Disciples would often come to Anandamayi Ma, the “Bliss-Permeated Mother,” to ask the simple question: “Oh Ma, why do we suffer?” This indeed is the question that we all ask at some point in our spiritual journey.
Naively, we think that if we do our spiritual practice, pray and act ethically, our life will be blessed with everything that we think will bring us happiness–the career, the marriage, and financial rewards to enrich our lives. However, whatever plans we make for ourselves, know that the Divine has something else in mind.
Ma did not view suffering as a problem to be solved, but as a process to be endured with awareness. She taught that while the ego seeks to avoid pain, the Soul uses pain to dissolve the ego.
Ma explained that when an artisan wants to make a beautiful vessel for worship (a puja vessel), they take a rough, tarnished piece of copper or brass. To make it fit for the altar, the artisan must scrub it vigorously with tamarind, sand, or ash, hammer it into the correct shape, and finally fire it to temper the metal.
Ma would say, “The vessel might complain, ‘Why are you rubbing me so hard? Why are you hitting me?’ But the artisan knows that without this, the vessel cannot be cleansed of its impurities or shaped to hold the Divine offering.” Suffering is the “scrubbing” that prepares the soul for God.
Turning Pain into Practice
Ma provided specific spiritual tools to help devotees transform their experience of hardship from a passive burden into an active path of liberation.
- The Witness Consciousness (Sakshi): Ma often suggested that we are like people watching a movie. When the hero suffers on screen, we may feel tension, but we know we are safe in our seats. By practicing being the “Witness,” we create a spiritual distance. She taught that there are two “you’s”: the one undergoing the physical or emotional sting, and the Atman—the eternal spectator who remains untouched. To say, “I am watching this pain,” rather than “I am this pain,” is the first step toward freedom.
- The Doctrine of Divine Will (Kheyala): To Ma, nothing was accidental. She viewed suffering as a “disguised gift.” If we fight our circumstances, we create “mental friction,” which hurts more than the event itself. By practicing total surrender (Sharanagati), the seeker stops arguing with reality. Ma suggested that when we hand our burdens to the Divine, we don’t just find relief; we find a profound lightness of being because the “manager” of our life has shifted from the ego to God.
- The Anchor of the Name (Nama-Japa): In the heights of grief, the intellect often fails. Ma emphasized that the “Divine Name” is the vibration of God Himself. Constant repetition of a mantra acts as a vibrational shield. It gives the mind a rhythm to cling to so it isn’t swept away by the chaotic waves of sorrow.
Reorientation as the Return Home
The ultimate “Why” of suffering, according to Ma, is Reorientation. This is not merely a change in perspective, but a fundamental shift in where the soul looks for its gravity.
The Illusion of the “Guest House”
Human beings are essentially “homeless” as long as they seek a permanent dwelling in a world defined by change (Samsara). Ma compared our worldly lives to staying in a guest house or a hotel. We spend our energy decorating the room and becoming attached to the furniture, forgetting that we must check out by morning. Suffering—the loss of health, wealth, or loved ones—is the “eviction notice” that reminds us we do not belong to this world of shadows.
The Thorns as a Compass
Your insight into reorientation reveals the true function of the “thorns on the path.” If the world were perfectly comfortable, the soul would fall into a deep, spiritual sleep. We would become content with the “toys” of existence and never seek the Source. Therefore, suffering acts as a biological and spiritual compass: The pain of the world is a signal that we are heading in the wrong direction, and the “slap” of Grace is designed to turn our gaze away from the transient and toward the Eternal.
The Final Homecoming
Ultimately, Ma’s teaching suggests that suffering is the Gravity of Grace. It is the force that pulls us downward through the layers of our own pretenses until we hit the bedrock of the Self. She famously said, “To find your Self is to find God, and to find God is to find your Self.” In this light, suffering is the fire that burns away the “not-Self.” It is the process of being stripped of everything that is not eternal so that only the Divine remains. When we are finally reoriented, we realize that the “sufferer,” the “suffering,” and the “goal” are all one and the same.
