The point of suffering: a cross cultural analysis of Kunti from the Mahabharata and the Biblical Job

This is a question that comes up for all humans at some point in their lives; “why am I suffering?” It is no surprise that it arises as an important question in many religions. In this article I will look at how two prominent personalities from two of the world’s great religions, Hinduism and Judaism, dealt with suffering; Kunti from the Mahabharata and Job from the First Testament. Initially, I think we will find some disagreement as to what is the purpose of suffering. But upon deeper looking, those differences seem to disappear.

The suffering of Queen Kunti

Some thousands of years before today, Queen Kunti appears in the great epics; the Mahabharata and the Bhagavat Purana. Wife of the emperor, she suffered many calamities in her life; starting with her husband dying young and leaving her with five young sons to raise, the famous Pandavas.

Kunti became dependent on her brother in-law, Dhritarastra, who was minding the throne until her sons came of age. His envious sons, the Kauravas, wanted to usurp it throne from the Pandavas and he did not stop their attempts. The Kauravas cheated and attempted to murder Kunti’s family on more than one occasion.

Her calamities were plenty. In this passage she pleas to the Supreme God, Krishna…

“My dear Kṛṣṇa, Your Lordship has protected us from a poisoned cake, from a great fire, from cannibals, from the vicious assembly, from sufferings during our exile in the forest and from the battle where great generals fought. And now You have saved us from the weapon of Aśvatthāmā.” ~ Queen Kunti, Bhagavat Purana 1.8.24

The Pandavas and Kauravas clashed throughout the duration of their lives and the culmination of these clashes led to the Battle of Kurukshetra, during which the sacred Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita, was originally sung by Sri Krishna.

That war was not the end of Kunti’s suffering. During the war, due to warrior code, the Pandavas faced their own martial guru, Dronācharya, in battle. Bitter that his father’s life was taken by the Pandavas, young warrior, Aśvatthāmā, first assassinate five of Kunti’s grandsons while they were sleeping. He then attempted to kill, with a sonar nuclear weapon, the last descendent of Pandu, Pariksit Maharaja, while Pariksit was in the womb of his mother. It was precisely at this time, that Krishna appears, again, and saves her grandson by defusing the weapon; and Kunti begins to offer prayers to Krishna regarding her sufferings (Bhagavat Purana canto 1, chapter 8).

Biblical Job

In the Torah (aka The Old Testament) we find the book of Job. Similarly to Queen Kunti, Job, experienced many calamities, even though he, and many others, consider him to be a good man of God. So important a personality was Job, that God and the Devil had a bet to test his loyalty.

Book of Job:

8. “The the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

9. “ Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.”

10. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

10. The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

After this bet was made unfortunate events began happening to Job. He had wealth, family and health, and one by one he lost it all.

Initially he did not blame God for his problems, but eventually he started questioning whether or not he was deserving of such punishments, and whether God actually cares about His creation.

Conversations proceeded between Job and his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, and between Job and God also.

In their attempts to console Job, all three of his friends stuck with the theme that Job must have sinned somewhere in the past; with Eliphaz adding that “no one suffers for no reason”, and that “in the end, the righteous do not lose and the wicked do not gain”.

Rather than God being the blame, Job’s friends are indicating the relationship of God as an aloof observer of our acts.

We find this same idea described with a metaphor in one the Hindu scripture, the Svetasvatara Upanishad, where the analogy of two birds, of the same plumage, residing in the same tree:

Svetasvatara Upanishad 4.6–7 “

Like two birds of golden plumage, inseparable companions, are perched on a branch of the same tree. One of them tastes the sweet and bitter fruits of the tree; the other, tasting neither, calmly looks on. On the same tree, the individual self (jiva), deluded by forgetfulness of his identity with the divine Self, bewildered by his ego, grieves and is sad. But when he recognizes the other as the Lord worshipped by all and His glory, he becomes free from grief.”

Sin and punishment, action and reaction are a prominent ideas in both traditions. But Job is not satisfied with this answer, because he believes it does not account for the case in which a person who is suffering has not committed any sin, or has committed insufficient sin to match their suffering.

This brings us to the common theological and philosophical question of, “why do bad things happen to good people?”

The Logical Problem of Evil

This problem of seemingly unjustified suffering is commonly known as the problem of evil. The claim is that a tri-omni God (all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving) cannot exist in the same world that contains evil and suffering.

Another way of putting it is that, if evil exists in the world, then God either doesn’t exist at all, or at a minimum, is lacking one or more of the tri-omni potencies. Maybe He is all-knowing and all-loving, but He cannot do anything about it; He is not all powerful. Or, maybe God is all-knowing and all-powerful but not all-loving; maybe He just doesn’t care about His creation.

The philosopher Alvin Plantinga put forward what I believe is a sound response to the problem of evil with his free will defense…

First, Plantinga pointed out that God, though omnipotent, could not be expected to do literally anything. God could not, for example, create square circles, act contrary to his nature, or, more relevantly, create beings with free will that would never choose evil. Taking this latter point further, Plantinga argued that the moral value of human free will is a credible offsetting justification that God could have as a morally justified reason for permitting the existence of evil.

I want to look at Job’s situation from the perspective of Hinduism, and firstly, I would like to point out that Job’s challenge only arises if one does not accept reincarnation. If reincarnation is true, that would explain how someone reaps the fruits of “good” and “evil” acts unexpectedly because these acts could have occurred in a previous lives.

Reincarnation

The concept of reincarnation means that you will never stop breathing. Yes at some point our breath will have to leave this body, but it must go to a new one body to preserve the law of conservation of energy. This is the idea of prana; that all life is breath and breath is eternal.

Prana – Kaushitaki Upanishad 3.3, “Man lives deprived of speech, for we see dumb people. Man lives deprived of sight, for we see blind people. Man lives deprived of hearing, for we see deaf people. Man lives deprived of mind, for we see infants. Man lives deprived of his arms, deprived of his legs, for we see it thus. But prana alone is the conscious self (pragnatman), and having laid hold of this body, it makes it rise up. Therefore it is said, Let man worship it alone as uktha. What is prana, that is pragna (self-consciousness); what is pragna, that is prana, for together they (pragna and prana) live in this body, and together they go out of it.”

Indeed this also is confirmed by Bhagavan Sri Krishna, said to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead, when he says…

“As the embodied soul continuously passes in this body from boyhood, to youth, to old age, similarly the soul passes into a new body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” ~ Bhagavad Gita 2.13

Krishna further explains that the state of consciousness one has at the time of death influences the next kind of body they will attain:

“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail.” ~ Bhagavad Gita 8.6

One’s state of mind affects one’s body and situation. If one’s mind is full of lower ideas, they live a lower existence, and higher ideas bring them to a higher existence.

State of consciousness

The question now arises, “what is the appropriate or best state of consciousness?” And this, I believe, is where the paths of Kunti and Job unite.

Job got to speak with God. If God is the greatest, and your suffering brought God in front of you, how can you call your suffering bad?

Indeed, Queen Kunti displays her example of this strongly when she prays to Krishna…

“I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.” ~ Queen Kunti, Bhagavat Purana, 1.8.25

And, when Job saw the Lord standing in front of him, he realised his mistake because by seeing the Lord he gained full knowledge of his position and boundless fortune. With sober humility he said to God…

Job 42:1–6

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Aspects of self

Hinduism looks at the totality of selfhood in separate parts; aspects of which some are material and temporary, and others eternal and spiritual. The temporary aspects are the subtle body, and the physical body, and these are facilitated by the false ego – or the identification with the temporary self.

The subtle body is known as the linga-sharira and consists of the material; mind (manas), intelligence (buddhi) – the ability to distinguish and make decisions, and the senses (indriyāṇi) – smelling, touching, tasting, seeing and hearing.

The physical body is known as the karya-sharira and is made from the natural elements; earth, water, fire, and air – atoms.

And, finally the false ego is known as ahaṅkāraḥ. Ahaṅkāraḥ means literarily the “I-maker”, and is what gives the false sense of separation from the highest Self – God.

The senses come in contact with the physical world (the sense objects) using the mind. The physical body is also a sense object.

The physical world is made up of elements; as we have come to understand in the scientific field of chemistry.

“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego – all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.” ~ Krishna, Bhagavad Gita 7.4

But these substances which are fundamentally energy in fields (Einstein’s E = MC^2), are always in flux, and our ability to perceive them depends on categories ordered by something more subtle than the physical world; buddhi or intelligence…

Buddhi coming from God – Bhagavad Gita 15.15 “I am seated in everyone’s heart and from me comes remembrance, knowledge, and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas I am to be known. Indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.”

Amongst all this energy something about us remains still – The knower. That fixed point of perception is the self (atma) who resides in the causal body; the eternal and most important aspect of selfhood; being the house of desires and will.

The causal body – karana-sharira. From Sanskrit, karana translates to “causing,” “making” or “muscle”; and sharira means “body.” Karana sharira is thought to be the portal to entering higher consciousness, as well as the cause of the existence of the gross and subtle bodies. It connects both the individual and cosmic consciousness together, and is believed to store information from past lives.

Perspective

Given that matter is ultimately just energy in flux, there really is no reason to categorize it as material. Ultimately reality is all one thing containing parts and processes.

There are different perspectives and perceptions of the same thing. The difference between seeing the world as spiritual or material depends on our attitude towards it, which is expressed by our causal body.

To see reality spiritually is to see everything in connection with its source; Purusha – God.

“A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.” ~ Krishna, Bhagavad Gita 5.29

With this advanced vision there is no material suffering. To see it materially is to see everything separate from its source, as “I, me and mine”, or in relation to one’s temporary self, and this vision is the cause of our suffering.

It is the causal body, our desires, that drive our perceptions. “Good” and “bad” are only constructs of the mind; as illustrated nicely in the ancient Eastern story – The Farmer and his Horse.

The Farmer and his Horse: One day his horse runs away. And his neighbour comes over and says, to commiserate, “I’m so sorry about your horse.” And the farmer says “Who knows what’s good or bad?” The neighbour is confused because this is clearly terrible. The horse is the most valuable thing he owns. But the horse comes back the next day and he brings with him 12 feral horses. The neighbour comes back over to celebrate, “Congratulations on your great fortune!” And the farmer replies again: “Who knows what’s good or bad?” And the next day the farmer’s son is taming one of the wild horses and he’s thrown and breaks his leg. The neighbour comes back over, “I’m so sorry about your son.” The farmer repeats: “Who knows what’s good or bad?” Sure enough, the next day the army comes through their village and is conscripting able-bodied young men to go and fight in war, but the son is spared because of his broken leg.

On the absolute level there is only ananda (bliss)

My claim is that suffering, although extremely problematic at times, is fundamentally a construct of the mind, caused by the false idea of separation from God. Its function is to wake us up to what is temporary and what is eternal.

Krishna tells this to Arjuna, “O son of Kuntī, the non-permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” ~ Bhagavad Gita 2.14

Wake up, Jiva Jago Jiva Jago, a song by the Bengali Vaisnava saint and philosopher, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, “Lord Gauranga is calling, ‘Wake up, sleeping souls! Wake up, sleeping souls! How long will you sleep in the lap of the witch called Maya (illusion)?’”

I think that both Kunti and Job understood this; we see that in the end Job did not waver and waited patiently for his redeemer.

“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” ~ Job, 19:25–27

Both of them (Kunti and Job) deepened their meditation on God through their suffering.

Understandably, humans would like to avoid suffering as much as possible, but I believe that there is something even more pertinent available for the living being.

Nietzsche said we need to find why that is worthy of the how.

The next step of commitment, for the genuine seeker of God, would be to voluntarily accept suffering on behalf of God; just as Shiva, Jesus and Caitanya did.

Sukadeva Goswami, when describing how Lord Shiva took poison to save humanity, said “It is said that great personalities almost always accept voluntary suffering because of the suffering of people in general. This is considered the highest method of worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present in everyone’s heart.” ~ Bhagavat Purana 8.7.44

Luke 9 , “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Mathew 10:39 “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

Caitanya “I know no one but Krishna as my lord and He shall remain so, even if he handles me roughly by his embrace, or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do anything and everything, for he is always my worshipful lord, unconditionally.”~ Siksastikam verse 8

I am assuming that you all know who Jesus is already. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the great 15th-16th century Bengali saint and philosopher who is considered by Gaudiya Vaisnavas to be God (Krishna) appearing in the mood of a devotee. I was raised in the Gaudiya Vaisnava line myself, in a Western country, and I highly recommend you check out the bhakti yoga movement.

Conclusion

Suffering is built into the fabric of existence for good reason. Indeed this is how Kunti sees it when she says…

“My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education and bodily beauty, cannot approach You with sincere feeling” ~ Kunti, Bhagavat Purana, 1.8.26

And, we see with Job, after he lost everything and God appeared in front of him, giving him a big chastisement (Job 38–41), he realised his mistake and unlimited fortune for the mercy the Lord had showed him.

Happiness for a person in proper knowledge of themselves in reality is achieved by pleasing, or acting in consciousness of, the Cause of all Causes – God. Suffering according to Hinduism and Judaism has a similar cause and purpose; although Hinduism does have an intellectual advantage with the doctrine of reincarnation.

The cause of suffering is our own desires, perspectives, and activities and our identify with their results. The purpose is to remind us of what we have forgotten; we are eternal, full of knowledge and bliss (sat-cit-ananda); and, one who remembers God is with God.

Let me leave you with on poem from the Upanishads, which gives us glimpse into the meaning of sat-cit-ananda…

Sat-cit-ananda Tejobindu Upanishad, 3.1–3, “I am of the nature of consciousness. I am made of consciousness and bliss. I am nondual, pure in form, absolute knowledge, absolute love. I am changeless, devoid of desire or anger, I am detached. I am One Essence, unlimitedness, utter consciousness. I am boundless Bliss, existence and transcendent Bliss. I am the Atman, that revels in itself. I am the Sacchidananda that is eternal, enlightened and pure.”

Bibliography

1. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, “Teachings of Queen Kunti”, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Singapore, 1978.
2. Bible: New Testament.
3. Bhagavad Gita.
4. Bhagavat Purana.
5. Book of Deuteronomy, Torah.
6. Job, Torah.
7. “Jiva Jago Jiva Jago”, song by Bhaktivinod Thakura.
8. Leaman, O., Evil and Suffering in Jewish Philosophy, Cambridge, 1995.
9. Plantinga, A., God, Freedom, and Evil, Eerdmans, 1989.
10. Siksastakam, by Caitanya.
11. Svetasvatara Upanishad.
12. Tejobindu Upanishad.
13. Yoga Sutras, by Patanjali