In life pain and suffering
cannot be avoided. Sometimes they come to us very acutely. We
then wonder why at all pain and suffering are there? Whether they
have a hidden purpose? How we should face them? Why is it that
some persons take on tasks and ordeals willing which they know
will entail great suffering?
On the other hand most
of us seek for and run after pleasure. Is it the right thing to
do?
In our Question of
the Month we take up these questions and present a quotation from
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's beautiful, simple and revealing
answers.
Question: Why is
there pain and suffering? How should we deal with them, including
physical illness? What happens when we seek for pleasure?
"Pain and grief
are Nature's reminder to the soul that the pleasure it enjoys
is only a feeble hint of the real delight of existence. In each
pain and torture of our being is the secret of a flame of rapture
compared with which our greatest pleasures are only as dim flickerings.
It is this secret which forms the attraction for the soul of
the great ordeals, sufferings and fierce experiences of life
which the nervous mind in us shuns and abhors."
- Sri
Aurobindo
"The very nature
of the soul is divine Delight, constant, unvarying, unconditioned,
ecstatic; but it is true that if one can face suffering with
courage, endurance, an unshakable faith in the divine Grace,
if one can, instead of shunning suffering when it comes, enter
into it with this will, this aspiration to go through it and
find the luminous truth, the unvarying delight which is at the
core of all things, the door of pain is often more direct, more
immediate than that of satisfaction or contentment.
Pleasure turns us
away from our Goal
I am not speaking
of pleasure because pleasure turns its back constantly and almost
completely on this profound divine Delight.
Pleasure is a deceptive
and perverse disguise which turns us away from our goal and
we certainly should not seek it if we are eager to find the
truth. Pleasure vaporises us; it deceives us, leads us astray.
Pain brings us back
to a deeper truth by obliging us to concentrate in order to
be able to bear it, be able to face this thing that crushes
us. It is in pain that one most easily finds the true strength
again, when one is strong. It is in pain that one most easily
finds the true faith again, the faith in something which is
above and beyond all pain.
When one enjoys oneself
and forgets, when one takes things as they come, tries to avoid
being serious and looking life in the face, in a word when one
seeks to forget, to forget that there is a problem to solve,
that there is something to find, that we have a reason for existence
and living, that we are not here just to pass our time and go
away without having learnt or done anything, then one really
wastes one's time, one misses the opportunity that has been
given to us, this - I cannot say unique, but marvellous opportunity
for an existence which is the field of progress, which is the
moment in eternity when you can discover the secret of life;
for this physical, material existence is a wonderful opportunity,
a possibility given to you to find the purpose of life, to make
you advance one step towards this deeper truth, to make you
discover this secret which puts you into contact with the eternal
rapture of the divine life.
How to deal with
Pain and Suffering
I have already told
you many a time that to seek suffering and pain is a morbid
attitude which must be avoided, but to run away from them through
forgetfulness, through a superficial, frivolous movement, through
diversion, is cowardice. When pain comes, it comes to teach
us something. The quicker we learn it, the more the need for
pain diminishes, and when we know the secret, it will no longer
be possible to suffer, for that secret reveals to us the reason,
the cause, the origin of suffering, and the way to pass beyond
it.
The secret is to
emerge from the ego, get out of its prison, unite ourselves
with the Divine, merge into Him, not to allow anything to separate
us from Him. Then, once one has discovered this secret and realised
it in one's being, pain loses its justification and suffering
disappears. It is an all-powerful remedy, not only in the deeper
parts of the being, in the soul, in the spiritual consciousness,
but also in life and in the body.
How to deal with
Illness and Disorder
There is no illness,
no disorder which can resist the discovery of this secret and
the putting of it into practice, not only in the higher parts
of the being but in the cells of the body.
If one knows how
to teach the cells the splendour that lies within them, if one
knows how to make them understand the reality which makes them
exist, gives them being, then they too enter the total harmony,
and the physical disorder which causes the illness vanishes
as do all other disorders of the being.
But for that one
must be neither cowardly nor fearful. When the physical disorder
comes, one must not be afraid; one must not run away from it,
must face it with courage, calmness, confidence, with the certitude
that illness is a falsehood and that if one turns entirely,
in full confidence, with a complete quietude to the divine Grace,
It will settle in these cells as It is established in the depths
of the being, and the cells themselves will share in the eternal
Truth and Delight."
- The
Mother
