Amit Sharma
Pain, it works ? What is this ? I can’t understand the title. It’s confusing. Many similar kind of things come into our mind when first read it. To me also, like many others, it was similar kind of understanding till I actually realised its hidden meaning. While sharing pleasantries with an intellectual couple of days back, I could develop more knowledge about it and correlate it with many happenings in personal life. Infact, this holds good for every human being in existence and it is the SECRET of success for many people, whether they realise it or not. Now, without making it further complex, let me explain all.
Pain can come in many forms to us. It can be in the form of not getting little small things for a child inspite of repeated requests to parents during childhood, it can be in the form of losing a game while playing with our friends, it can be in the form of missing out at a competitive exam for which one applies for, it can be in the form of a betrayal of a friend upon whom you trusted a lot, it can be in the form of losing a beloved and not getting married with him or her (very common amongst the youngsters), it can be losing an important bid in the peak if your business, it can be with the death of a loved one, pet or a close relative, it can be due to some colossal loss or a tragedy at the community level, so on and so forth. This list is endless and so are the miseries in human life. These few illustrations are just the tip of an iceberg, I am referring to.
Now, most important for all of us is to understand here what Pain (any kind or form) gives to us and takes away from us. Take Away is very much visible here as every form of Pain which touches us takes away our happiness, peace of mind and tranquility within us. But the topic is all about what Pain gives and how it works for us. Very few amongst us realise that Pain can indeed act as a Catalyst for us just like Laughter Therapy or other kinds of Physiological Therapies. It may be sounding like awkward at this stage when you are reading it but with further elaboration of the topic, I shall be able to put a strong case for the same before you finish reading it.
First of all, Pain has a self-healing therapy involved within itself. The more one goes through it, the better are the chances that the person would become and emerge as a much more stronger personality in the game of life. Here, I won’t quote lot of examples but it’s a must to share couple of them including that of Nelson Mandela, Father of the Nation for the Republic of South Africa who remained imprisoned for almost whole life but when he came out of jail, he emerged as a true leader who became a classical national hero like many Mahatama Gandhi and many similar legendary leaders of the world. Another popular example which almost everyone in India can relate with is that of superstar Amitabh Bachchan who went through almost all kinds of Pains in life, be it personal, physical, financial, psychological or many others but such varied varieties and phases of Pain, helped him to emerge as a much stronger, robust and charismatic personality and see, even today, after undergoing such Panful Life, he is living his life to the fullest as a most successful professional of his domain in a king-size manner.
So, let’s now understand what is Pain Therapy and how does it help? I believe, Pain is the basis of future happiness, contributions, maturity and multiple successes in future. Pain never comes with a return ticket nor does it guarantee us how early will we be able to overcome it but it definitely comes with a lesson + hope for all of us to become much more wiser, stronger, robust personalities for the future and even, become trend-setters for others to quote about our exemplary courage and boldness with which we have successfully handled and overcome the critical phase of Pain. I know, it is indeed tough to feel the depth of someone else’s Pain as it is popularly said that “jis tan laage, Woh tan jaane, peerh parayee naa jaane koi” but those who dare to feel others Pains and help to recover and overcome the same, are the ones who are truly trend-setters in today’s highly self-centric world.
A beautiful real life example of feeling the Pain for the best outcome is when an expecting mother goes through extreme Labour Pains in the final phase of Pregnancy before the birth of a child and those amongst us who have actually experienced it are the real lucky ones to understand that Pain therapy not only works but does wonders. The unbearable Pain which a lady feels before child birth is almost forgotten when you get the feel of a newly-born coming into the lap and the first hug with this beautiful creation of Almighty soothes all kinds of pain which one goes through before it. There cannot be a better instance, than this one, elucidating how one undergoes Pain Therapy and in turn, how it really works and does wonders for us.
When one actually experiences Pain and sometimes, it means like the end of the world for the one going through it and those who give-in early become victims of same. However, this is the only time, when we need to maintain total calm and composure and believe in oneself before it becomes too late to recover from it. Those who unfortunately give-in to the agony caused due to Pain, lose hope towards life and end-up either becoming lifeless, hopeless, pessimist or become prey to the deadly vices / addictions like drugs, drinking or becoming vagabonds and become nuisance mongers, thereby multiplying the graph of unrest prevailing in the society. One must realise here that just like after every night, there is a fresh morning or after every sunset, there is a new sunrise, similarly, after every Pain and Loss in life, there is an abundant underlying Scope for Hope and Success to follow but mostly, we give-up in between only with the presumption that there is no ray of hope left now or it is already a Dooms day for us. This tendency needs to be totally curbed and overcoming Pain, even with an active involvement of Counsellors or Psychologists, is a wonderful way-out which can result into saving of precious and priceless human lives.
So much so, Pain can act as a true therapy which can usher, an altogether a new era of happiness, prosperity and success for own self and others alongside. Believe me, some highly successful people strongly believe and wish that their Pain should never end, as its continuation or succession in one form or the other, would definitely result into continuous struggle for existence thereby helping them indirectly to emerge as winners at the end of the day. Moreover, Pain shall always keep their feet grounded for achieving more & more success in times to come. This Pain Therapy further unfolds that many-a-time, Pain is for the larger good only as would bring the best out of the individuals who have the ability to bear it and the same would ultimately result into larger good, not only at the individual level but even at the community or societal levels. So, all those individuals who go though Pain and successfully overcome it, emerge as the “real heroes” for the society whom people love to imitate and become like, in the future.
After understanding all this, one can say that it becomes a mandatory chapter in one’s life to live in a state of Pain for at least sometime to lead a normal life, which without making any distinction, can hit the richest or the poorest, oldest or the youngest and even, highly intellectual or simply illiterates, as Pain does not distinct between sexes, class, caste, age, colour, demographies, etc. Just like the recent Covid-19 Pandemic has touched almost each and every individual amongst us while taking us through a voyage of physical and phycological Pain, similarly, this healing therapy of Pain, should become our foundation pillar to achieve larger successes in life. Those who live in constant Pain, do realise its significance and emerge as the strongest minds and heroes for the society, while leaving a deeper impact in others’ lives while contributing towards others’ betterment as well.
In this era of complexities and fast-moving life, Pain touches almost each and every life (whether one acknowledges it or not), thereby resulting into more sadism, depression and restlessness amongst the people. Those who realise the power of this Pain Therapy, emerge as true winners and become the epitome of success like war-heroes who come back from the battle-field alive even after fighting worst battles for so many days. We need to understand just one thing that Pain is a must for becoming better and refined human beings than what we are in the present and it is not a choice but a compulsion for us to understand the value of Pain and adopt and adapt while going through it just like one heels and recovers while undergoing a healing therapy to heal our wounds or hurts unless we plunge into a state of irreversibility wherein life ends-up as a total loss !
{The writer is a senior Civil Services Officer working in the Union Territory of J&K and can be reached at amit1kas@gmail.com}
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