Purpose of Pain

I often wondered why God has made experience of physical pain a part life. Every living being on this planet falls ill or meet with an accident and goes through physical pain.

Recently, I had very bad pain in my wisdom tooth. The dentist told me that it needs to be removed. I promptly agreed for the extraction and accepted the pain that the procedure would inflict on me. Now, having learnt and practiced to live in the present moment at least in a few situations, I kept my self away from anxiety of future pain, till, eventually when I settled down in the dentist’s operating chair. At that time, all the thoughts of my daily chores disappeared and fear gripped me! Right from when he applied local anesthesia and injected pain-killers in my mouth through syringes, I had dropped all my other intentions, worries and tasks aside and only kept praying, surrendering and asking Guruji- why am I supposed to go through all this? By the grace, the procedure was completely smooth and painless! But, I realized that possibly, I have an answer for the purpose of pain in life- at least for those moments of anticipated pain, I forgot everything else and brought myself in the present moment and in prayers. The intention of pain, whether physical or emotional should be to bring a person to surrender and prayers at least for some time.