Ability To Sustain Pain

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.


The Spirit Of Spirituality

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All of us in this world have one major objective and that is to be happy. The only way we can be happy is when there is no pain. Pain can be at a physical level, emotional level or intellectual level. Physical pain is obvious to understand. Emotional pain refers to examples like the loss of a loved one. Intellectual pain refers to examples like loss of status, defeat of an idea etc. Only the removal of every source of pain can give complete happiness. But, is this even remotely practical that we can remove every source of pain? Since this is not possible, we try to remove some of the major sources of pain hoping it will bring happiness. But then, removal of a source of pain is temporary till the next big source of pain arises. So, what is the option? Is there a way where we accept pain and still be on the road to happiness? Let’s try to explore this concept in more detail.

Let’s assume a person being nailed to the cross. As each nail is driven into his body, let’s imagine the type of pain that the body is experiencing. With such intense pain of the body, what could the mind be thinking? If this happens to any of us, what would our thoughts be? Blind panic, a desperate struggle for existence, choicest curse words against the people. Contrary to all this, what did Jesus Christ do? He begged for forgiveness for the people torturing him. This was not just an act of compassion on the part of Jesus, but internally it was much more, which we shall find out.

There was one another famous saint in South India called Ramana Maharshi around late 1800’s and early 1900’s. He was an enlightened soul. But as part of his prarabdha karma, his body had to go through challenges. He had to be operated on for a cancerous growth and when the doctor offered anesthesia, he refused. He went through the surgery without an anesthesia. When for a small cut, we start screaming in pain, how could the saint go through an intense pain of surgery without any anesthesia?

Several centuries ago, Socrates was asked to drink poison as part of a punishment. It is reported that he joyfully drank it and fell dead. Again, how could a man so willingly accept death?

In all these cases, the reason is the realization of the Self. Assuming I am sitting on a chair, let’s assume that an ant is gnawing away at the chair. Though I am on the chair, will I shout in pain? I know I am not the chair and hence do not experience any pain. Take another situation. Let’s assume I have bought a brand new BMW and have just taken it out to show to a friend. Let’s assume the friend’s pet dog does the “unthinkable” on my brand new BMW. Will I be affected? Obviously, I will be. Whereas I was not impacted by an ant gnawing at the chair on which I was sitting, I am severely disturbed by the dog’s act on my car. Why?

The only reason is “identification”. Since I do not identify with the chair, anything happening to the chair does not affect me. However, I have mentally identified with the BMW and have become the car in my mind!. So, when the dog does its act on the car, it is as though it is doing it on me and I am disturbed. Taking the same example further, if the brand new BMW was a rented car and the same thing happened, would I care? Obviously not! This leads us to an interesting consequence that pain occurs only when I identify myself with an object and consider it to be mine and in the process, sub-consciously become the product itself, so much so, that anything happening to the product happens to me.

It is this exact thing that causes pain to us because of our identification with the body, mind and intellect. As I have explained earlier, I am nothing but pure energy of consciousness or Brahman. Owing to a “sleight of hand” as though, I develop an ego and identify with the body/mind/intellect and consider them to be mine. But as seen above, once I identify something as mine, sub-consciously I become that and anything happening to the body/mind/intellect impacts me. Hence a hurt to the body impacts me. A hurt to the emotion becomes a pain. A hurt to the intellect becomes my pain.

In Christ’s case or Maharshi’s case, they were much beyond this identification. They knew that they were not the body/mind/intellect and anything happening to them was equivalent to something happening to a chair on which I was sitting. They saw themselves as pure witness only to what happened to the body/mind/intellect. When Maharshi was asked, whether he felt pain, apparently he replied, “ I am aware that the body felt pain. I am not the body. So why would I experience pain?”

Another wonderful analogy to use is the dream analogy. Assume in my dream, I am being tortured. Definitely as part of my dream experience, I will be shouting in pain. But let’s assume that somehow through a knowledgeable person, I, the character in the dream came to know that I was not really being tortured and the real “me” was warm asleep in bed. As the dream continued of my torture,  now the dream “me” knows the reality that the real “me’ is not being tortured. In this state, what would the dream “me” do. The dream “me” would take the whole game of torture in fun and would not experience any pain at all.

Wow, we can tell ourselves. Is it so easy to get rid of pain? Well, enlightenment is not an overnight process. However the process of getting rid of pain is a gradual process. When I am aware that a pain I am going through is for a cause larger than my selfishness, the pain becomes more bearable. If I as a soldier know that the pain of the gun shot is part of a greater desire to protect my country, my pain is bearable. We know of situations in the Indian freedom movement, when normal men and women faced intense violence at the hands of the foreign rulers. What gave them the ability to bear it? It was the knowledge that whatever they were doing was for a much superior cause of freeing the country.

Another way of managing pain is taking the route of “agency”. If we come to the conclusion that our life is part of a major cosmic act and anything I go through is part of this cosmic act, it gives me a greater ability to sustain pain knowing that it is not isolated, but part of a major cosmic power’s actions.

As we condition our mind through techniques like above, we will gradually reach a stage where we realize that we are in a dream and become just actors on a stage and witness the pain that our characters are going through and act on the dream stage like pain stricken characters, without actually feeling the pain.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality