Question::
Can “suffering” elevate one’s spiritual stature? How so?
(or)
What is intelligent handling of “suffering”? How to handle it that way?
(or)
How are ‘suffering-ignorance’, ‘ignorance-wanting’ related?
(or)
Are ‘spirit’ and ‘matter’ anti?
(or)
How are ‘suffering’ and ‘ego’ related?
(or)
How can one eliminate one’s ‘limiting ego’? What happens when ‘ego’ is eliminated?
(or)
What are moral and religious practices meant for?
(or)
Why should one live more for others and less for oneself?
(or)
What happens when one lessens/minimizes one’s DESIRES?
(or)
What for are ‘selfless love’ and ‘universal brotherhood’?
(or)
Why should one unite one’s ‘Spiritual’ and ‘material’ aspects, INSEPARABLY?
Answer::
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust(©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
There is suffering in life. It can degrade or elevate man according to the manner in which he meets it and the use that he makes of it. If it is intelligently understood and dealt with radically and not merely superficially, it brings in its wake that ‘understanding’- which leads to happiness. For, instead of merely complaining against suffering, man then turns to removing radically the deep rooted ignorance which inevitably brings such suffering.
When suffering leads to real and eternal happiness by inviting our attention to the Truth, it should not be avoided. The lessons which it brings should not be spurned. They should be squarely faced.
You must SUMMON COURAGE to strike at the ‘ignorance’ from which such suffering sprouts. It is to eliminate suffering that suffering has come!
People suffer because they are not satisfied. They want more and more. “Ignorance” gives rise to greed and vanity. If you want nothing, you would not suffer. But you do want something or other. If you were really free from all want, you would not suffer– even in the jaws of a lion.
The universal discontent in modern life is due to the great gulf between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’– between the ideal and its realization in life. The ‘spiritual’ and the ‘material’ aspects of life are widely separated from each other. They ought to be inseparably united with each other.
There is no fundamental opposition between ‘spirit’ and ‘matter’ or between ‘life’ and ‘form’. The apparent opposition is due to WRONG THINKING.
There is no escape from suffering as long as there is the ‘limiting ego’. But the ‘ego’ can be eliminated through ‘love’ and ‘service’. The elimination of the ego leads to divine consciousness in which there is freedom from suffering and joy.
All moral and religious practices are intended to eliminate the ego. The more you live for others and the less for yourself, the less binding are your “desires” which lead you to unending suffering.
The less desires you have, the THINNER is your veil of ignorance constituting the ego.
The root of all sufferings– individual or social– is SELF-INTEREST. Eliminate self-interest and you will solve all problems and difficulties.
- Cults,
- creeds,
- dogmas,
- religious rites and ceremonies, or
- lectures and sermons
can never bring radical relief from suffering. If suffering and chaos are to disappear, and real happiness and peace are to come in their place, there has to be ‘selfless love’ and ‘universal brotherhood’.
– Meher Baba
Source ::
Sparks of the Truth, Pg:: 59-60
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
