In Darkness, Light

Dr. Rajesh Bhola

India

Apr 13, 2012

Every day I come across a number of persons who are leading their lives with some disability. Amit is one of the children who has cerebral palsy. This disability restricts his movement, and makes his everyday tasks difficult. Everyday, he has some pain. Things that most people take for granted—like reaching out to take something from a cupboard—are very hard, and sometimes impossible for him. Living with recurring pain is not pleasant. It is very tiring. It means that Amit has to think of how best to do things; and to assess how much is reasonable to expect from his body. He has the inevitable suffering of pain and restriction; and then he has the additional anguish of embarrassment – which seems to twist inside him. To say that such embarrassment is psychological, is our conventional way of assessing this; in fact, this embarrassment and shame is felt in a very physical way. Gradually, Amit has started attending his vocational and special education classes; started living with the realities of life, and enjoying some pleasures that are available to him. As he has reached a greater acceptance of his physical condition, he has become happier – like a flower opening in the sunshine, after the storm clouds have passed.

There is no God to call to account. There is no denying it, and there is no one to blame. Suffering simply is.  There is no escape. 

While handling such children, the parents undergo a radical change – in how they live their life, and see the world. This radical change is in a way called enlightenment. It enables these parents to become socially helpful to others who are in pain. Such parents are, as destiny wants them to be, in the seat of the trouble – where the pain is the strongest, the doubt most disturbing, and the way forward most opaque. Blessedly, this is also the place where enlightenment breaks through. Lotuses grow only in swamps.