 It is a mental pain that you're talking about, I must tell you, it's incident. There was a bishop in the Greek Orthodox community in Istanbul. He came to southern India and he wants to meet a genuine yogi. If you stand, it hurts, if you lie down, it hurts. Namaskaram, Sadhguru. They say pain is an inevitable part of life. Is that so? What's happened in 1924? There was a bishop in the Greek Orthodox community in Istanbul. Being on the silk route from India, many mystical stories of yogis and mystics and miraculous things have been wafting across the Bosphorus for centuries. So always this bishop has been wanting to go to India and meet a mystic or a yogi. Well, it never happened because being a man of cloth, he could not decide where he goes. But after Samayet had, he got an opportunity to go to southern India. He came to southern India and he wants to meet a genuine yogi. So somebody directed him, if you go up the mountain like this in front of this cave, there is a yogi. He will be there. You can meet him. He is the right man for you to meet. So our man sat forth on the mountain. Mountains are not kind to people, you know, unless you keep yourself well, they're not kind to you at all. So he huffed and puffed and went up and he saw the yogis sitting there totally blissed out, eyes closed. People had told him, if you see an Indian yogi, you have to prostrate. But his physical form wouldn't allow that with great difficulty. He went down and in great commotion, he was getting up, searing all this commotion, the yogi opened his eyes and smiled. So the bishop asked, can I ask you a question? The yogi said, my omnits. So he asked, what is life? The yogi went to raptures and said, life is like the fragrance of jasmine upon the spring breeze. The man blinked and said, what? Life fragrance of jasmine upon gentle spring breeze? But my teacher told me, life is like a thorn once it gets into you. If it you sit it hurts, if you stand it hurts, if you lie down it hurts. And you are saying, life is like the fragrance of a jasmine upon gentle spring breeze. How is this? He asked. The yogi smiled and said, well, that's his life. It's a physical pain, that's physical pain and mental pain. Unless there is a grievous injury or an ailment, generally there is not much physical pain. It happens often on here and there, but not much. Human beings go through largely mental pain. If physical pain happens, we just have to distance ourselves. We sit here, something pokes us, we don't sit there again, we sit elsewhere. Physical pain, we know how to dodge, unless we are in a war zone or some other violent situation, hopefully, that doesn't happen to any human being, but unfortunately it happens to a few. Physical pain is good for you. I know that's not a popular statement, but why I'm saying this is, if there was no physical pain in your body, most people, most people wouldn't even know how to preserve this body. See, wherever there is no pain in your body, see what all we have done to it, to this one, this one, see what all we have done, why only because there is no pain, isn't it? If there was no pain in your nose, in the name of fashion, in how many ways you would have cut it by now. Even though there is pain, there are twenty-five piercings in the face. Many people are going around with blood, though there is pain. If there was no pain at all in the body, it would be fashionable to pull out your intestine and put it over shoulder and walk. They would have done all kinds of things, isn't it? So pain is good because if there is no pain, there's not enough sense in most human beings even to physically preserve themselves, they would have done all kinds of things. So physical pain, we know how to handle unless it goes beyond a certain point. It is the mental pain that you're talking about. When we say mental pain, I must tell you this incident. This was last year, in the month of August, we were trekking in Himalayas between Nepal and Tibet. We're trekking. I'm in a tent. Someone else is in a tent, is in the same tent, cutting an apple. There's another person who tells this person, it's a very sharp knife, be careful. It irritates me because knife is supposed to be sharp. If it's blunt, we won't call it a knife. This is not a child. This is a full grown man. If it's a child, yes, we will tell. I looked like this, but I was at work, so I ignored that and continued my work. Another two minutes later, again she tells him, it's a very sharp knife, be careful. Come on, leave him alone. He's a full grown man, he must at least know how to handle a bloody knife. This is not some spacecraft or something that he's handling. This is a knife, a full grown man, he can handle a knife. He knows it's a very sharp knife. And I ignore that and continue my work. And as I'm doing it, quietly she was supposed to wear a sharp knife and in two minutes she cuts his hand. I said, okay, it looks like she knows she's going to cut his hand. I left it there. Why I'm telling you this is, this is all that's happened to you. If we were like any other creature without the intellect that you carry right now, the nature of the intellect is it must be sharp. If it's not sharp, it's no good, yes or no? Right now the problem is you have a sharp knife in your hand, but you don't have a steady hand. You all the time poking yourself. If you had the mind of a wild boar, I don't think you would be so hurt unless you were shot because you have the intellect of a human being, which is sharp and your hand is not steady, every day you're cutting yourself for some reason. Whatever pain or pleasure, pain or pleasure within you happens only from within you, isn't it so? At least what happens from within you must happen the way you want it, isn't it? No? What happens in the world? See, we cannot control it. What happens within you must happen the way you want it, isn't it? If your mind took instructions from you, would you cause pain or joy for yourself? What would you cause? Please make a choice. I'm going to bless you. Joy, of course. So the problem is not about pain, the problem is you have a complex computer, all right, but you have not read the user's manual. That's the whole problem. If your mind took instructions from you, for sure you would keep yourself in the highest level of pleasantness, yes? What is your choice for yourself? Highest level of pleasantness, at least for yourself. What you want for your neighbor may be debatable, but what you want for yourself is very clear, isn't it? It's not happening not because of some, something gone wrong in your life, just that your mind does not take instructions from you, it's as simple as that. It's time to take charge of that. What is a miracle has become a misery manufacturing machine on the planet? Human mind is the most sophisticated instrument you can find on this planet. Yes or no? Do you agree with me? But it's turned into a misery manufacturing machine. All human misery is manufactured here, isn't it? So don't romanticize pain. That means you're not interested in human well-being. There's a lot of romanticizing of pain all the time in the world. The moment you romanticize pain, it means you're not interested in human well-being. You're playing with it. There is music around human pain, there is cinema around human pain, there's drama around human pain, there's a lot of romanticizing of this because whatever is the condition of the people, in some way they have to energize that. If you are by choice painful, if that's your choice, I have no issue. You want to be blissful but you're painful. This means you have a mind which doesn't take instructions from you, it's out of control. This out-of-control nature, if you romanticize, see right now there are a lot of things, freaky things that people do. They're romanticizing those things, they're compulsions. Somebody is getting drunk, somebody is getting drugged out, somebody is doing something else. These are not done as a conscious choice. These are compulsions within a human being. If these compulsions, if you romanticize, you will never seek well-being, neither for yourself nor for others.