ON SUFFERING

                                                                      

Why is man born on earth? Is it to suffer untold miseries? In a way it is correct.  According to our sastras man takes his birth to enjoy and suffer the results of his past good and bad deeds. Past actions engender the results that he has to face during his present birth. We know that every action has an equivalent and opposite reaction whether we like it or not! Karma or action must have a result as it becomes the cause for the effect it produces. None can ever dream of escaping the effects of the Karma he has accumulated during his previous innumerable births. The joys and sufferings, failures and victories, renown  and humiliations and all other vicissitudes in life are due to the good or bad karma that man has in his account. We blame God for our sufferings and boast ourselves on our success. God is in no way responsible for our success or failure. It is our past Karma, unknown to all of us, that has the last laugh! When we meet people we enquire if they are happy. It is because man by nature is expected to be happy. His ‘atma is ananda swarupa’ but that is polluted by the indiscriminate actions that bring sufferings to him.

“Sweet are the uses of adversity” said Shakespeare the famous dramatist of the sixteenth century.  It is absolutely true. Every trouble is a step in elevating man. Troubles and difficulties are lessons for the progress of man,  Like the gold that is heated in a crucible to purify it, man has to undergo suffering to come out purified. Pleasure and pain are twins.  Pleasure cannot be fully relished without pain. Pleasure, after all, is the fruit of pain! “Look upon joy and sorrow as teachers of hardihood and balance. Grief is a friendly reminder, a good taskmaster, even a better teacher than joy. Do not flinch in the face of grief. Welcome the test because thereafter you are awarded the certificate. It is to measure your progress that tests are imposed.” counsels Bhagawan Sri Sri Sri Satya sai Baba in his divine discourses. (SSS Vol 2) Every rose has a thorn. It is said that snakes are found near the sandalwood tree. There is no pleasure without pain. Every  act of ours is tainted with egoism. Detachment and being pure shall save man from grief!

Like heat and cold that are both useful to man in certain situations, joy and sorrow, loss and gain are also helpful. How can man appreciate happiness without sorrow?  Darkness is required to realize the  greatness of light. How can man desire happiness alone? He hates misery and sorrow and treats them as enemies. This is a gross mistake. Happiness leads to great risks, over confidence, arrogance egoism that can lead to his downfall. On the other hand misery makes one enquire into his failings, examine himself,  and find the reason for his failure or sorrow. Our scriptures have described worldly life as a great ocean full of turbulent waves, whales, sharks and other creatures. Adi Sankara in his “ Karavalamba stotra” complains, “ Samsara sagara visala karala kala nakra graha grasana nigraha vigrahasya” Family life is like an ocean full of alligators and other creatures that are deadly.  Man has forgotten the divinity in him and hence is subjected to the sorrows and troubles of the world.

What is the way to surmount the troubles and turmoil of earthly existence? Definitely it is not through hatred and jealousy or injustice. It is like adding fuel to fire. Pure and nobler thoughts and experiences play a larger part in lessening sorrows and misery. Man is a mixture of the divine and diabolic qualities.  The latter qualities predominate while the former is latent and overshadowed by the latter.  Blows of loss, grief and distress  makes the heart of man tough and hard. This is how God shapes man into the divine mould. But man offers stiff resistance to the attempt of God. Man’s attachment and devotion to material pleasures and family life will drown him in the inescapable cycle of birth and death! Suffering and misery are the corrective punishment by nature that induces man to take the right path. “ All this is part of the grand synthesis in which the negatives serve to glorify the positives. Thus, death glorifies immortality, ignorance glorifies wisdom, misery glorifies bliss night glorifies dawn.”

Instances galore are there in the annals of our spiritual field, of people tested with misery and sorrow and how they graduated into saints and staunch devotees of God!  The lives of Azhwars and Nayanmars are classical examples of how the raw material was molded into pure gold! Their sufferings were many but their tenacity and devotion to God saw them through! Sant Kabir Das and Tulsidas are just a few examples. Gopanna or Ramadas suffered torment from the Nawab for not paying the revenue but utilizing it to adorn his chosen deity Sri Rama! He was imprisoned and even flogged for his default.  But all the time Gopanna prayed to his Rama with extreme bhakthi. At the last moment , Sri Rama & Lakshmana, in the guise of the servants of Gopanna, appeared in the dream of the Nawab and paid all  his dues and ordered to release Gopanna!  The Nawab was stunned with shock and released  Gopanna and fell at his feet begging pardon! Thus suffering purifies the heart and it is the pleasure of Providence to testman in the crucible of adversity and suffering!!