The Spirit Of Spirituality: In Search Of a Permanent Cure For Pain

Sunday, September 14, 2014

In Search Of a Permanent Cure For Pain

The Webster dictionary defines pain as follows:

the physical feeling caused by disease, injury, or something that hurts the body
mental or emotional suffering : sadness caused by some emotional or mental problem
someone or something that causes trouble or makes you feel annoyed or angry

An unfortunate aspect of pain is that it is always there in our lives except in one phase. In our waking state, there are a variety of pains, which I will explain. Our dreams, though we hope will be of the best, many a times turn out to be nightmares. So if we reflect on the time when we do not experience any pain for sure, it is only during deep sleep. Is it possible somehow to be fully awake and still have a painless existence, the way we are in deep sleep? Please join me as we explore the concept of pain.

If we analyze pain it comes from three sources:

1. Adhidaivika or coming from nature. This refers to pain caused by extreme heat, heavy rain, floods, drought etc.

2. Adhibhoutika or coming from our surroundings - This refers to pain from our surroundings - a noisy neighbor, a nagging spouse, an uncontrollable child etc.

3. Adhyatmika or coming from one self. could be physical, emotional or intellectual

If we look at the three sources of pain, what we notice is that pain is not in the source, but in our mind. Even a physical pain though it appears as though coming from the affected part is really a pain in the mind. I have read of medical cases where people have lost a limb and still can feel as though that limb is itching or paining. So, if the limb itself was not there, how is it paining? That means pain is in the mind, not in the limb.

So how can we eliminate pain? We somehow have to eliminate the ability of the mind to feel the pain. There is no point eliminating source of pain, because the sources of pain are so many. One way to eliminate pain is to distract the mind. Let us say, I am in severe physical pain. I take a pain killer, which temporarily numbs the pain so that I feel better. But after the pain killer's effects are gone, I am back to same point. So the painkiller has not eliminated pain permanently. Let's say, I am depressed because my co-worker got a promotion, which I deserved. Will a painkiller eliminate this pain? Not a chance. So I go to the bar and down a couple of drinks to distract my mind. As I down several pegs, I forget about promotion and seem to have forgotten pain. But in the morning when I get up with a heavy hangover, has the pain of not being promoted gone? Not at all. Let us take another example. A loved person is no more and I am in deep grief. As i pour my heart out to a dear friend, my pain seems to be reducing. But once the friend leaves, what happens to my grief? Comes back with much more intensity. So the methods of pain killers, drinks or even emotional support of a friend will not eliminate pain permanently. So, what is the way out to not experience pain at all?

As we mull over above, let us look at some of the great masters. Jesus was hanged on a cross and continued to wish good to his tormentors. Socrates without any hesitation drank poison when his tormentors asked him to. In ancient India, when Alexander invaded the country, he was told of a famous saint and Alexander asked that he come to his court. The saint refused whereupon Alexander went to him and said he would cut off his head. The saint joyfully said, go ahead. How could these people in the midst of intense situations of pain almost leading to death, still remain calm? Did they not feel pain? They surely would have had their skin burn, their limbs tear etc. But the thing is that their mind did not register these pains. How is it that their mind did not register the pain whereas for the smallest pain, we start shouting?

To understand above, take the situation where I am in a dream. I am being mercilessly thrashed by some enemies. Obviously my dream character will experience the pain. But somehow, suppose my dream character knew this was a dream and the reality was that I was really fast asleep in my bed. Now, when the tormentors in my dream thrash me, what will i feel? Everyone of the tormentors in my dream are nothing but me projecting images in my mind. So, they are nothing but me. In that situation, why will i as a dream character feel the pain when I know the reality is that i am really the guy sleeping in my bed?

In exactly the same way, the great masters knew the reality. They knew this world is nothing but an illusion. The reality is that all of us are nothing but the Supreme Brahman or Truth or God. Only because of ignorance of true self, we think we are a combination of body/mind/intellect and experience physical pain of body/emotional pain of mind and intellectual pain of the intellect. The Pure Brahman being infinite has no pain. So the moment we realize we are Brahman, there is no more pain.

Great, one may say. I now understand I am Brahman. So why do I still feel pain? Anyone with a reasonable intelligence can understand the concept of Brahman. But that does not free one from pain. Understanding Brahman is not like understanding physics, history or whatever, taking an exam and passing it. Understanding Brahman means becoming Brahman. This can only happen through sustained practice using the power of the intellect to discriminate between the real and the unreal. The great masters had become Brahman and hence did not experience any pain. Let us take our first step in that direction to become painfree.

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