Pain and the Universe

One certainty in an uncertain world, they say, is death. Witnessing sickness, suffering, old age and death, was what drove the young prince Siddhartha to renounce the world, sit under a Bodhi tree and eventually get enlightenment. The one sure thing in the world is suffering and the associated pain.

Hinduism teaches that people are suffering because of the sinful deeds they had committed in the previous births. That is the karma theory. These deeds or karma must be paid by an individual by taking another birth, by suffering that is due to him or her and working to overcome it out by doing good deeds, according to the strata of society in which he is born and placed in the present birth. That is Varnashrama Dharma and it led to Hindu Caste system.

Gods and goddesses of Hinduism are considered above suffering and pain, because it is held that being gods, they are above sin and karma theory. It applies only to the human beings. Hindu philosophers warn humans that they should not see the lives of gods, sinful or not, and copy it, because then karma will catch up with them and not the gods!

Under the Advaita philosophy of Hinduism, that is propagated in the West by popular Swamis, god is morally neutral and is above good and bad. God is Paramatma, the Supreme Soul, which is an effulgent, blissful state, which is the goal for human beings to achieve.

Atma, the soul of every individual human being, will at the end, after having paid the price for all its accumulated bad karma over thousands of births, by suffering and doing good deeds, gets released from the world and the cycle of birth and death, merges with the supreme Soul. This is the mukti, the final release, which a Hindu would look forward to in life.

God, for a Hindu, is Ananda, blissfulness, and above good and bad, untouched by sorrow and suffering, which afflicts the human beings.

Buddha, who broke away from the caste system of Hinduism, kept the concept of karma and payment through suffering by individual human beings. He taught that suffering itself is caused by desire and attachment to material things in the world and hence desire for these things should be shunned.

The root cause of suffering, according to Buddha, is desire. On annihilating that desire, one can attain peace and tranquillity and be above the world of suffering and sickness. To achieve this impossible feat, he laid before his followers, the Golden Middle path and that of the life of a monk, without any attachment to the worldly things.

Islam does not believe in karma theory. One God Allah, though merciful, is a taskmaster. One must engage in many rituals, five times of worship or namaz, Friday worship at the Mosque, practice charity, go on pilgrimage to Haj, and show obedience to Hadiths, the traditions of the prophet; all are emphasised for being a good Muslim.

Allah is the final judge and he will admit a Muslim into heavens, based on his/her good deeds and obedience to the rules and regulations laid down in the Quran and the Hadiths. However, one can never be sure of one’s place in heaven, for it is left to the Judge, Allah.

Under Islam also there is no question of Allah suffering any pain, for he is the God and above all these sufferings, which afflict only human beings. It will not touch the almighty God, Allah.

So, the question is, can God undergo suffering? Does He know what pain is? Does He go through the emotional turmoil that we go through? Does He know what it is to lose a loved one to death? Disease and death and suffering, do these human afflictions touch God? Is He sensitive to these? These are some of the questions that arise in my mind as I meditate on these matters.

Christianity deals with these questions differently. God is looked upon as a Father, a personal God, who cares for His creatures, especially human beings, men and women, whom He created in His own image and entrusted the governance of the world He created in their hands.

God is Almighty and definitely above sickness and death and disease; otherwise He will not be a God. But, God of a Christian, is a God of emotions and feelings and He expressed His pleasure or displeasure through His devoted followers. For example, when God saw that wickedness had increased on earth and that every intent of the thought of men was evil, He regretted that He made man. Genesis 6:5.

Jesus Christ, the explicit revelation of God Himself in human form, was a man of emotions, when he lived on earth. He cried at the death of his friend Lazarus. John 11:33,35. He got angry, when he saw money lenders and other traders made the Temple of God, the ‘house of prayer,’ into a place of business, ‘den of robbers.’ Luke 19:46.

He knew what it is to be hungry, experienced thirst, and was tempted by circumstances and the Devil in all the ways as we are being tempted today. Jesus knew what it is to suffer want and deprivation and face desertion by his own disciples.

Jesus himself, personally went through suffering and death at the hands of his distractors, the Jewish religious authorities of that time. He was whipped, and his lacerated body was nailed to a cross. He died on the cross, suffering the agony of crucifixion under Roman governors.

God, a Christian would say, knows suffering and pain. God the Father had to see His Beloved Son, being crucified. It must have pained His heart. Still that was His plan, to sacrifice His Son, to pay the price for the sins of human beings. He removed the suffering of mankind, through the suffering of His own Son.

Anyone who believed that Jesus Christ died for his or her own sins, regretted and repented the sins committed, would be saved, said a loving God. John 3:16. That was the path of salvation for human beings He had provided in His Son. No one need to carry his or her sins and try to work it out by doing good deeds any longer. Jesus has done that job of paying the penalty for sin. All that one needs is to believe in Jesus. Hebrews 10:9,10, 12.

That is not the end of the story. The dead Jesus rose again on the third day! Resurrection gave humanity a hope, a hope beyond the grave or cremation. A hope that we will also rise alive at the end of the Age, and inherit eternal life, if only we had believed in Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4:13,14.

What a hope! And this hope comes out of suffering and death and seemingly destruction. But Jesus Christ conquered it all. No more pain and sickness or sin and death, but eternal life, through Jesus Christ. God Himself will wipe away all our tears. Revelation 21:4.  

A God who knows suffering and permitted that suffering to redeem the world of sinners with bad karmas, paying the price Himself, taking the burden on Himself, and extending eternal life to all who believe in Him, would be the real God.

Happy are those who trust in Him, for they will inherit eternal life.