Suffering as God's Grace

It is a basic tenet of Christianity that Christ suffered to save Christians. Even in modern times, when their tribulations were medically witnessed, St. Bernadette & St. Faustina underwent untold suffering, the former from a tubercular ulcer & the latter from consumption, ending in early deaths.

In Hindu religion also, suffering was the portion of Lord Rama. On the eve of his Coronation, he was banished. Later also after the war to reclaim his wife, he was subjected to calumny & had to banish her. So either he had his wife or his kingdom, but not both at the same time.

Lord Krishna, right from birth, had to battle against great odds. He was also vilified as a philanderer & unscrupulous manipulator, before dying a lonely death by a stray arrow of a hunter.

Later reformist Saints, Sri Ramakrishna & Bhagawan Ramana suffered & died from painful cancers. Even most of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, starting from Swami Vivekananda, died early deaths, causing great grief to Sri Ramakrishna's consort Sri Sarada Devi, who herself had to take opium to manage the pain of her arthritis.

It may also be mentioned that close devotees of Bhagawan Satya Sai Baba, like N. Kasturi & John Hislop had more than the average share of their problems.

Probably because of this, the religion of Jainism has (to use an outrageous mixed metaphor), taken the bull by the horns & grasped the nettles to make mortification a central part of their creed & made "Sallekhana", fasting unto death, a fitting end to life.

To end this gloomy essay on a lighter note, some Semitic religions appear to imply that the suffering of the Good is compensated in the afterlife. Emerson, in his essay "Compensation", quotes a preacher quoting this doctrine. Emerson pertinently points out "Why not have a good time now instead of waiting for a hypothetical afterlife?"

There is also an apocryphal story of some Muslims visiting France for the first time. They were wonderstruck to see bubbling brooks & other heavenly delights there. They thought "If the promised delights of paradise after death to good Muslims by Allah are present here & now, the God of the Christians is preferable" & promptly converted!

The Pleasures of the Imagination as conceived by Joseph Addison (1672 - 1819)

"Gratian (1601 - 1658, Spanish critic & moralist) very often recommends 'fine taste', as the utmost perfection of an accomplished man." 

Thus Addison begins his series of celebrated essays entitled "The Pleasures of the Imagination" in his journal, "The Spectator". Since now many may not have  heard of Addison, let alone read him, it is proposed to give a gist of these essays, which nowadays may be discussed under "Aesthetics."

He divides these pleasures under the following headings:

Primary Pleasures, i.e., sensory pleasures, mainly sight. He correctly surmises that once these sights are observed, the faculty of  imagination may provide even a man in prison to entertain himself with scenes & landscapes more beautiful than found in Nature. He also eulogises architecture of noble buildings like the Pyramids & The Great Wall of China as providing awe.

Secondary Pleasures of the imagination are provided by Literature, Sculpture, Painting & Music. Homer, Virgil, Ovid & Milton among the Poets provide pleasures greater than words wider than those joined to sight. Fantasy, created entirely by the writer is another genre. Imagination contrasted with Understanding is cultivated by the study of History & Science.

To conclude, The Pleasures of the Imagination are not so gross as those of the senses, nor so refined as those of the Understanding. A man of Imagination is let into a great many pleasures that the common people are not capable of receiving.

Welcome to abridged books

Many may consider it a sacrilege to abridge  books, implying an irreverent attitude towards the authors of the works. But the other side of the coin is that these books mostly written at an earlier, more leisurely time, were meant to be read when there were not many other diversions. Also more importantly they dealt with issues relevant to their times & which appear dated now. Two examples being the extensive analysis of military strategy in Tolstoy's "War & Peace" & the endless philosophical discussions in Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain." Also the non-musical content of Romain Rolland's multi-volume "John Christopher."

When one reads the uncut "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, one instantly notices the extraneousness of the chapters "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" & "Wayfarers All." Thankfully these are excised in Inga Moore's impressionistically illustrated edition.

This becomes even more necessary in non-fiction books which are part of the literary canon like Darwin's "On the Origins of Species" & Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations." Though they were written for the non-specialist reader, they are forbidding enough to the modern reader. So the illustrated Young Reader's edition of Darwin & the Capstone edition of Adam Smith will attract readers, who might not have touched the originals at all. This, to quote from Shakespeare's "Hamlet", "Is a consummation devoutly to be wished."