How To Overcome Suffering.

   'Desire' is the cause of suffering. This is an oft-quoted Buddha's statement. But nobody ever defined what is desire and where does it arise. The scriptures assert, "Desire is brahmn', and as such, the desire is of the divine origin! It is 'shivechhe'! Desire arises in jiva due to divine proddence. It is, in other words, the embedded nature of the jiva. Just as the seed sprouts and blooms at the appropriate time, things happen. But for the divine order, nothing exists here! "The Lord wills"! Whatever we find here is the product of desire that manifests in jivarashi. There is no compulsion for anything and from anybody to do anything here! Everything happens here according to divine will. So the sufferings of the jiva may also be attributed, in a way, to the divine! But, it is not so!. The joy is due to the divine order and the suffering is due to the 'ajnyan', ignorance of the true nature of the jiva. Once the jiva realizes the true nature the jiva revels in joy, supreme bliss without any suffering!   
 The jiva (living being) that gets a physical form and grows and dies has to face the problems associated with growth, ageing and death. Suffering is inevitable at every stage of life. Even delivery of a baby is not a happy even when the person is bearing pain and crying! Happiness comes to the mother only when she sees the lovely baby in her hand. But the entire life is again a problem of feeding the baby from time to time, looking after its health, education and the problems never end. There is again a problem of the second child or the third? Besides, the problems go on and on. Search for a suitable match and celebration of marriage, grandchildren and taking care of them. We have seen old people who go abroad when their children send air ticket and enjoy for few days only to realize the boredom, and crave to return as early as possible. These days, they say, it is difficult to adjust to the new generation, their life style, ways of thinking, attitude and and all that! Where is happiness. Day is followed by night and night again opens up another day of fight or flight? There is no end to the social, economic, political wranglings and buzz!   

    Now, as to solutions to problems, the jiva has to realize the true nature of this world and learn to remain aloof as a witness, sakshin. The Bhagavad-Gita teaches us to be of equanimous mind, sthita-prajnya. One has to establish in one's self, oneself? One has to realize the fact that everybody wears a mask and nobody reveals his/her true nature and goes on adjusting to circumstance; people learn to laugh and cry as situations arise and conditions prompt them. Nobody is true to one's self and has to put on a show. Ultimately, everybody says, "the show must go on". People die and the friends and relatives cry for a few hours and at the most, a few days and soon forget all. This is beautifully described by Bhagavan Shree Krishna in His revelations to Arjuna. He says, "People celebrate births and deaths and asks, 'what is the true state of existence'? Finally, He says, there is neither birth nor death! It is all my magical play. The supreme Lord asks Arjuna to realize the Self, just surrender and forget about everything.

   We have seen Sage Ramana having a cancerous wound, bearing severe pain, ignores it, and even tells, 'it (the pain) is for the body and not to Ramana', and asks his doctor (who comes every day to change bandage and cries seeing the wound) not to cry! Osho, maharishi Mahesh Yogi and many realized persons have also suffered! Saint Ramakrishna suffered pain due to throat cancer. There is a short video clip where the Kannada film star, a celebrity, Raj Kumar had arthritis and pain in knees and says, "I ignore the pain"! Now, when realization comes, there is no pain or pleasure to the jiva. The jiva rests calm with its self, unperturbed by the happenings outside of it! The jiva realizes that whatever happens happens and it has nothing to do with the happenings. The soul, Atman, is pure, unblemished, immortal, eternal and unborn, too!

   At best a doctor may administer some sedative, morphine or such soothing anesthetic medicines and the pain is not experienced by the sick jiva. But the pain recurs soon after the anesthetic effect is over.  This painless state can also be experienced in deep sleep and the doctors give sleeping pills to patients. But, a Yogi takes to yoga and stays in samadhi and experiences a higher state of existence- beyond body and mind! This realization puts an end to all sufferings of the jiva. It also enables the jiva to return to its pure crystal clear state  of Light!