The sensation felt when one is hurt or hit is pain.  Pain is that sense of feeling which indicates a temporary, continuous or permanent hurtful and unpleasant wave.  Both humans and animals undergo pain emotionally or psychologically and physically.

In animals, only physical pain can be clearly observed.  This pain is caused by real or potential injury.  Physical pain can prove to be an asset for an animal.  First, pain warns of an injury.  So the creature gets the message and does its activities less vigorously, taking rest between intervals.  Thus, the injury gets time to heal.  Second, pain protects from further injury, the animal being more cautious now.  For example, when a deer is shot in the leg, it causes more pain than if it would have died for it has to live with the pain of having a bullet in the leg.  This pain will compel it to reduce the pace of its work and take rest.  Eventually, the deer, because of the pain endured, will avoid hunters.

The humans, both emotional and bodily pain are felt.  Burns, scratches, bruises, black and blues are all evidence of pain.  People get the pain sensation by a pain impulse which is transmitted to the brains for a reflex action.  For instance, if one has hit one’s elbow with the pointed edge of a table, in no time the brain sends the message to one’s arm – rub the hurt elbow – in order to diminish the pain produced.  Physical pain can be light, intense or even ever-lasting, so can psychological pain.

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Saying goodbyes at parting is one emotional pain.  Losing a close friend or relative, a pet is another.  People often get heartache; students failing to attain their teachers’ expectations, parents not gaining success at pleasing their children, a mother being separated from her children….  Pain is also felt after the aftermath of natural calamities.  The entire globe grieves over the lost lives of many people either during wars, fire outbreaks or after floods, droughts, and earthquakes.  These distressing scenes are also the cause of worldly pain.

To overcome pain is a practically impossible task as pain strikes us both outwards and inwards unexpectedly.  In cases of strong sufferings, the pain can only be reduced if it later proves to be chronic.  After and before a surgical operation, for example, the patient is made unconscious by giving him a dose of chloroform so as to minimise pain.  When extracting a tooth, the pain relief a dentist uses is cocaine – it paralyses the gum’s nerves and thus no pain is felt when the tooth is removed.  To avoid undergoing the pain of stress, one calls for medicines like ‘Andrews’.

Finally, to be safe from pain, one must on the emotional side possess moral support from one’s family and live and adopt a lifestyle with minimum stress in a stable atmosphere.  Physical pain is on the same side as carelessness.  Pain makes people aware that they must take more precautions before acting or reacting.  The greatest pain – say the elders – is the one that cannot be conquered ever; the pain endured by a woman giving birth to her baby.