There are many questions we have regarding our physical suffering. One question that often crops up is whether our illnesses could be due to some failure on our part to do prescribed rituals for our ancestors. The sin of neglecting such pitru karma gets added to our Sanchita Karma, that big bundle of karmas which we have accumulated over several births. Neglect of duty to ancestors will not have its results at once. So that should answer the question why we suffer despite doing the prescribed rites, while others who do not even believe in them are healthy. Their omissions will get added to their Sanchita Karma and they will pay for it in some future birth. That is why great men see their own suffering as the result of their past karmas, said Velukkudi Krishnan, in a discourse. They, therefore, welcome suffering, because as they suffer, their sins are wiped off. The more pleasures one enjoys, the more quickly one’s punyas get exhausted. But it is not possible for the average man to think thus. He cannot think of suffering and pleasure in these terms. His reaction, in fact, will be the exact opposite of that of great sages. Great scholars who are well versed in sacred texts are unaffected by things that give pleasure or things that lead to sorrow. There is a Subhashita which says:
Sokasthaana sahasraaNi bhayasthaana sataani ca
Divase divase moodhamaavishanti na panditam.
This wise saying makes the observation that pandits are untroubled by sorrow or joy. But a fool has thousands of causes for sorrow and hundreds of reasons to experience fear. If something happens, which should make them happy, pandits think that their punyas are getting depleted fast. If something unhappy happens, they think they are erasing some past karmas. Either way, they remain unaffected.
