Sweet are the uses of adversity

November 8, 2017, 2:00 AM IST Speaking Tree in TOI Edit Page | Edit Page, Spirituality | TOI

By Pradeep Bajpai

The essence of Greek tragedy, as expounded by Aristotle, lies in the twin concepts
of anagnorisis, insight into the working of fate, and catharsis, purging of baser emotions, that
result from the protagonists downfall and suffering. Adversity is supposed to refine human
character, stimulate philosophical insights and ennoble individuals.

Francis Bacon echoes a similar sentiment when he says, Prosperity doth best discover vice, but
adversity doth best discover virtue. Not only that, it also leads to intellectual introspection as
alluded to in Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet: Adversitys sweet milk, philosophy.

Somerset Maugham held a contrarian view, that far from refining and improving human beings,
adversity and suffering lead to coarsening of the moral fibre and make people self-centred,
narrow, envious, unjust and uncharitable. He points out that more often than not adversities and
suffering lead to resignation, which, far from resolving the perplexities of life, is tantamount to
surrendering to the hostile whims of chance; in other words, to find good in suffering is the
virtue of the vanquished.

This is in line with Nietzsches critique of the Christian virtues of passive suffering and
meekness, which he subsumes under the derogatory expression, slave morality.

So where does all this take us when we are confronted by adversity and suffering in our lives?
How do we make sense of tragic events in our lives that have no rhyme or reason and which, in
any case, have not been caused by our actions? How do we reconcile the effect of suffering with
the absence of its cause?

To find our answers we need, as Socrates would say, to examine lives ours and of those we
know well. We shall find that growth of any kind takes place only after pain has been endured.
Thus, the physical pain of pumping iron at the gym leads to muscular growth; the agony of
solving mathematical problems or understanding an abstruse philosophical question leads to
intellectual growth; the emotional turmoil of teen years leads to the mature stability of adulthood.
So it stands to reason that spiritual growth would also require the bearing of pain and suffering.
Quite often, tragedy leads to the cultivation of compassion and gratitude, the lessening of
arrogance and materialistic propensities, and the pursuit of spiritual goals.

In his seminal work, Mans Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl writes about prisoners in
Auschwitz who transcended their degrading and life-threatening conditions to display immense
human dignity and character by helping their fellow inmates, at great risk and cost. Human
beings, he avers, have the potential of breaking free of the limitations of their situations and
converting their suffering into achievement and accomplishment of the highest order. In fact, his
own life amply illustrates this; he emerged from the horrors of Auschwitz to write a bestseller
and eventually founded the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy.

Ultimately, it appears that the effects of tragedy and suffering are dependent not so much on the
circumstances per se, but our response thereto. Whether we get debased or ennobled, depends
upon our reaction to the tragic event. It is our mettle that determines whether pain and suffering
lead us on to higher realms of human existence or break our spirit and leave us to wallow in
despair and self-pity. Adversity engenders challenge and challenge opens the door for the
nobility of heroic struggle against odds.
Why we run away from ourselves
November 9, 2017, 2:00 AM IST Speaking Tree in TOI Edit Page | Edit Page, Spirituality | TOIBy Janina Gomes

The only person we have to live with, all through our lives, is our self. That is why the first
person we need to make peace with, is our own self. Do we have the strength to be alone? Do we
look at ourselves compassionately? Do we spend time on enriching our inner selves? Or, do we
berate and belittle ourselves?

If we are leading a flawed existence, we will have many mental and emotional forces working
against us. That is one reason why people run away from themselves. They do this is in various
ways. Some over-socialise, or they go from one activity to another without pausing and leaving
time to breathe. Everything is one big rush, with a packed schedule of engagements and things to
do.

Rushing around, we have little time to think. This can affect our personality development and
spiritual evolution. But the moment realisation sets in that self-discovery requires investment of
time and energy, we seek moments of privacy, we invest time in spiritual pursuits, we set aside
some time and we turn to meditation and prayer all ways to discover our real selves.

If we trace the charts of some very successful people, we find that they have developed a single
gift or a few gifts and made it to the top. But their inner lives may be in a mess. Often, they are
lonely. So much has gone into making them successful that they have not had the time and
patience to sort themselves out or to really relate to others in a meaningful way.

Some would like to make a 360 degree turn once they realise who they really are. That becomes
difficult. Some have this realisation at the time of impending death. Since we are creatures of
long habits, it becomes difficult to all of a sudden change direction.

Once we are in the quest for self-discovery, we begin to think differently. We realise the newness
of life every morning. We do not always hit sixes, but we are able, to some extent, to control our
lives and make amends for what went wrong.

There is great power in self-discovery. It is the kind of power that comes from living a good life.
When we discover our true selves, our attitudes to work and play will change. We will not feel
the need to run away from every mistake we may have made and neither will we rest on our
laurels. Instead, we will find that we relate to others and all beings in the universe in a much
more meaningful way.

We will also feel less and less, the need to compare ourselves to others. Comparison can be
unhealthy when it makes us feel inadequate, jealous or envious of the success of others. That is
because we have not discovered our own self-worth.

Self-worth is not about reaching the top. Self-worth is all about discovering our own potential
and coordinates. There is a purpose and a divine plan for each of us. In the fulfilment of that
plan, lies our true destiny. We will then no longer feel the urge to run away from ourselves,
because we will have discovered the secret in the inner core of our beings that makes us face
everything in the best way possible, without fear or ill-feeling.