I am ill, or in pain
My body is failing me, and I do not know how to be with it.
First, plainly: nothing on this page is a substitute for medical care. Neem Karoli Baba, asked about smallpox, said it would be eradicated “because of the hard work of dedicated medical scientists”—the tradition's own warrant that grace and medicine are not rivals. With that said: Ramakrishna taught illness from inside it, dying of throat cancer and refusing to pray for his own cure. “Not I, not I—Thou art the Doer”: the freedom he found was in authorship, not outcome. Sri Yukteswar: the body is a treacherous friend; give it its due, no more; pain and pleasure are transitory. The Mother read illness as an outer sign of inner disharmony—offered as explanation, never as blame—and insisted yoga builds health rather than damaging it. The Gita: the contacts of the senses give heat and cold, pleasure and pain; they come and go; bear them. Valluvar: take trouble as the nature of things and you will not be made to suffer. Maharaj-ji, finally: you are alone with God when you are sick. You call on God when you suffer.
Most of your troubles come from fear. In fact, ninety per cent of illnesses are the result of the subconscient fear of the body.
Offered as her observation, not as medical advice. See our note on illness.
The body has, indeed, only a momentary existence. God alone is real.
Difficulties always come but they do not last forever.
You get wisdom from suffering. You are alone with God when you are sick, in the cremation ground or hospital. You call on God when you suffer.
We have to reap now the fruit of what we sow (do) in our past life, and there is no use in crying about it.
The body is a treacherous friend. Give it its due; no more.
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः ।
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ॥
The contacts of the senses, Arjuna, give cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go; they do not last. Bear them.
இடுக்கண் வருங்கால் நகுக அதனை
அடுத்தூர்வது அஃதொப்ப தில்.
When trouble comes, laugh. Nothing else so drives it back.
न त्वं देहो न ते देहो भोक्ता कर्ता न वा भवान् ।
चिद्रूपोऽसि सदा साक्षी निरपेक्षः सुखं चर ॥
You are not the body, nor is the body yours; you are neither the doer nor the enjoyer. You are awareness itself, the eternal witness, needing nothing. Go about happily.
Good health is the exterior expression of an inner harmony.
Only when a man says: “Not I! Not I! I am nobody. O Lord, Thou art the Doer and I am Thy servant” is he freed from all sufferings.
Don't be afraid. Human birth is full of suffering and one has to endure everything patiently.
Smallpox will be eradicated. This is God's gift to mankind because of the hard work of dedicated medical scientists.
Said to Larry Brilliant, who went on to work in the WHO smallpox eradication programme. We include it as the tradition's own warrant that spiritual help and medical care are not rivals.
Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, while trying at the same time to remove their hold.
Calling with longing
- Choose one name or one form of God—any that you already love, or that your family loved. He was emphatic that it does not matter which.
- Sit, or walk, or lie down, and call. Not politely. He asked for the cry of a kitten, of a child for its mother—“an intense restlessness.”
- If tears come, let them. He held that tears shed for God do the work that years of argument cannot.
- Do this daily, briefly, and stick to the one path. Do not switch names when it gets hard.
What is still yours to do today, inside this body, exactly as it is?
Other questions