An eternal message of wisdom reverberates through life as human beings live out their earthly moments. The famous adage says that ‘there is no gain without pain’. It is usually when an infant gives a painful cry of hunger; its mother feeds it milk. A student needs to burn the midnight oil to get or secure admission in the graduate course or school of his choice.
A prisoner must spend time in his prison cell for the crime for which he has been sentenced before he can breathe free air. An obese person has to curtail all favourite fast food and perform regular physical exercises to shed weight.
Let us describe the aforesaid situations with a less mundane but more spiritual perspective. What goes out inevitably comes back. Selfless service earns you goodwill and long-term rewards. Perseverance leads to success. Anyone desiring more profits in the competitive world of business needs to strive for it by giving better service or better products to customers.
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Human life too is a give-and-take business under the subtle regulation of the divine law of cause and effect. The easy approach is to be inward-looking and selfish in life. If you get something without striving for it, it amounts to getting a freebie, which makes you indebted to its giver. Whatever you give, you will get back. Generosity begets generosity. Friendliness begets friendliness. Love begets love.
Pain is the precursor to gain. Perseverance is the bedrock of profits. Suffering prepares the ground for relief and wellness. Every dark cloud has a silver lining and the dark days are always numbered. There is nothing like a free lunch. There is a price for everything. Even poison is not available for free. Time is money. Efforts are money. Work is money. It is the pain of effort, risk and work that translates into material gain. This is an inviolable law of nature.
It may sound strange, but pain is not something to be dreaded or detested. It is atonement for the violation of the laws of the universe that happened in the past or something experienced in the nature of perseverance. Pain and penance is often the offering we make to the Almighty for the expiation of past sins. It unburdens us of the load of our misdeeds and debts. It is an elixir and an instrument of deliverance. It is the veritable instrument of gain.
Pleasure and pain are the two faces of the same coin. One inevitably leads to the other—in a phased manner. Too much of pleasurable indulgences invite health troubles for the human being. This brings pain. But pain is the divine instrument for the correction of the erring human. It makes him realise his folly of excessive indulgence. It makes him understand his error in violation of the principle of moderation—of the transgression of the limits set upon him by mother nature. And after the pain has been undergone, health returns and the person is free of misery.
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Also as has been stated above, perseverance is the foundation of prosperity. Perseverance can take the form of hard strenuous work, determined and focused efforts, patience and a rigorous life routine. The reward of this is success and material prosperity which brings happiness and pleasures bountifully.
Pain prepares you for the rigours and challenges of life. It makes you tolerant, disciplined and forbearing. It makes you a better being—physically and mentally. It makes you worthy of acquiring riches that bring you happiness and fulfilment.
Any gain that comes to a person without due efforts is the result of past good karmas fructifying now. It can also be due to that person violating the principles of propriety and morality, in which case that gain will bring him commensurate pain sooner or later according to the immanent law of divine retribution. That pain will be in the form of punishment.
The philosophy of gain and pain in human life tells all about the working of the divine doctrine of karma as per which humans get the rewards of their good karmas and expiate their bad karmas. Therefore, pain and gain have to be viewed as complementary phases of human existence. Each one has meaning and significance only in association with the other. With this understanding and a balanced karmic perspective in life, we humans would find the journey easier, smoother and more fulfilling as we would be in tune with the divine law of karmic retribution.
Pain is atonement for the violation of the laws of the universe that happened in the past or something experienced in the nature of perseverance.