Overcome Suffering

I am often asked how to end suffering. You are so focused on action that you don’t realise that action born out of ignorance is an extension of ignorance. We have to enlighten our action with understanding. You are the creator of your suffering. This understanding will help you dissolve suffering. An unhappy person in heaven will convert even heaven into hell; a happy person can convert hell into heaven. So, change is not required anywhere except within you. If you have an unhappy mind, even if you are in heaven, you will ‘stink’. So, to overcome suffering, you have to understand that your unhappy mind is the cause. There are two types of sufferings. Legitimate and illegitimate. Legitimate suffering is sorrow that is proportionate to the situation. For example, your loved one dies. This sorrow is valid. But if you continue worrying for more than one or two years, then there is a psychological aspect to it. To handle legitimate sufferings, you should understand that such suffering is the result of your past deeds. Illegitimate suffering is suffering that is not proportionate to the situation. Surrender is real growth. Growth involves no suffering. Resistance to suffering creates suffering. Very often, we suffer because we are not open to the vastness of life. We are bound by our knowledge. We are dead to something that is beyond our knowledge. What we know is finite and what we do not know is infinite. To be alive and limited to what we know, and dead to what we do not know, is a deep cause for suffering.

Source: Economic Times, 6/03/2020