Understanding pain, the saintly way

In his latest book Arun Shourie tried to compare what was written about Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharshi to what Neuroscientists say

“I was perhaps bored with politics. I can write a book on the current situation in my sleep. What is the point in that? There is no challenge here. I wanted to write about something that would really tax me and this book certainly did.

It involved learning about neuroscience, one of the most complex subjects in the world and took three years of painstaking research. If I had known how strenuous this would be I may not have attempted it”. Arun Shourie’s take on his 27th book reveals the complexity of the task undertaken by this prolific author.

For the former cabinet minister, renowned author and newspaper editor, who fought corruption and campaigned for press freedom during his stints as Editor, the book “Two Saints—Speculations around and about Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharshi” marks a clear shift from strident and even controversial political writings to an inward journey focusing on suffering caused by personal tragedy.

Shourie known for his criticism of the present government remains ‘the hero’ for votaries of freedom of expression but the subject of his interest is now a deeper inner quest. His previous book, ‘Does He Know a Mother’s Heart? …How suffering refutes religion’ looks at double tragedy-- that of his wife Anita afflicted by Parkinson’s disease even as the two of them were coping with raising their son Aditya suffering from Cerebral Palsy.

Explanations that major religions offered as to why innocents suffered provided no solace. ‘I studied religious texts, the Upanishads, Gita, Brahmasutras, Quran, the old and new testaments and found the explanations therein completely unsatisfactory.

So, I turned to three persons I totally revere Gandhiji, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramanahamsa and tried to glean what they would say to persons, who suffered the blows of fate when they approached them. They were also unsatisfactory and I gravitated to Buddhism. In the process I became totally fascinated by these two saints and tried to compare whatever was written about them to what Neuroscientists say’ says Arun Shourie explaining the premise for writing this book.

Studying the mystical experiences of these saints and trying to follow whether they occurred in other circumstances as in cases where the human brain was opened up for surgery or epilepsy lead the author to study recorded results of an eminent surgeon , Benfield from Canada.

When patients who had an electrode pressed at a point in the brain were conscious but did not experience any pain, the doctor got his stenographer to record their feelings. Many times patients felt that somebody had entered their room, they were talking to a friend in a distant land or that they were being lifted out of their body.

Examples of astral travel, out of body and near death experiences of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharshi provided fodder for the author to question their ability to similarly alter their brains by stimulating certain points during long periods of austerities and meditation. These he felt may have been perceived as miracles by ordinary folks.

Arun Shourie also quotes Ramakarishna Paramahamsa’s experiences during meditation where a person who looked just like him came out of his body, sat opposite him and guided him, rejoining his body once the meditation was complete. This phenomenon also familiar to explorers and mountaineers as ‘sensed presence’ is discussed at length to understand the experience of mystics from the neuroscience angle.

According to Arun Shourie the peripheral experiences reported by the mystics were incidentals and the real miracle was their goodness, compassion and the complete consistency of their teachings and life. Although the purpose of the book is not make any comparison to the several gurus in the country, he cannot refrain from taking a dig at modern gurus who live a luxurious life, flaunt their wealth and clout and rarely practice what they preach.

What is wrong if our present gurus use wealth for welfare and guide people on the right path I ask? He promptly counters.

‘What is the right path? Their path is the wrong path. Just repeating some Vedantic phrases is not the right path. In the end a person will not go by what another person says, he will go by his example. Their example is building real estate empires, boasting about crowds and VIPs that flock them or adding prefixes to their names.

Their real accomplishment is that they can outdo any advertisement guru or event manager. In this book I have pointed out how easy it is to use words like the ‘truth’ ‘Inner search’ and ‘self realization’. When Sri Aurobindo uses them or Ramana Maharshi uses them they have a different meaning. When these characters use them they are mere words’ he states.

Gandhiji in his foreword to a biography on Ramkarishna Paramahamsa by Swami Nikhilananda writes that ‘those who saw Ramakrishna saw religion in practice and what it means to live face to face with god’ quotes Arun Shourie to strengthen his argument further. Erudite scholar that he is, Shourie’s book is insightful and inspirational delving into neuroscience, psychology and sociology and yet letting the reader draw his own conclusions.

“Beyond this futile search for miracles, as far as the inner directed search is concerned, if I may be so bold as to report my own experience, the vicissitudes of life are an adequate guru. We do not need the godmen of today. The ups and downs of life hurl us this way and that.

As they buffet us, we have to but observe our mind, and we would have put it to work”, he says in the last chapter of his book. Whether the author’s new book will continue in this exploratory vein remains to be seen. As of now we have a well researched, insightful work that begins with a personal search and ends with larger questions for humanity.