5. Definition of Pain

DISCOURSES ON

RADHASOAMI FAITH

BY

MAHARAJ SAHAB

Pandit Brahm Sankar Misra, M.A.

5. DEFINITION OF PAIN

            7. Pain is of two classes, physical and mental. We shall in the first place proceed with an examination of physical pain. A person in normal condition receives a sword cut or any other physical injury. The part injured is contused or severed, and the nerves occupying that part, which are the vehicles or the conductors of the sensory current, are similarly affected. This condition, if analyzed, shows that a forcible ejectment of some portion of the sensory current has taken place, and the transmission of this condition to the sentient entity by the unaffected sensory currents adjoining the part injured produces the sensation known as physical pain. If, by means of hypnotic passes, or by the administration of chloroform, sensory action be stopped, which will always be accompanied by a forgetfulness of the physical self, i.e. by a complete withdrawal of attention from the physical plane, the injury will no longer be communicated to the entity and will not therefore be perceived. In the case of mental pain that condition is produced by shocks to mental associations. In all these associations, however, the sensory current takes as great a part in the perception of mental pain as it does in the case of physical pain. It has already been stated above that the sensory current manifests itself, and acts, through attention. It may be mentioned here that even in dreams, where the scenes are changing so rapidly, it is the diversion of attention to the various subjective impressions that brings about these transmutations. In some cases, external sounds etc., produce a sudden diversion, and new and sometimes extremely queer or terrifying features are introduced. If a careful analysis of all conditions be made, the great importance of attention in all subjective effects will be established beyond doubt. It may be stated that the conductors of sensory action, in the case of physical pain, are the nerves, while in the case of mental pain, due to shocks to associations, the communion is entirely by means of thoughts, which represent the various subjective forms assumed by attention with reference to the different impressions with which it is associated. The two states may be aptly described as analogous to telegraphy by wire and wireless telegraphy. When there is a mental shock or injury, there is always a feeling of non-fulfilment of something one wished for or cherished, a separation from an object one was attached to by natural affinities or otherwise, or an injury to or loss of objects of the kind mentioned above. In all these conditions, a forcible severance or shock occurs to the association; and the attention, diverted from the groove through which it used to act, reacts upon the mental pain and produces the phenomenon known as mental pain.

            8. With reference to the analysis we have presented above, which shows that the main factor in the phenomena of pain of both classes is the forcible ejectment of attention, the definition of pain in its most comprehensive form would be as follows :-

            The perception by a sentient entity of the forcible ejectment of its sensory currents from the physical or mental planes that they are occupying constitutes the phenomenon of pain.