By Gurnam Singh | Opinion |
There is much money handed over to priests and treasurers in our places of worship in exchange for a promise of relief from pain and suffering and/or material rewards and sukh (pleasure). I know because lists of devotees and their respective sufferings are often read out during a Ardaas ceremony in Gurdwaras. I am sure similar processes take place in Churches, Mosques and Mandhirs. This is not surprising as praying and the promise of divine cures is a lucrative source of income.
I have no doubt that prayer can help us to manage, and perhaps even eradicate some of our pain and suffering, both mental and physical. However, the question is, what is the mechanism behind this? Is it that God somehow answers our prayers? Is it a result of natural bodily mechanism? Or is it a mix of both nature and divine intervention?
This is not an easy question to answer and there a number of studies that seek to test out these hypotheses. What I know from my own experience is that prayer can give us emotional strength. Indeed, it is plausible that, through the placebo effect (mind over matter), in some instances this may result in pain relief and even curing of some illnesses.
The effect may even be greater for those people who have absolute belief in the possibility of God or some spirit making an intervention. In short, I think there is good reason to believe prayer can heal in small and large ways. The question is what is the casual mechanism, which for believers in a theistic God is direct divine intervention; quite literally for them, often through proxies (Holy men – they are always men!) they are blessed by the ‘hand of God’.
In terms of the divine intervention hypothesis, based on the below shabad, you might be surprised to learn that Guru Nanak seems to reject this explanation. I may be misinterpreting the lines, in which case I stand corrected, but on the surface, it seems clear that Nanak is suggesting pain and pleasure are natural feelings that are part of normal functioning.
What do you think?
ਮਃ ੧ ॥
First Mehla:
ਨਾਨਕ ਬੋਲਣੁ ਝਖਣਾ ਦੁਖ ਛਡਿ ਮੰਗੀਅਹਿ ਸੁਖ ॥
O Nanak, it is absurd to ask to be spared from pain by begging for comfort.
ਸੁਖੁ ਦੁਖੁ ਦੁਇ ਦਰਿ ਕਪੜੇ ਪਹਿਰਹਿ ਜਾਇ ਮਨੁਖ ॥
Pleasure and pain are the two garments given, to be worn in the Court of the Divine.
ਜਿਥੈ ਬੋਲਣਿ ਹਾਰੀਐ ਤਿਥੈ ਚੰਗੀ ਚੁਪ ॥੨॥
Where you are bound to lose by speaking, there, you ought to remain silent. ||2||
Gurnam Singh is an academic activist dedicated to human rights, liberty, equality, social and environmental justice. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Warwick, UK. He can be contacted at Gurnam.singh.1@warwick.ac.uk
* This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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Miracles and Godmen (Asia Samachar, 31 July 2020)
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