Existence is Pain
Yesterday, I went to the railway station to see my son off. He was going back to Mumbai after spending a short vacation at home.
I started ignoring his lifestyle once he went off to college. I stopped paying any attention to what he wore and what he ate and drank a long time ago.
But the graffiti on the T-shirt that he was wearing today caught my attention. “Existence is pain”, it read.
My wife was curious to know about it. So he explained to her that it was a quote from some TV show. Having not been satisfied by his answer, I thought about it for a while but then ended up discarding it.
After seeing him off, I went asleep and woke up the next morning having slept for almost 11 hours.
Thoughts about my daily chores and work quickly started flooding my mind.
The pending request for my loan disbursement, the starting-trouble that my bike was giving to me, driving that troublesome bike to work on such a rainy day and then seeing my verbally abusive boss, and leaving my family for an upcoming week-long business trip, these thoughts quickly ran through my mind.
This unending chain of thoughts also brought along with itself a considerable amount of stress, anxiety, pain and the hyper-awareness of my existence.
And that got me thinking. During the sound 11 hours of sleep, a state of restfulness, that I enjoyed, I was completely unaware of my existence. Also, the sufferings that came along with it.
Right after I woke up, the stress and the pain quickly reappeared.
So, yes, indeed, my son, Existence is a pain!
