Category:Bodily Pains
Theme Analysis
Śrīla Prabhupāda uses the immediate experience of "bodily pains" to teach fundamental spiritual truths. Firstly, pain is the proof of life. A dead body does not protest when chopped, but a living body feels even a pinch. This sensitivity proves the presence of the soul and consciousness spread throughout the body. Secondly, Śrīla Prabhupāda classifies bodily pains under ādhyātmika-kleśa—miseries arising from one's own body and mind, such as fever, headache, or mental distress. Thirdly, he addresses the Mayavada philosophy by asserting that while the body is temporary, the pains are not "false"; they are factual experiences of the conditioned soul. The remedy is not to identify with the body but to practice tolerance (titikṣā) and fix the mind on Kṛṣṇa. Finally, this awareness extends to universal ethics: knowing how much pain hurts us, we should not inflict pain on others, including animals (ahimsa).
- Proof of Soul: The difference between a living body and a dead corpse is consciousness. Pain perception is the symptom of the soul's presence.
- Types of Misery: Bodily pain is categorized as ādhyātmika. Along with ādhibhautika (from others) and ādhidaivika (from nature), it constitutes the threefold miseries of material life.
- Reality vs. Illusion: The body is temporary, but the suffering is real while it lasts. One cannot simply dismiss pain as an illusion when it is being felt.
- The Ethics of Empathy: Lord Buddha's teaching of non-violence is based on the shared experience of bodily pain. If I do not like to be pinched, I should not pinch others.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Understanding Bodily Pains - From Consciousness to Tolerance.
Pages in category "Bodily Pains"
The following 78 pages are in this category, out of 78 total.
A
- A devotee never takes the part of a particular party; therefore he is carefree. He is never pained because he is free from all designations; he knows that his body is a designation, so if there are some bodily pains, he is free. BG 1972 purports
- Adhyatmic means pertaining to the body and to the mind. Just like when there is some disarrangement of the different functions of metabolism within this body, we get fever, we get some pain, headache
- Adhyatmika means pertaining to the body and mind. "I have got headache today. I have got some pain here in the back. My mind is not very much settled up today. I cannot talk with you."
- Adhyatmika refers to the body and mind. Today I have a headache or some pain in my back, or my mind is not very quiet. These are sufferings called adhyatmika
- As I feel pains and pleasure on account of some disturbance on this body, similarly, as soon as we create some disturbance with this universal atmosphere, the supreme consciousness is disturbed
- As long as the body will be there, there will only be pain. Pleasure is only a misconception. Do not be sorry if you are in an "unfortunate" situation. It can also be fortunate if you take advantage by becoming serious to become Krsna consciousness
- As long as the material body will be there, there will only be pain. Pleasure is a misconception
- As soon as I have got a particular type of body, my pains and pleasures are already settled up. You cannot make any improvement or degradation
- As the life air was ready to leave the gross body, the subtle body also began to experience pain
- Atmavat sarva-bhutesu, and treating everyone equally, as he wants to be treated himself. If by pinching your body or giving pain to your body, if you feel pain, you should not give such pain to any living entity
B
- Because the atma is within the body, if I pinch or if you pinch my body, I feel pains and pleasures. As soon as the atma is not there, it will be cut with a chopper, there is no protest
- Because the consciousness is there, therefore any part of the body, if we pinch, we can feel pains and pleasure. And when the consciousness is not there, the man is dead
- Because the soul is in the body, the body feels pleasure and pain. When the soul leaves the body, the body can be hacked to pieces, and yet it will not protest. This is because the consciousness is gone
- Because we have got this body, we suffer the pains of cold and heat. This is only one example. It is given in the Bhagavad-gita, matra-sparsas tu kaunteya sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah. Sita means cold. Just like in winter we suffer. In summer also, we suffer
- Bodily pains and pleasure come and go; they are not permanent. Tams titiksasva bharata. So you have to learn how to tolerate these bodily pains and pleasure, but you have to take care of the soul
- By pure meditation, looking at Lord Sri Krsna, he(Bhismadeva) at once was freed from all material inauspiciousness and was relieved of all bodily pains caused by the arrow wounds
C
- Consciousness is individual. You can feel the pains and pleasure of your body, and your friend also can feel the pains and pleasure of his body. I can feel pains and pleasure of my body. So this feeling of pains and pleasure is consciousness
- Consciousness is spread all over the body. Suppose I pinch in any part of your body - you feel some pain, and that is consciousness, any part of your body
E
- Even if we know, still, if there is some bodily pain we become very much disturbed. But we should know, always remember, that "I am not this body"
- Everyone is conscious of the pains and pleasures of the body in part or as a whole. This spreading of consciousness is limited within one's own body. The pains and pleasures of one body are unknown to another. BG 1972 purports
F
- Formal inquiries and answers about the bodily conception do not constitute knowledge of the Absolute Truth. Knowledge of the Absolute Truth is quite different from the formal understanding of bodily pains and pleasures
- From the Vedanta-sutra we understand that Brahman is by nature joyful. He cannot, therefore, change Himself into a body which is subject to so many painful conditions
I
- I am existing in this body; you are existing in your body - how it is known? By the consciousness. If I pinch your body, you feel pain. You pinch my body, I feel pain
- I cannot say what is going on in your mind, in your body, what pains and pleasure you are feeling. But I can speak about myself that, "I am feeling like this." That I can say. So my consciousness is not perfect. It is perfect so far I am concerned
- Idam, this body, is spread with consciousness. If you pinch any part of your body, you will become conscious that it is painful. But how long it is painful? So long the soul is there
- If I pinch your body, I do not feel any pain, but if I pinch my body, I feel pain. Therefore, "I am all-pervading" means I am all-pervading within this body by consciousness
- If I pinch your body, you feel pain. This is also consciousness that, "Somebody is pinching me." But if I pinch somebody else, you cannot feel it. Therefore your consciousness or my consciousness is limited within this body
- If I pinch your body, you feel pain. You pinch my body, I feel pain. Similarly, cats and dogs, they also feel pain or pleasure. So that is the proof of existence of the soul even in cats and dogs and human beings
- If one is engaged in his cultivation of spiritual life, then he should tolerate all these bodily pains and pleasure, because they come and go
- If the bodily pains and pleasures were false, the creation would be false also, and consequently no one would take very much interest in it. The conclusion is that the material creation is not false or imaginary, but it is temporary
- In general, there are many types of miseries that take advantage of the delicate human body and give us pain. Miseries inflicted by other living entities are called adhibhautika. For example, bedbugs can make us miserable while we are sleeping
- In the summertime we may feel pleasure from contact with water, but in the winter we may shun that very water because it is too cold. In either case, the water is the same, but we perceive it as pleasant or painful due to its contact with the body
- It is not a fact that the soul or Supersoul becomes poor simply because the body is poor. These are the statements of ignorant people. The soul and Supersoul are always apart from bodily pleasure and pain
- It is very essential that we should be prepared for the next body. Because after we will give up this body, and our pains and pleasure is according to the body
J
- Just as a stone is indifferent to all kinds of attacks and reattacks of external situations, similarly one practices jada-yoga by tolerating voluntary infliction of pain upon the material body
- Just by treating the root cause of an ailment, one can conquer all bodily pains and sufferings. Similarly, if one is devoted and faithful to the spiritual master, he can conquer the influence of sattva-guna, rajo-guna and tamo-guna very easily
- Just see, O man with a tiger's strength (Bhima), how many miseries due to celestial influences, earthly reactions and bodily pains - all very dangerous in themselves - are foreboding danger in the near future by deluding our intelligence
O
- One conditioned by material existence, whether he be a man, beast, demigod or bird must suffer from adhyatmika - bodily or mental pains, adhibhautika pains - those offered by living creatures, & adhidaivika pains - those due to supernatural disturbances
- Our real business, real education, is to understand, "What I am? I am not this body." But that education is lacking. So our main business is to understand that - I am not this body, and the bodily pains and pleasure, they are due to the change of season
- Owing to the (pregnant) mother's eating bitter, pungent foodstuffs, or food which is too salty or too sour, the body of the child incessantly suffers pains which are almost intolerable
P
- Pious activities and the voluntary acceptance of some bodily pains are called tapasya. BG 1972 purports
- Prahlada Maharaja was a great devotee of Lord Visnu, but his father was very much against Visnu. Because the father and son thus differed in their consciousness, the demon father inflicted all kinds of bodily pain upon Prahlada
T
- Tapasya means voluntary acceptance of bodily pains to achieve some higher end of life. Ravana and Hiranyakasipu underwent a severe type of bodily torture to achieve the end of sense gratification
- The bodily needs, bodily pains and pleasures, there we are affected. So how you can say it is false? Similarly the mind, and soul is absolutely factual. So any item you take, you can understand by thorough study
- The Buddhists argue that the world is false, but this is not valid. The world is temporary, but it is not false. As long as we have the body, we must suffer the pleasures and pains of the body, even though we are not the body
- The child Krsna, therefore, squeezed Putana's breast so severely that in unbearable pain she had to assume her original body and fell to the ground
- The girl who has got health problems must learn to be tolerant. As long as the material body will be there, there will only be pain. Pleasure is a misconception
- The living entity has nothing to do with bodily pains and pleasures. These are simply mental concoctions
- The material body is completely separate from the spirit soul, and the pains and pleasures of the body are superfluous
- The material nature will go on changing, and because your material body is susceptible to all the influence of such changes, you will feel pains and pleasure. No pleasure; always pain
- The practice of austerity and penance is meant for understanding the distinction between the body and the soul and how the soul can be unaffected by the pleasures and pains of the body
- The proof of the soul existing is that the consciousness is spread all over my body. As soon as I pinch any part of my body, I feel pain. Therefore I understand a soul is there
- The soul has no death, but when the same pure soul desires to enjoy the material world independently, he is placed under the conditions of material nature and must therefore accept a certain type of body and suffer the pains and pleasures thereof
- The soul has nothing to do with the body and the senses, but due to ignorance, he identifies himself with the body, and he feels pleasure and pain due to bodily pleasure and pain
- This argument (that bodily desginations like pain and pleasure are felt by the soul) put forward by Maharaja Rahugana is correct from the practical point of view, but it arises from an attachment to the bodily conception
- This body is true. We have got body. We don't say it is false. It is true. Bodily pains and pleasures we feel, so how can I say that the body is false?
- This body, although false or temporary, but when it is painful, I feel it. So how can I say it is false
- This body, wherever you pinch, you feel pain. Why? Because the consciousness is there. So Krsna advises that consciousness is eternal, not this body
- This is very important verse. In the previous verse it has been described, dehino 'smin yatha dehe (BG 2.13). Actually, we living entities, we are within the body. The bodily pains and pleasure are not the pains and pleasure of the soul within
W
- We can perceive that there is consciousness spread all over the body. If I pinch any part of my body, I will feel pain; that means there is consciousness throughout my body
- We experience these (adhyatmika) miseries even in the womb of our mother. As we well know, there are many types of miseries that take advantage of the delicate human body and give us pain
- We may not take these pleasures and pains (of body) very seriously, but they are factual nonetheless. We cannot actually say that they are false
- When a person fully realizes that the material body and world are temporary, he is not concerned with pain and pleasures of the body
- When a person is in deep sleep or when he has fainted, he forgets his gross body. Similarly, under chloroform or some other anesthetic, the living entity forgets his gross body and does not feel pain or pleasure during a surgical operation
- When one is in Krishna Consciousness, he no more feels any bodily pains and pleasures. After all, we are not this body. But we should make progress steadily by following the rules and regulations, not making experiment
- When you have got fever, there is pain all over the body. There is temperature all over the body. And when the fever is off, there is no temperature
- When you pinch my body, I feel pain; when I pinch your body, you feel pain; when I pinch an animal's body, he also feels pain. Even I pinch even the tree's body, he feels pain. It is scientifically proved. So everyone has got the soul
Y
- You are not conscious of my bodily pains and pleasure, I am not conscious of your bodily pains. But God is conscious of your consciousness and my consciousness and everything. That is the difference between God and you and me
- You may put a pot of milk & rice within fire, & the milk & rice are automatically heated one after the other. Similarly, due to bodily pains & pleasures, the senses, mind & soul are affected. The soul cannot be completely detached from this conditioning
- You pinch your body, you feel pain. Why? Because there is consciousness. Therefore consciousness is permanent. And as soon as the consciousness is gone, you chopped up your hand, no response