Suffering and its source

Arun Shourie says he has realised that nothing can be done about the main cause of suffering, but it teaches him how to deal with consequences

.Does He Know a Mother's Heart
Arun Shourie;
HarperCollins; Rs 599

The title of Arun Shourie's latest book, Does He Know a Mother's Heart comes out of an incident involving the philosopher J. Krishnamurti.

“The book deals with the question we all connect at sometime — ‘Why do we suffer?',” said Arun Shourie in an interaction at the Reliance TimeOut recently. Shourie launched his book in the city at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) with former Infosys CEO Narayan Murthy and IIM-B Director Pankaj Chandra.

“I looked at the explanations given in texts like the Bible, Quran, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Brahma Sutras. I have also taken up explanations given by people like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi. But I have found that none of these explanations really speak up for themselves.”

His questioning stems from his experiences with his differently-abled son (who has cerebral palsy) and his wife, who is afflicted by Parkinson's disease.

Once, while meeting with Krishnamurti in Delhi, the philosopher asked him to bring his son along, with whom he would spend time talking. On a few such occasions, Krishnamurti would ask Arun where his wife was and each time Arun would make up some “silly excuse” for his wife's absence. His wife meanwhile refused to meet with spiritual gurus as her “hopes were raised again and again, and again and again they are shattered.”

Full report here Hindu

In the face of fate, we should be shameless and defiant: Arun Shourie

“The secret to writing 26 books is to be unemployed from time to time,” quipped Arun Shourie, author, journalist, scholar and politician, releasing Does He Know a Mother’s Heart? - his 26th book.

“I am not a creative writer. I am lawyer, and all my books are arguments for the prosecution, whether it is on Ambedkar or on suffering.” That was a comment well in character with the man who is known for persuasive arguments while remaining as much self-effacing as an active public life allows.

Does He Know a Mother’s Heart? critically examines the explanations for human suffering in various religious scriptures, and in the teachings of prominent spiritual masters.

Shourie is no stranger to pain. His wife Anita suffers from Parkinson’s syndrome. And their son, “Aditya, our life, is 35 now. He cannot walk or stand. He can see only from the left side of his eyes. He cannot use his right arm or hand. He speaks syllable by syllable. Yet he laughs,” Shourie writes.

This book comes from what his wife and he learnt over 35 years. “All religions explain suffering. But they do not stand up to strict examinations. The theory of Karma always ends up blaming the victim,” he said.

Full report here DNA