two break free. And then, O Mother, how you laugh and clap your hands!”

In other words, after practicing a lot of austerities, one or two attain the vision of God and are liberated by His grace. The Divine Mother then claps in joy: “There! It’s cut free!””

Hari: “This game is death to us”.

Sri Ramakrishna (smiling): “Just tell me who you are; it is God Himself, who dwells in everything – Maya, living beings, the world and the twenty four cosmic principles.

“I bite becoming a snake and cure becoming a doctor”. He has become both knowledge and ignorance and dwells in the world. He dwells as ignorance in the Maya of delusion, and He cures in the form of the Maya of knowledge, in the guru.