The mind can suffer when the body is in pain. The sufferer is always the mind. The mind is the subject, the sufferer, and it is possible that the subject mind is suffering because the object body is in pain. But that's not a compulsion upon the mind. The mind has a choice. The mind always has a choice whether it wants to suffer or it wants to realize.
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Acharya Prashant : Vedānta is concerned with our suffering and it is not the body that suffers. The body might get hurt, wounded, diseased or aged, but it never suffers. The body can become an object in the field of suffering but the body itself is never the experiencer of suffering.
The mind can suffer when the body is in pain. The sufferer is always the mind. The mind is the subject, the sufferer, and it is possible that the subject mind is suffering because the object body is in pain. But that's not a compulsion upon the mind. The mind has a choice. The mind always has a choice whether it wants to suffer or it wants to realize.
Vedānta is concerned with suffering, therefore Vedānta is concerned with the mind. Let's please remember, the body never suffers. A particular condition of the body can cause suffering in the mind; can ‘potentially’ cause suffering in the mind, not ‘necessarily. The body is in one configuration, the mind says, ‘The body is healthy therefore I am satisfied.’ The body shifts to another configuration, the mind says, ‘The body is not all right, the body is diseased, the body is paining. And because the body is paining, therefore I am suffering.’ That's a decision made by the mind.
