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Attaining spirituality in suffering
> Guest contributors > Suffering is purification

Suffering is purification

As iron or lead or gold or silver, when cast into the fire, becomes pure, bright, so doth the soul become pure, bright in the pain of conflict with dark passion.

Pain is not merely physical. Pain or suffering is, also, spiritual. Spiritual pain arises when I endeavour to be cleansed of sensuality, to break the tyranny of flesh, to control desires, to check appetites.

One of our great scriptures, The Gita, teaches that the heart must be cleansed of passion as the flame, in order to burn brightly, must be cleansed from smoke. There is pain in cleansing the soul. The soul is not purified from passion until the soul walks through fire and the flame penetrates the heart. This pain is blessed: and the more it grows, the more doth the soul grow in spiritual radiance. As iron or lead or gold or silver, when cast into the fire, becomes pure, bright, so doth the soul become pure, bright in the pain of conflict with dark passion.

This pain or suffering is referred to, sometimes, as yearning, longing. In yearning or longing, the soul receives the fire of God and, in going through it, becomes lustrous. The hardness of passion and sin is subdued and, at last, transformed into radiant softness. The soul is co-mingled with the holy spirit, not without intense pain and suffering.

This suffering must be welcomed. Through this pain or suffering the soul assimilates the things of the spirit. The soul assimilates by fire, the purifying fire, which consumes the weeds of sin from the soul, and the heart enters into unity of substance with the divine spirit. We need this pain of purification, the purification as of fire. So are we purified from passion: so is the body of sin slain: so is flesh crucified. In yearning we go through a process of pain, which ends in removal of the veils of darkness, and we behold the face of the beloved.

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