Pastmaster: Pain and Pleasure.

 

In today’s times, when someone says that they are in pain, we try our best to alleviate it and make the person pain-free. Pain today is considered to be a bad thing and pleasure, to the extent that it does not reach hegemony and harm others, is considered to be a good thing. Today, we attribute pain with sadness and pleasure with happiness. Interestingly, the same was not the case in the ancient times and a stark dichotomy between the ancient concepts of pain and pleasure as opposed to the modern one can be seen, and these differences are nothing short of baffling. The modern times began from the early 1700s and the ancient times were Biblical.

 

Going back to the Biblical times, towns and cities would honor the ones who would inflict the most amount of pain on themselves. It was a common perception that in order to be close to God, it was necessary to inflict the most amount of pain on one’s person. Many historical references like the ones given by William Dalrymple in his book, ‘From the Holy Mountain’ to many modern writers like Dan Brown depicting Silas, the sycophant of Christ as a tattooed person who even cut off his tongue to be closer to his Creator, corroborate this fact.

 

As there is good, so there is bad, with light comes a shadow that casts darkness. There were many kinds of pain worshippers back then, some who worshipped the messengers of God, and some who worshipped evil. The instances of witchcraft, witch hunting and witch burning were also not uncommon in those times. The witches were the dark art worshippers who endured pain for the devil’s sake and for the detriment of the people, whereas saints endured pain for blandishment and flagellation of the person and to uplift humanity and bear the pain of others.

 

Rumi, the great poet, was once asked by his disciple as to how can the religion of saints be ascertained. Rumi, great for a reason told him that saints belong to humanity and humanity is the religion they preach. While the Christian take on pain and pleasure was vibrant and had many shades to it, the Hindu way of looking at it was entirely different. Hinduism being a ‘dharma’ (meaning science) and other sects being ‘religions’ depicts pain and pleasure as a person of ordinary prudence would perceive it. The Hindu way depicts the Gods as ordinary human beings with extraordinary powers and capacities who get angry, engage in gluttony, are full of conceit, just like humans and how these Gods understand the consequences of their mistakes just like humans.

 

While the Biblical saints worshipped God torturing of the person, and became akin to God in their respective provinces, the Hindu saints looked at God inside everyone and advised everyone around them to seek God in the other human being. The essential element in the saints of the Hindu dharma is that they are not the saints of the dharma but the ones who served humanity in whatever way they could.

 

Post the Biblical period, modern England saw the evolution of various theorists, jurists who said that there should be a balance between pain and pleasure and too much of pain as well as too much of pleasure to the extent of being unmindful should be avoided at all costs. Then gradually people began to realize that infliction of so much pain was not necessary as everyone could be better able to read the scriptures and experience God in their own way. Much of reduction of pain has had to do with increased literacy among the masses, after a fashion.

 

However, it seems that we are going back to the trend, although the application of the idea is entirely different. If someone is experiencing body pain after taking a medicine, we tell them it means that the medicine is increasing their immunity and making them stronger. Even though we do not inflict pain on our person unnecessarily, we do presume that some part of pain will lead to eventual pleasure, or “what won’t kill us will make us stronger”. Many motivational speakers and business coaches also use this pain and pleasure principle to make their audiences understand that there is no substitute to pain and pleasure will be theirs only after they bear some pain.

 

A massive shift in the ideology towards pain and pleasure can also be seen. In the Biblical times, people endured pain for the glory of it, whereas now people endure pain for an eventuality of pleasure. This leads to a fundamental question: was man self-centered then, when he wanted to be closest to God because of which he inflicted pain upon himself, or is he selfish now to not want anything but his own glory?

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Author: Ms. Radhika Sunil Vaidya. 

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