The Way Out of Suffering - Anuradha

SUFFERING… has it always existed? Who suffers? Only human beings or all creation? Does an amoeba suffer? Do stones suffer? Does suffering being with life or does it have its genesis in the mind? Can suffering be eliminated? … and so on.

I suppose the list is endless. It is an issue so pertinent to all of us and seemingly inescapable, that it does not even form a part of our frontal thinking. Just as we accept that all creatures must undergo the law of hunger, so do we accept that all must suffer.

Yet this is the question that assumes importance whenever there is a deep crisis in our lives. And then who do we turn to? None of our ordinary frameworks provide any answer to it – neither the great modern religion, Science, nor the world rulers, Economics or Politics. Nor can we find the answer in all our Educational and Professional training. The only discipline that has dared to address this crucial issue of human life is Spirituality and philosophies based on spiritual insights.

Why is it so? Because it is a question that cannot be answered by the mind. It is a discovery that demands instruments other than the physical ones that science uses. And such have been the methods employed by the great spiritual masters to unravel this mystery.

Whatever follows in the next few pages, is only an approximation of the answers, for the mind is incapable of understanding or expressing the truth. But one can sense the truth of it through one’s inner faculties. And if it touches one, it can provide a guideline for how to deal with suffering, how to overcome it – for suffering exists – presently, it is an inescapable law of life.

The Story of Creation

As this mystery is beyond the mind, it is often explained in terms of a story…

"There is a very old tradition which narrates this. I am going to tell you the story as one does to children, for in this way you will understand:

One day "God" decided to exteriorize himself, objectivize himself, in order to have the joy of knowing himself in detail. So, first of all, he emanated his consciousness (that is to say, he manifested his consciousness) by ordering this consciousness to realize a universe. This consciousness began by emanating four beings, four individualities which were indeed altogether very high beings, of the highest Reality. They were the being of consciousness, the being of love (of Ananda rather), the being of life and the being of light and knowledge –– but consciousness and light are the same thing. There we are then; consciousness, love and ananda, life and truth – truth, that’s the exact word. And naturally, they were supremely powerful beings, you understand. They were what are called in that tradition the first emanations, that is, the first formations. And each one became very conscious of its qualities, its power, its capacities, its possibilities, and, suddenly forgot each in its own way that it was only an emanation and an incarnation of the Supreme. And so this is what happened: When light or Consciousness, separated from the divine consciousness, that is, when it began to think it was the divine consciousness and that there was nothing other than itself, it suddenly became obscurity and inconscience. And when Life thought that all life was in itself and that there was nothing else but its life and that it did not depend at all upon the Supreme, then its life became death. And when Truth thought that it contained all truth, and that there was no other truth than itself, this Truth became falsehood. And when love or Ananda was convinced that it was the supreme Ananda and that there was no other than itself and its felicity, it became suffering. And that is how the world, which was to have been so beautiful, became so ugly. Now, that conscious-ness (if you like to call it the Divine Mother, the Supreme Consciousness), when she saw this she was very disturbed, you may be sure, she said to herself: "This has really not succeeded." So she turned back to the Divine, to God, the Supreme, and she asked him to come to her aid. She said to him: "This is what has happened. Now that is to be done?" He said: "Begin again, but try to manage in such a way that the beings do not become so independent! … They must remain in contact with you, and through you with me." And it was thus that she created the gods, who were quite docile and not so proud, and who began the creation of the world. But as the others had come before them, at every step the gods met the others. And it was in this way that the world changed into a battlefield, a place of war, strife, suffering, darkness and all the rest, and for each new creation the gods had to fight with the others who had gone ahead: They had preceded them, they had plunged headlong into matter; and they had created all this disorder and the gods had to put straight all this confusion. That is where the gods came from. They are the second emanations. …

It is said also – that is the continuation of the story or rather its beginning – that the Divine wanted his creation to be a free creation. He wanted all that went forth from him to be absolutely independent and free in order to be able to unite with him in freedom, not through compulsion. He did not want that they should be compelled to be faithful, compelled to be conscious, compelled to be obedient. They had to do it spontaneously, through the knowledge and conviction that was much better. So this world was created as a world of total freedom, freedom of choice. And it is in this way that at every moment everyone has the freedom of choice –– but with all the consequences. If one chooses well, it is good, but if one chooses ill, ah well, what’s to happen happens – that is what has happened!

The story may be understood in a much more occult and spiritual sense. But it is like all the stories of the universe: If you want to narrate them so that people may understand, they become stories for children. But if one knows how to see the truth behind the symbols, one understands everything. Even with what I have told you, which seems like a little story for children, even like that, if you understand what I have told you and the meaning of what I have told you, you can have the secret of things.

There are traditions which say that it is an "accident", in the sense that it could have been otherwise. But it happened like that. It is true, it came about like that. Only, it was quite understandable that, every one of these elements having its origin in the Supreme, being quite close to the Emanation at that moment, quite close to the Origin, carried in itself the consciousness of its divinity and superiority, necessarily, since this is not a creation made with something foreign to the Divine: It is simply the Divine who has emanated himself, as though he were looking at himself – he objectivizes himself in order to become aware of all that he is; instead of being in an inner static state of concentration in which all is unmanifested, he projects that outside himself "in order to see", as though he wanted to see all that is within him, that is , all the infinity of possibilities. So, all was possible. It happened like that – it could have happened otherwise. Besides, nothing tells you that alongside our universe such as it is, there do not exist others which are so different that there cannot be any relation between one universe and another. It can very well be that our universe is not the only exteriorization of the Divine. Ours is such as we know it; there may be others which are in much less sorry a state than this one! Besides, it is lamentable only in its appearance. If you go behind the appearance, you become aware that is it not lamentable at all. It is only one way of seeing."1

A Second Aspect

In his book, The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo raises another question related to the above … "But even if we accept this pure Existence, this Brahman, this Sat as the absolute beginning, end and continent of things and in Brahman an inherent self-consciousness inseparable from its being and throwing itself out as a force of movement of consciousness which is creative of forces, forms and worlds, we have yet no answer to the question "Why should Brahman, perfect, absolute, infinite, needing nothing, desiring nothing, at all throw out force of consciousness to create in itself these worlds of forms?" For we have put aside the solution that it is compelled by its own nature of Force to create, obliged by its own potentiality of movement and formation to move into forms. It is true that it has this potentiality, but it is not limited, bound or compelled by it; it is free. If, then, being free to move or remain eternally still, to throw itself into forms or retain the potentiality of form in itself, it indulges its power of movement and formation, it can be only for one reason, for delight.

This primary, ultimate and eternal Existence, as seen by the Vedantins, is not merely bare existence, or a conscious existence whose consciousness is a crude force or power; it is a conscious existence the very term of whose being, the very term of whose consciousness is bliss. As in absolute existence there can be no nothingness, no night of inconscience, no deficiency, that is to say, no failure of Force, –– for if there were any of these things, it would not be absolute, –– so also there can be no suffering, no negation of delight. Absoluteness of conscious existence is illimitable bliss of conscious existence; the two are only different phrases for the same thing. All illimitableness, all infinity, all absoluteness is pure delight. Even our relative humanity has this experience that all dissatisfaction means a limit, an obstacle, –– satisfaction comes by realization of something withheld, by the surpassing of the limit, the overcoming of the obstacle. This is because our original being is the absolute in full possession of its infinite and illimitable self-consciousness and self-power; a self-possession whose other name is self-delight. And in proportion as the relative touches upon that self-possession, it moves towards satisfaction, touches delight."₂

A Seeming Negation

If this were all it would be fine, but our daily experience seems to contradict this inner reality of creation…

"The ancient Vedantic theory of cosmic origin is immediately confronted in the human mind by two powerful contradictions, the emotional and sensational conscious-ness of pain and the ethical problem of evil. For if the world be an expression of Sachchidananda, not only of existence that is conscious-force, –– for that can easily be admitted, –– but of existence that is also infinite self-delight, how are we to account for the universal presence of grief, of suffering, of pain? For this world appears to us rather as a world of suffering than as a world of the delight of existence. Certainly, that view of the world is an exaggeration, an error of perspective. If we regard it dispassionately and with a sole view to accurate and unemotional appreciation, we shall find that the sum of the pleasure of existence far exceeds the sum of the pain of existence, –– appearances and individual cases to the contrary notwithstanding, –– and that the active or passive, surface or underlying pleasure of existence is the normal state of nature, pain a contrary occurrence temporarily suspending or overlaying that normal state. But for that very reason the lesser sum of pain affects us more intensely and often looms larger than the greater sum of pleasure; precisely because the latter is normal, we do not treasure it, hardly even observe it unless it intensifies into some acuter form of itself, into a wave of happiness, a crest of joy or ecstasy. It is these things that `we call delight and seek and the normal satisfaction of existence which is always there regardless of event and particular cause or object, affects us as something neutral which is neither pleasure nor pain. It is there, a great practical fact, for without it there would not be the universal and overpowering instinct of self-preservation, but it is not what we seek and therefore we do not enter it into our balance of emotional and sensational profit and loss. In that balance we enter only positive pleasures on one side and discomfort and pain on the other; pain affects us more intensely because it is abnormal to our being, contrary to our natural tendency and is experienced as an outrage on our existence, an offence and external attack on what we are and seek to be."₃

The Core Issues

Let us look once again at the questions we started with: Has suffering always existed? Does all creation suffer or only human beings? Where does suffering originate? Can it be eliminated?

Two answers emerge for all the above questions – rather one answer alone with two complementary aspects:

Suffering is: It is at the very genesis of creation. It pervades all creation. The world subsists on the principle of freedom, variation and choice. The greater the freedom – as in human beings – the greater the choice, and hence, the greater the battle between diverse forces released into creation at its very beginning. Suffering reaches its acme in human beings midst the present creation. Yet, behind all is the Divine. Gradually manifesting itself in successive layers of consciousness, creation, in its journey back to Oneness, back to the source of all creation – the Divine. And we can choose to affiliate with That – for we have that choice.

Delight is: Pleasure and Pain are only surface movements, dependent on circum-stances, and therefore conditional – not absolute. But Delight is – Absolute. Suffering, Darkness, Evil Ignorance, Falsehood, Death – all these are the obverse faces of the same Divine. Suffering may be the starting point or a resting place, but it is not the destination nor the culmination of the journey. Look at all creation – the lower forms express this Delight of being through growth, beauty, self-preservation. Dilemma, dwelling on one’s pain, frustration – these do not exist for them. With the evolution of mental consciousness the awareness of suffering increases. But with it, the possibility of disassociating from the surface response and touching the pure Delight consciously – that too increases.

"If it then be asked why the One Existence should take delight in such a movement, the answer lies in the fact that all possibilities are inherent in Its infinity and that the delight of existence – in its mutable becoming, not in its immutable being, –– lies precisely in the variable realization of its possibilities. And the possibility worked out here in the universe of which we are a part, begins from the concealment of Sachchidananda in that which seems to be its own opposite and its self-finding even amid the terms of that opposite. Infinite being loses itself in the appearance of non-being and emerges in the appearance of a finite Soul; infinite consciousness loses itself in the appearance of a vast indeterminate inconscience and emerges in the appearance of a superficial limited conscious-ness; infinite self-sustaining force loses itself in the appearance of a chaos of atoms and emerges in the appearance of the insecure balance of a world; infinite delight loses itself in the appearance of an insensible matter and emerges in the appearance of a discordant rhythm of varied pain, pleasure and neutral feeling, love, hatred and indifference; infinite unity loses itself in the appearance of a chaos of multiplicity and emerges in a discord of forces and beings which seek to recover unity by possessing, dissolving and devouring each other."₄

The Way Out

"In this creation the real Sachchidananda has to emerge. Man, the individual, has to become and to live as a universal being; his limited mental consciousness has to widen to the superconscient unity in which each embraces all; his narrow heart has to learn the infinite embrace and replace its lusts and discords by universal love and his restricted vital being to become equal to the whole shock of the universe upon it and capable of universal delight; his very physical being has to know itself as no separate entity but as one with and sustaining in itself the whole flow of the indivisible force that is all things; his whole nature has to reproduce in the individual the unity, the harmony, the oneness-in-all of the supreme Existence-Consciousness-Bliss."₅

The law of suffering applies as long as one guides one’s life by the mind. However, as one rises into the domain that is in touch with the essential bliss inherent in all things, all circumstances, all events – one’s experience of life changes from that of suffering to that of progress and the joy of progress.

Practical Guidance

It is true that the daily experience of humanity contradicts these truths. What do we do in that situation? Knowledge, of course, is the first step forward. Because it is of utmost importance that we resolve these issues first in our minds and hearts. And then comes the action:

"Since the nature of suffering is a failure of the conscious-force in us to meet the shocks of existence and a consequent shrinking and contraction and its root is an inequality of that receptive and possessing force due to our self-limitation by egoism consequent on the ignorance of our true Self, of Sachchidananda, the elimination of suffering must first proceed by the substitution of titiksa, the facing, enduring and conquest of all shocks of existence for jugupsa, the shrinking and contraction: By this endurance and conquest we proceed to an equality which may be either an equal indifference to all contacts or an equal gladness in all contacts; and this equality again must find a firm foundation in the substitution of the Sachchidananda consciousness which is All-Bliss for the ego-consciousness which enjoys and suffers. The Sachchidananda consciousness may be transcendent of the universe and aloof from it, and to this state of distant Bliss the path is equal indifference; it is the path of the ascetic. Or the Sachchidananda consciousness may be at once transcendent and universal; and to this state of present and all-embracing Bliss the path is surrender and loss of the ego in the universal and possession of an all-pervading equal delight; it is the path of the ancient Vedic sages. But neutrality to the imperfect touches of pleasure and the perverse touches of pain is the first direct and natural result of the soul’s self-discipline and the conversion to equal delight can, usually, come only afterwards."₆

Therefore, the starting point for us is the practice of Titiksa – the facing, enduring and conquest of all shocks of existence’.

And what can help in this practice is the great truth that we overplay our perception of suffering precisely because it is not normal to human existence – delight is the natural state of existence, but because it is so natural we do not notice it – rather, the slightest aberration strikes us more poignantly. Therefore, the natural starting point is this shift in perception, a celebration of the delight of existence.

Conclusion

"Such then is the view of the universe which arises out of the integral Vedantic affirmation. An infinite, indivisible existence all-blissful in its pure self-consciousness moves out of its fundamental purity into the varied play of Force that is consciousness, into the movement of Prakriti which is the play of Maya. The delight of its existence is at first self-gathered, absorbed, subconscious in the basis of the physical universe; then emergent in a great mass of neutral movement which is not yet what we call sensation; then further emergent with the growth of mind and ego in the triple vibration of pain, pleasure and indifference originating from the limitation of the force of consciousness in the form and from its exposure to shocks of the universal Force which it finds alien to it and out of harmony with its own measure and standard; finally, the conscious emergence of the full Sachchidananda in its creations by universality, by equality, by self-possession and conquest of Nature. This is the course and movement of the world."₇

To sum up, the experience of suffering is a natural outcome of the process of evolution – but it is only a stage in the evolutionary journey, not the resting point. While the collective evolution may take centuries, it is open to each individual to evolve into a consciousness beyond the mind and thus move beyond the experience of suffering, without moving away from life in all its dynamism.

References

For further clarity, please refer to The Life Divine, by Sri Aurobindo, chapters:`Delight of Existence: The Problem’ and `Delight of Existence: The Solution’.
1 The Mother, Collected Works of the Mother, v.5, pp. 372-75.
2-7 Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, pp. 91-92, 92-93, 110, 110-11, 109, 109-10.

© `The Awakening Ray’ (Sept./Oct. 2002) published by the Gnostic Centre, H-401, Sam Vihar Apartments, Sangam Marg, New Delhi 110 022. Reprinted with permission.

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