We are moving toward happiness, and the "engine" on the way is suffering. What role it plays at the three stages of human maturity — pashu, viira and devatá.
Is suffering needed or not, is it good or bad, useful or harmful? We are moving toward happiness, and the "engine" on the way is suffering. This is a little strange, so we need to understand the nuances of the question very well.
The stages of human maturity
Pashu is the animal state, when a person looks like a person but emotionally and psychologically is closer to an animal. If you watch animals, you will see emotions, feelings, experiences and thoughts in them too. But in a human being there is a thirst for the infinite, and it is exactly this quality that distinguishes a human being from an animal. However, the thirst for the infinite has not awakened in everyone. Those in whom it is still asleep are described by the term pashu. This is the initial phase of maturity. Such people follow the path of pashvácára; they are at the first stage of personal maturity.
Next, a person passes into the state of viira. A viira is a person who has woken up and realized that they have not only physical and emotional needs, but also an intuitive spiritual need for infinite love, for supreme wisdom.
When a person has realized this, they understand that they do not need to go back to pashvácára. Is there much sense in only eating, sleeping and reproducing? But they are not yet ready to move to the third stage, divyácára, the stage of a divine being who enjoys a divine life.
"Viira" means "hero." Why a hero? An animal has no psychic struggle; it does not act heroically, it obeys its instincts. But a person at the viira stage has an inner conflict. How should I act: the easy way or the right way? And the struggle to act rightly qualifies a person as a hero (viira). And one who has become stable in the psychology of the hero in the end becomes a devatá, a divine being.
At these three stages suffering plays different roles. At the third stage the significance of suffering disappears, whereas at the first stage suffering plays a very important role.
[Imagine] a person whose mentality is poorly developed. If such a person is in comfortable circumstances, they will not strive for anything; they will not develop. They sincerely do not understand people who are at the stage of viirácára and thirst for more. At the stage of pashvácára a person develops only under the pressure of circumstances. That is, when that pressure is there, they move, but if the pressure disappears, they stop developing.
Out of the many people who are pashu, a very small percentage set out on the path of spiritual development because an inner thirst has appeared in them. For the most part such people have been viira, heroes, since childhood; they feel drawn to spirituality and come to the spiritual path naturally. But the great majority of people come to the spiritual path precisely under the pressure of circumstances: their health has deteriorated — a doctor advised doing yoga; their relationships have gone wrong — a psychologist advised doing yoga; "I can't concentrate" — a professor advised doing yoga; and so on.
Why is discomfort needed?
When some problem or pain appears and a person tries to get rid of that pain, this is called the pressure of circumstances. Or a figurative carrot dangles in front of a person: do this and that, and you will get such-and-such a result. That is also the pressure of circumstances. So at the first stage of spiritual development suffering is necessary for development, which happens only under the influence of life's circumstances.
You already know that there is the force of ignorance — tamoguńa. This is the force of staticity, which arises where there is no movement: you have frozen, fallen asleep, and stay in that comfortable, swampy torpor. There is the force of dynamism — rajoguńa, the force of change. You are moving somewhere, doing something, and with that movement new horizons open up. For example, when a plant is in the form of a seed, tamoguńa acts on it. When it begins to be watered, growth happens under the influence of the force of dynamism. And at last the plant blossoms. At the moment when it is flowering and its beauty is revealed, the plant is under the influence of sattvaguńa, the force of goodness. In the same way, a person moves when dynamism appears in their life, and then the highest beauty blossoms in them, a spiritual need grows, and they strive for supreme wisdom, supreme love, universal happiness.
There are the concepts of comfort and discomfort. Comfort is when my desires are satisfied; discomfort is when I want something and do not get it, or do not want something and get it. The state of discomfort is the main driving factor at the stage of pashvácára. Without discomfort there will be no movement forward.
Imagine a person who is a viira, that is, at the second stage of personal growth. They walk on their own, but at times their pace slows and life manages to catch up and push them. Then they fly forward again, content, and after a while slow down again. In viirácára a person takes steps on their own, runs, and life spurs them on as well.
At the third stage, in divyácára, a person develops so quickly that life simply cannot keep up with pushing them; that is, no pressure of circumstances is needed anymore.
The dark side and the light side
Let us add a little about viirácára. Among people who practice yoga there is a concept called klesh (in English "clash," a collision; in Sanskrit klesha, "affliction, adversity").
What does klesh mean? There are three factors of evolution. The first factor of development is physical conflict, the struggle for survival: a person has to develop in order to live. The second factor, subtler, is conflict at the inner, psychic level. Ideas collide in the mind: "right" versus "pleasant," "short-term happiness now" versus "long-term happiness later," "what I'm used to" versus "what is right and needed." And at this stage a person is very well aware of which actions leave a favorable trace in their mind and which leave an unfavorable one. In Star Wars there is a dialogue in which Master Yoda instructs Luke Skywalker:
Luke: Is the dark side of the Force more powerful? >Yoda: No, not more powerful — but simpler and more attractive.
And you have to choose which side of the Force you stand on: the dark or the light. This choice of how to act is what is called klesh, conflict.
The very best way to create a psychic klesh, a conflict in the mind, is to repeat a A sound or set of sounds that, repeated with its meaning in mind, carries the mind toward the Infinite.. When you repeat, say a mantra in which a lofty idea is contained, the very vibration of the mantra, its ideation, comes into conflict with your low state. The vibration of the mantra and your state attune to each other, and in the end the mantra pulls you out and lifts you up.
In everyday understanding the word "conflict" is taken negatively, but in this context its meaning is very positive. Here positivity is in conflict with negativity. If I choose the positive, the negative weakens and retreats. But if I do nothing about my negativity, it will not go anywhere. So when you meet suffering on the spiritual path, always remember that it is very important for spiritual growth.