Pain as we all know it, is nothing but an unpleasant feeling which everyone would love to be deprived off. It is capable of making it’s presence felt at both, physical and emotional fronts of life.
I truly believe, it is much too complex a word for one to decipher and scrutinize but it sure does pack a punch..it teaches us a very simple lesson in life.
One just can’t dodge sufferings…they are always lurking around waiting to catch us off guard. Hence, learn to bear it and get over it.
Its so funny, pain has been with us since the inception of mankind and it still took our profound “wise-men/scientists” to burn the midnight oil just to measure and quantize it. It actually took them years to come up with “Dol”, the unit of measuring pain, which by the way is still debatable. Also, not to forget that the idea of quantifying sufferings still remains a mondo mystery!!
I, unlike many, believe pain plays an important role in everyone’s life. Enduring pain brings out the best in a person. The great acts of struggle, perseverance and courage are often an outcome of intense pain and sufferings. Maybe, that is exactly why we often volunteer to endure it. For e.g. Nothing feels better than having a bloody thorn pulled out.
Pain is nothing but like a leech which sticks on to you until you make an effort to get rid of it!
Thanks to our modern medicine, we have learned to trick our mind and physical pain can now be easily conciliated, at times be totally expunged. It is the emotional suffering which still traumatizes us and needs to be dealt with. Pain when experienced at emotional fronts of life is like a whole different ball game. Sadly, It has the might to trap us in the labyrinth of our own sub-conscious darkness and make us grieve endlessly. This kind of trauma is totally different from physical pain and could be difficult to deal with.
It is such a secret place, the land of tears.
Pain endured without purpose, however, and especially pain inflicted upon us without cause or reason, is the one responsible for emotional agony; and unless removed through a process of acceptance, understanding and forgiveness such pain can fester and grow until it reaches the crescendo of brutality and literally consumes our entire state of being.
There are many ways to get over emotional pains. One of the most highly recommended way is to observe our emotional pains and allow them to flow through us without letting them consume us. By doing so it can help us understand why we are experiencing these negative emotions in the first place. The more we understand our negative emotions, the easier it is for us to release them. By releasing our negative emotions, we might free ourselves from pain and sufferings.
This sounds pretty fancy and may even work for someone. But, It definitely ain’t my cup of tea!! This theory doesn’t qualify for my kind of pain.
I prefer the other alternative, or should I say the other “simple yet great” alternative : “Believe in the word Hope.”
Hope
I feel, “Hope is the feeling you have, that the feeling you have, isn’t permanent” and to believe in it you have to be a believer.
Hope is like the painkiller for our soul, the so called soul-charger, it has the strength to help us over come any kind of emotional distress.
You may be one of those people who need to see a vision of something positive to help you achieve it. If you hold hope close in your heart, you can almost envision yourself achieving the thing that you are hoping for.
The human spirit is remarkably strong and one of a kind. It seems to run forever on nothing but a morsel of hope. Without it, you have nothing. With it, nothing else matters.
In depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer. Wouldn’t have been possible without believing in it.
Axe your sufferings, never let go off Hope.
Good 1 Pa “G” :))
Duda…read Buddha….he has the answer to pain. 😉
sure will…he goes into cosmos/energy/karma and stuff!
but still reading “the way of Budha’ is on my to-do list!
If i get the answers that i seek then i shall definitely readdress the topic 😀
Very well written, Arjun 🙂 My all time favorite quote: “pain in inevitable, suffering is optional” makes me ride the emotional tide, with hope being the anchor. 🙂
love it!!!!!!!!:)
Hi Arjun,
Permit me to compliment me on your writing abilities…..I am impressed, keep going….just do not look back..you have miles to go.
Let me share with you what Master says about Pain;
“Babuji gave me a short talk on the value of pain. He said, “Fools run away from pain. Those who wish to become saints have always embraced pain and have asked for more and more.” Sometimes to the extent that, according to Babuji Maharaj, even God is surprised. He said, “How can I give you more pain?”
Now, whenever I speak of pain and death in the West, in the occidental countries, there is always a little fear in the abhyasis, a little resentment perhaps – quite a bit of anger. “Why is this blighter talking to us about these unsavoury matters? Did not Babuji Maharaj say, ‘It is for me alone?’ Why is he talking of this pain?” Even to speak about pain is not welcomed by people. They think that it is a threat. They would accept any other gift – gifts of love should not confer pain! Isn’t it? But every woman knows that the first gift of love that she receives is an enormous dose of pain when she has her first baby. No child is born without pain to the mother. Physical pain? Yes, it is easy to bear with. What about the subsequent pain of bringing up that child? All the worries that we suffer from. Every time the child goes to school, the mother has a trauma, you see, especially in countries like the United States where every mother is afraid whether the child will come back, whether somebody will, you know, kidnap it, rape it. Who knows what can happen between going to school and coming back from school? Then we realize that pain is a part of life. Pain is very much a part of life. I would go a step further and say, “Life is pain.”
Psychologists – there are some here – may give other definitions. But human beings we all are. Any one of you has just but to look into yourself to find that inside you there is nothing but pain, which is perhaps one reason why we are so anxious to have some pleasure in life, why we are frantically looking for pleasure, for fun. To try and in some way remove this pain which is inside. But the wise man if he is wise, the wise woman if she is wise, soon understands that this pain is not of this world. It is a pain born with us. It is a pain created by the soul’s longing to return to its source, to its original home, as Babuji Maharaj said, and until we do that, this pain cannot go. So any frantic search for pleasure in which to forget this pain, deaden this pain, dull this pain, is as good as taking narcotics – drugging ourselves insensate.
So you see, the only way of easing our pain, of removing our pain is not by psychological methods, not by clinical methods, not by medical means, not by going to, you know, casinos, getting drunk, not in women, not in drugs, not in possessions, not in gold, not in silver, but in wisely turning away from this life – outward life, physical life, sensual life – to a truly spiritual inner search for the origin of that pain.
Pain is the beacon of a lamp lit in the windows of our original home, shining out in the darkness, and we have only to follow it back. We are the ancient mariner to whom that lamp beckons. It is a lighthouse guiding us back. Pleasure diverts. Pleasure makes us deviate from our path. Pleasure pulls us down into ignominy, into insult, into bestiality, until we lose all semblance of a human existence. Our wisdom is lost, our wealth is lost, our health is lost, our bearings are lost, and in that state of friendship and pleasure we have only friends similarly positioned in life – they can only drag us down into that mire, into that cesspool, into that whirlpool of misery and sickness and loss. Like unfortunate friends who do not know how to swim, trying to help a drowning man – all drown together. Pleasure is where people drown together. Pain is where one can find his way back home alone, being guided by pain in the right direction, provided we accept it. Provided we accept that pain is the fortunate, the divine remnant in me, created by my longing for my original home. Longing for not only going home, but to be united with my beloved who is waiting for me there, and then it becomes an unerring guide and beacon to guide me back.
(Excerpt from a talk given in Lenasia, S. Africa, April 13, 1993. Reprinted in Constant Remembrance, July 1993.)
Bro!
Its intense.
Its got me thinking now.
😀
Hmmmmm….nice read. Got me thinking!!!
Dear Arjun,
Sorry i could not write earlier than this as I was not well & also was in the process of settling after 6months.
As I said before you are very good in expressing your thoughts. I liked it very much . I am not good at words like you. Even though you sounded very positive but ( I may be wrong )some how I felt a thin line of pain .
I wish you all the best & wish you to pen many more.
Nettimi.
Thank you so much ma’am…hope you are in best of spirits and as usual setting an example for all the kiddos out there. 😀
your compliment means a lot to me..and yes, you might be spot on about ‘the thin line of pain’ but i can assure you its a very momentary thing. You of all people surely know how stubborn n headstrong I am. 😀 “No one except you could help me tackle numbers!”
Its a part of life… and we ll always fear pain. its inescapable.
A beautiful insight on pain. arjun.
In depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer. Wouldn’t have been possible without believing in it~ beautiful words 🙂 🙂