We human beings believe that this world is full of suffering, that we must experience the pain of the body, misery of the mind, and agony of the ego, we think that suffering is a way of life. We have been taught that in life, there will be pleasure and pain, sun and rain, loss and gain and we must accept this suffering joyously. While there is no doubt that we must accept the Divine Will, we must realize that to suffer, is a choice. It is up to us to suffer or not to suffer. It is wrong to believe that there is no option but to suffer.
Because we have grown up with the belief that it is necessary to suffer, and there is no possibility of living a life without suffering, we do not investigate to find that state of eternal bliss or Ananda. We believe in Karma, the Law of Action and Reaction and accept suffering as a result of our own Karma. We even believe that we have no choice or free will and therefore, no opportunity of changing our destiny.
We live just like puppets, without using our intellect and without Realizing the Truth that if we suffer, it’s not because God wants us to suffer.
We also do not suffer because of our bad luck. We suffer because of our ignorance. Unfortunately, nobody has taught us this. Even the words of the Buddha – this Samsara is Dukkha, meaning that this world is full of suffering, echoes as a myth in our life and we live with it and cry. We don’t question ‘Why?’ We even believe that we come to earth to suffer because every child is born crying, not laughing. We don’t realize that there is a way out of all suffering.
The way is —we must Realize the Truth. We suffer the pain of the body because we think we are the body. If we realize that we are not the body, we will understand that though the body may experience pain, we will not suffer. The mind jumps from thought to thought and bombards us with 50 thoughts a minute. But the mind itself is an illusion. It appears to exist, but in reality, it is just a bundle of thoughts. If we stop thinking and become silent, we will escape from the misery of the mind as we tame the monkey mind into becoming a monk. Then there is no fear, anxiety, worry, stress, and depression.
What about anger, hate, revenge, and jealousy? How do we overcome these negative poisons? Who experiences anger? Who wants to take revenge? It is ‘I’, the ego. When we realize that the ego itself is caused because of ignorance, and we let go of the ego, then, we drop the agony and the anguish caused by the ego. No longer is there anger or hate. Suddenly, the mandatory suffering of the body, mind, and ego, disappears with the Realization of the Truth. A few of us are fortunate to escape from this triple suffering as we go on the quest to find out the answer to the question – Who am I? If we are sincere and Realize the Truth that we are the Divine Soul, we will suffer no more!
If you have any questions on happiness, suffering, life, death, rebirth, karma, liberation, enlightenment or anything related to spirituality, you can ask AiR directly on a free Zoom call at 8 pm every day.
Air Atman In Ravi
