By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
In this Weekly Wisdom, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar shares beautiful insights on how to understand pain, pleasure, and the ego. Find out.
Pain and pleasure are simply intense sensations. Pleasant sensation is pleasure. Unpleasant sensation is pain. But divinity is beyond pleasure and pain.
Why the divine allows pain in our world
Now, there’s a source of light. From the source, a light ray is coming. The light ray sometimes passes through filters of yellow or blue or red or green. There’s a light filter disk rotating in front of it. So that type of color appears to show up, right?
In the same way, these pleasant, unpleasant, pleasurable, unpleasurable, painful feelings come and go on the screen of our consciousness. No pain can stay forever. Nor can any pleasure. So reality, truth, is beyond pain and pleasure.
You’ve noticed today when you did the meditation in motion, it was both painful and pleasant, wasn’t it? People go and do gymnastics. Isn’t it painful? It’s so painful to build your muscles. But you love doing it. Similarly, the birth of a baby is such a painful experience for a mother. But she finds motherhood very pleasant and pleasurable. When the baby cries, opens its eyes, and smiles at the mother, she feels happy.
So the pain and pleasure in life are relative. Divinity is the absolute reality beyond this. So spirit is beyond this small pain and pleasure.
How to tear off the roots of the ego
You have better things to do. Why do you want to spend time with your ego? Let it be there. Let your ego pinch you. Every time the ego pinches you, it’s good to feel that pain. You wake up. Otherwise, you’ll be in a slumber. The only antidote for ego is just being natural, being at home.
Don’t try to tear the ego off, cut it into pieces, and throw it into the Pacific Ocean. If it troubles you, know that it’s there for some time and will dissolve at the right time.
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