Pain is inevitable as it is unavoidable, they say. I wonder who then they are? Or who gave them the right to be Mr. Know It all? Doesn’t it annoy you when you get all the sermons which instead of placating you infuriate you more?
We enter crying into the world, we learn our poems in nursery school which teach you about pain.. “Humpty Dumpty...” Pain is woven into our lives so intrinsically that we don’t know how to differentiate ourselves from it. Buddha acknowledged it as the first noble truth”Dukkham Ariyassaccamm. Sorrow, pain is with us at every step of our lives. And I ask myself if that pain is inevitable why does it come as a surprise every time/ if it is the embodiment of our living, why do we stumble, why do we cry? Why does it seem to be unfair when it touches us personally?
WE all know what goes up comes down, ( this is not an amateur science lesson, trust me people) , there are explanations for everything .We know there are opposites to everything, the supreme order keeps us in check and balances out everything. So, we all agree on this, then why not pain and pleasure being two sides of the coin. Trust me it just doesn’t enter my thick skull. It must be all the coffee.
We live our lives carefully, pick our steps carefully, measuring every action and some of us plunge in head first or you’ll say you let take the heart take its course. We all try to be careful and try to escape the ills or misfortunes which plague humanity but somewhere, somehow we don’t escape it. Albert Camus compares human condition to that of Sisyphus in Greek mythology. He was condemned to eternal punishment by the gods in Hades, his pain was to roll a boulder up the hill only to have it roll back again. We live our lives to avoid the fires of hell and to seek freedom the weight of the boulder but all our actions are fruitless, ineffectual and one is trapped.
The human situation is similar to Sisyphus where we desire freedom, autonomy, escapism form pain it’s hurt but are trapped by the inherent conditions of being human co-existing in a society. .We all are subject to the pain of losing a loved one, loss, grief, frustration, humiliation, and if one lives old the indignities of old age.
Pain is the shock which hits you; you never have the right shin-guards, the shock absorbers or the right shield to deflect. It is in fact as I Have come to realize makes one stronger, a little bit wiser (can’t take credit!!) It makes one stop, realizes and makes one stronger only via personal experience. I or anyone, neem – hakim cannot bottle it for you and say well this quota for pain for your life and you have your mukti from it. If salvation was this easy every parent from time immemorial would have gifted it to their children. A pain –free world, utopia.
Pain puts life into prepective, a bigger picture develops. A devastating blow makes us realize what life is –transistory and fragile. Buddha taught us everything in the world is fraught with pain. Only when we accept it does it make way for growth, for the right spirit to develop. We all have our crosses to bear, and they do us good. Sometimes we learn from them quickly, sometime slowly but we all get over ‘it”.
I feel the mental pain one suffers is stronger than the physical pain which is overcome by exercise, popping in pills. Mental Pain is tough. It makes us our own enemies because we fall for it, agonize over it, and the anxiety caused by such can only be rid of when we gently, kindly nudge it out after analyzing our mind. Of course it can drag you down into the vortex which is dangerous, the despair , the torment can you suck you into the darkness and as my friend says the demons have to be friended.We need to acknowledge or faults, learn from them and move on.
Admitting pain is not a puny thing, not a sign of weak character, not something one has to hide or mask under the false bravado or a façade of ‘ koi gal nahin”. Farak painda hain.
UMM, the bad news is that we will have a thorny, twisted painful path and it’s going to have its share of bad days and good days. You know that state of bliss, freedom will only come to you when you want it badly; no one is going to give it to you on platter.
The good news is every single one of us will get there.
Currently, A Sad Ravneet
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