5.3 Sorrows and Sufferings - Can we ever find release from them?

Sorrows and sufferings are part and parcel of everybody’s everyday life. There is none who has endured them willingly nor has anyone escaped them wittingly.

Nobody wishfully invites sufferings either. The more we wish to escape, the more vigorous/ virulent the suffering becomes. It is as if fate has ordained/ orchestrated our sufferings.

Is everyone ordained to suffer?

Actually suffering is universal, though everyone tried by adversity is inclined to claim pre-eminence in sorrow. This is because things felt (being mental) are more intense than things heard or seen (being physical only).

From the lowliest (plants) to the highest (Celestials), from the meekest (beggar) to the mightiest (Kings), from the least-evolved (microbe) to the most-evolved (humans), everything/ everyone suffers.

It is utter folly to believe that some never suffer. Even the most powerful people experience misery (war, old age, burden of administration, fear of death, bereavements, pain of injury/ separation…).

It is also sheer foolishness to assume that a few in this world are always happy. It is true that all in the world are sometimes happy, but there is none in the world who is always happy. 

Misery is felt as joy many times because of fantasy. (An officer slogging out at the office, though suffers, yet imagines all the joys that he will have when he makes a career break-through!).

Why is suffering inseparable and indispensable aspect of life?

Suffering is to convey to us that we cannot, nor should we, expect to find permanent peace/ happiness in this world/life.

Suffering is to make us evolve emotionally. We are then able to face the torrents and turmoils of life with balanced disposition.

Suffering helps us to ‘measure’ our spiritual progress. Unlike a journey in the physical plane, a Spiritual ‘journey’ does not involve Space/ Time; hence, there are no conventional modes for a seeker to ‘measure’ his progress. Suffering is a unique/ universal ‘sign-post’ that indicates:

How much we have purified ourselves (from the amount of suffering)

How much we have evolved spiritually (from the attitude to suffering).

By feeling attached to them or by attaching undue importance to them we suffer. 

Suffering is to make us turn away from this world of transience and turn towards an existence of eternity.

If happiness be the norm, then individuals will stay tuned/ glued to lower order (worldly) happiness and never look/ strive for higher order (transcendent) peace – a peace, from where there is no return.

How do the wise ones deal with suffering?

Actually world is bad for Ajnanis, but then they run after it. It is because they chase changing fortunes or deceptive mirages and consequently suffer.

It is good for Jnanis for it raises them higher and higher to the divine stature. Wise ones understand that suffering, like pain, is only an outward sign of an underlying malaise (karma, at the perceptible level, and delusion, at the causal level). 

Hence, they work on the cause, and not its worrisome consequences.They face suffering as it comes and what it brings. World and sufferings are indeed blessings in disguise for them.

The attitude of every faithful is reflected in the statement of Kunti, who, despite being the mother of 5 valiant/divine children and a close relative of Lord Krishna, had to undergo untold/ unending agonies.

At the end of the tragic episodes, she implores Krishna, “Lord, let more and more misery befall us (Vipadah Santu nah Shathvathah)!”

Obviously, she was referring to the fact that only because of the misfortunes, they had the fortune of beholding the Lord in their midst!

Also, an enlightened person considers the earth as a Karma Bhoomi – a place where Karmas are redeemed. He does not desire/ deem it as a heaven/ haven of enjoyment (Bhoga Bhoomi) which would otherwise consume his accumulated Punya.

Instead, he prefers to exhaust his bad Karmas through sorrows and sufferings, privation and deprivations. This is a sure and faster way to reach God.

Can we find release from sufferings?

The long arm of fate, it is said, can’t be stalled with a mere wish or meager will. We need to counter its effect with understanding, efforts and attitude.

Only a naïve person would assume/ expect that his day/ life would be free of sufferings.

A sensible person would expect a past issue/ memory, which was presumed buried-for-good, to rear its head anytime. 

He would expect a present condition/ relationship to turn sour/ sickening anytime.

He would expect a new issue/ sorrow to throw him off-balance anytime.

Many times it is not so much the suffering that is the problem as is our unpreparedness. When we are immersed in pleasant happenings, we feel that happy days are here forever. 

We never imagine of a day when the wheels-of-fortune would turn a full/ half circle and catch us scurrying for cover. And the feeling that reigns supreme in our mind then is: ‘Why me’ and ‘Why only me’? 

(Cf. Murphy’s Law: If a thing can go wrong, it will go wrong)! This is not to make us cynical or withdrawn, but to make us prepared for every eventuality and emergency.

Hence, afflictions (for example, stub-born partners, snobbish in-laws after marriage) have to be anticipated. 

Sorrows have to be pre-empted (for example, control of sugar/ sweet in-take much before diabetes strikes, especially if one is genetically predisposed to it).

Suffering is to be alleviated through consulting/ counselling (for example, seeking Specialists help/ sufferers’ web community/ counsel of a senior/ mentor to tackle a much-expected-but-missed promotion). 

In fact, almost all sorrows are not new to mankind, or peculiar to an individual, nor do their solutions need rocket-science.

Managing sufferings:

We suffer on account of ignorance of Universal Law/ Truth. 

The Truth manifests in 3 levels or layers and they form the basis of our sufferings: World (Adhibhautika), ‘I’ (Adhyatmika) and Cosmic (Adidaivika).

We never have complete understanding of these 3 layers of existence and consequently suffer. 

Suffering during life-time and Death at the end of it are gentle reminders for every moment or instance of ignorance of this Truth.

How Adhibhautika causes Suffering: Not knowing the way nature operates, we divorce ourselves from natural life-styles (junk-food/ sedentary life/ city-life) or indiscriminately destroy the natural order of things (deforestation, wild-life extinction). 

In every stage and step of life, we live not in harmony with nature or natural order of things.

How to overcome Suffering due to Adhibhautika: When we are friendly with anyone or anything, it reciprocates friendship – that is Law. 

When we understand Law, it is helpful; when we don’t, it works against us (e.g. Traffic rules). 

When we conform to the natural order of things, when we live in harmony with nature, they cease to give us problems. They cause minimal suffering.

Refusing to accept reality never helps; but confronting it works wonders.

How Adhyatmika causes suffering: The type, frequency and intensity of suffering by each individual vary! 

What differs/ aggravates is the extent/ depth of cognition and the assertion/ aggression of Ego.

A coconut tree suffers as much as a human due to rain/ storm/ sun/ insects (natural calamities), axing/ deforestation (man-made calamities). 

Yet, it does not cognize its ‘suffering’ because its Ego is dormant; hence, whether it ‘sees’ a friend (farmer) or a foe (wood-cutter), it is indifferent.

Due to this, the tree is able to take ‘suffering’ in its stride. A coconut tree does not cognize suffering – It may experience it, but cannot express it.

An animal may cognize suffering. Hence, it is able to experience it but may not be able to express it.

A human being fully cognizes suffering – he alone is able to experience it as well as express it. It is the Ego which cognizes suffering.

Also, Ego successfully manages to shift the cause of the misery onto God.

It makes the sufferer believe that it is due to God’s wrath we suffer, making Him responsible for our struggles.

It also makes people around itself to suffer. It is like a dictator who punishes innocent lives for a tragedy in his long-past personal life.

How to overcome the Suffering due to Adhyatmika: Most of us are over-sensitive to suffering. Even a small wound can be a source of great mental trauma.

Overcoming suffering is essentially raising our tolerance level to suffering – higher the tolerance, less is the cognition of agony.

We also need to prepare/ cultivate our mind with Equanimity.

Asking, ‘Why, me?’ does not help to alleviate the suffering.

Nor is asking ‘Why not me?’ makes the problem disappear into nothingness.

However, the latter converts the catastrophe into philosophy. When we develop this maturity, our ability to handle an issue multiplies manifold.

We cannot change our suffering as it is out of our control; but surely we can change our Attitude to suffering, as it is in our hands.

No suffering lasts a life-time; hence, facing them with ample fortitude and challenging them with right attitude works wonders.

How Adidaivika causes suffering: Creation is a co-operative Effort between Individuals and Creator. What God produces through Nature, the food (Annam), Jeevas consume. Similarly what Jeevas produce through their Actions (Thoughts, Speech, Deeds), the Creator consumes.

Just as we expect the food we consume to be pure, so also our actions, which are food for God should be pure.

Thus, we are the authors of our suffering – the causal factors are buried in history/ our Karmic past.

Acts committed or omitted over the past visit us as if demanding an explanation or commanding their expiation.

In fact, Jeeva takes on a body time and again only to experience the torments of any or many of its accumulated Vasanas. This is how divine design unfolds.

How to overcome the Suffering due to Adidaivika:

The number and frequency of sufferings of individuals may not vary much. What varies is the type and intensity.

We have no say over the type of suffering, as it is an outcome of our Prarabdha Karma. However, with every suffering, we exhaust our bad Vasanas.

As we exhaust bad Vasanas, we become purer. As we become purer, we move closer/ dearer to God.

(cf. Uddhav Gita: Lord Krishna to Uddhav, His dear friend of childhood days, before the latter bids adieu, ‘Such of those whom I want to take unto me, I take away their wealth and other possessions’).

God makes us poorer, so that we become purer.

Intensity of suffering can be attenuated and accelerated through Expiation/ Repentance/ Retribution (Prayschit) and Attitude.

Repentance: Feeling sorry for an injury/ injustice committed is the most elementary step in repentance. The sentiments should be expressed verbally or mentally.

Though it is an apparently uncomplicated exercise, yet, in reality, it needs tremendous courage to practice it. On repentance, we are not excused from the wrong-doing; nor are we excluded from future ones.

Laws of the land won’t forgive one who regrets. The affected/ associated individuals may or may not forgive one who relents.But God is pure compassion; hence, as soon as we express remorse, it is forgiven. 

The Karmic residues will not disappear on repentance, but their intensity and timing will be more bearable.

Continence (Vrat): It is a voluntary foregoing of comforts as a retribution for sinful acts. It is not the physical suffering (of deprivation) that is important but the mental attitude (of retribution) that makes a difference in the net-result.

Pilgrimmages (Punyathirth): Visiting holy places, most of them in remote locations, helps a sufferer in many ways. 

The pilgrim undergoes many hardships – it is like substituting an unknown (future) calamity with a known (present) hardship. 

It also helps a sufferer in diverting the attention from an existing/ potential problem with positive feelings.

Undoing our past is outside our ambit; but, atoning for our commissions and omissions works wonders.

Once we are at peace with these forces, the intensity of sufferings becomes bearable.

This is the reason behind the chanting of Peace Invocation (Shanthi Mantra) (cf: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ‘AUM Shanti, Shanthi, Shanthi’. Peace (Shanthi) uttered 3 times is for making peace with each of these three forces).

Is this Knowledge of suffering and Knowledge of happiness not sufficient enough – Why should I continue to experience them?

If someone makes two separate statements:

1. Truth alone triumphs (Satyam eva Jayate);

2. Sugar is Sweet

Almost all of us tend to believe in Statement 2. It is because we have experienced the truth behind Statement 2.

A statement becomes valid and meaningful to us, and also a way of life, only when we experience the truth behind it.

Until then, a statement or a declaration (even if it is from the highest authority – the Scriptures) remains mere Knowledge – i.e Indirect Knowledge (Paroksha Jnana).

When we realize the Truth embodied, enshrined, enjoined in this Knowledge through experience it becomes Direct Knowledge (Aparoksha Anubhuti).

Hence, it is turmoil and its triumph alone which completes our experience.

Thus,

· Suffering is an inevitable and inescapable aspect of life.

· It is true that in every suffering, God plays a Part (as the author of Law of Karma);

· But it is also true that in every sufferer, God plays the Partner.