Man of Sorrows, pp. 505-506

Opening Remarks
The Mother of grief divine fills man with the power to endure the pain and suffering of life that arise invariably in the course of evolution. But the human ego turns it into a gospel of suffering. He sees only the suffering and its apparent causes and not the Grace that helps us go through the pain. Thus he begins to wallow in self-pity and falls in love with his misery.

Tortured Titan
She ceased, and like an echo from below
Answering her pathos of divine complaint
A voice of wrath took up the dire refrain,
A growl of thunder or roar of angry beast,
The beast that crouching growls within man’s depths,—
Voice of a tortured Titan once a God.

The Madonna of suffering ceased and to her kind words full of pity and mercy there arose a growl and thunder and angry roar of grumble and complaint. It was the roar of the beast that growls chained in our subconscious parts. It was the voice of a tortured Titan who was once the god of Kindness, Mercy and Joy but fell from the heights and turned into its very opposite.

Nailed on the cross
“I am the Man of Sorrows, I am he
Who is nailed on the wide cross of the universe;
To enjoy my agony God built the earth,
My passion he has made his drama’s theme.

The Titan who growls in the human depths reveals himself as “The Man of Sorrows”. He declares that he is the one who has been nailed upon the cross of the universe and believes that God has built this earth to enjoy the agony of man through the drama of his passion play.

Worship with blood and tears
He has sent me naked into his bitter world
And beaten me with his rods of grief and pain
That I might cry and grovel at his feet
And offer him worship with my blood and tears.

The human mind driven by the Titan believes that God has sent him naked into this bitter world. He believes that God punishes man with grief and pain so that he can grovel at his feet and offer worship with his blood and tears.

Meant to fail
I am Prometheus under the vulture’s beak,
Man the discoverer of the undying fire,
In the flame he kindled burning like a moth;
I am the seeker who can never find,
I am the fighter who can never win,
I am the runner who never touched his goal:
Hell tortures me with the edges of my thought,
Heaven tortures me with the splendour of my dreams.

He believes he is like Prometheus under the vulture’s beak punished by the gods for discovering the undying fire. He burns in the flame he kindled as a moth perishes in the light. He is the seeker who can never find, the fighter who can never win, the runner who never reached his goal. Hell tortures him with his sharp edges of thought and heaven tortures him with its lure of beautiful dreams.

What is the gain of the soul
What profit have I of my animal birth;
What profit have I of my human soul?

There is no advantage of having a soul or of an animal birth.

An animal life
I toil like the animal, like the animal die.

He toils like an animal and dies like one.

Closing Remarks
The power to endure suffering is thus distorted by the human ego-self into a gospel of suffering and a love for it.