Let Compassion And Love Guide Your Actions
M P K Kutty
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Prince Siddhartha renounced the world and went on a search for Truth when moved by the abundance of sorrow and suffering all around him. He wanted to find an answer to sufferings of the world. He became the Buddha and shared his insights with those who were willing to listen to him.In the contemporary world, there are those who respond to suffering maybe differently but with the intention of making a positive difference to those who suffer.In Gujarat, a diamond businessman, perhaps, moved by reports of suffering, did just that. His annual business turnover ran into several thousand crores of rupees. His 20-something son was welleducated. He gave him a small sum and asked him to go to Kerala, live among blue collar workers and earn his livelihood on his own.
The businessman, born in poverty in a Gujarat village, had no opportunity for a good education, having studied only up to Class V. By dint of hard work he built up his business empire dealing in diamonds. He wanted his son to gain the wisdom that one can't gain merely from formal education.
Suffering increases our sensitivity towards others who are similarly afflicted or subject to injustices of all kinds.This is one way we become compassionate. True compassion means not only feeling another's pain but also being moved to help relieve it. Human compassion binds us all. In a society where love and compassion become the guiding principles, suffering ought to cease.
Indeed the diamond businessman, who came up in life the hard way, had acquired a wisdom that mere bookish education can't give. He had learnt to share. He had distributed among his employees, 400 flats and 1,200 cars worth Rs 51crore as Deepavali gifts.
“Doing nothing for others is the undoing of one's self. We must be purposely kind and generous or we miss the best part of existence. The heart that extends itself becomes joyful. This is the great secret of inner life. We do ourselves the most good by doing something for others,“ wrote Horace Mann, the American education reformer.
If we do not do so, we are in danger of judgment. “For i was hungry and you gave nothing to eat, i was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, i needed clothes and you did not clothe me, i was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.“ (Matthew 25:42.) To that lament Jesus added: “In that you have not done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have not done it to me.“
Glaring inequalities represent the failings of a community . It is well to recall here Aristotle's statement that poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. Peace will prevail in any society only when injustices are removed. A saint who lived in the fourth century wrote: “The bread you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.“
It is in the same spirit, that Albert Einstein had declared that the only life worth living is a life lived for others!
The businessman, born in poverty in a Gujarat village, had no opportunity for a good education, having studied only up to Class V. By dint of hard work he built up his business empire dealing in diamonds. He wanted his son to gain the wisdom that one can't gain merely from formal education.
Suffering increases our sensitivity towards others who are similarly afflicted or subject to injustices of all kinds.This is one way we become compassionate. True compassion means not only feeling another's pain but also being moved to help relieve it. Human compassion binds us all. In a society where love and compassion become the guiding principles, suffering ought to cease.
Indeed the diamond businessman, who came up in life the hard way, had acquired a wisdom that mere bookish education can't give. He had learnt to share. He had distributed among his employees, 400 flats and 1,200 cars worth Rs 51crore as Deepavali gifts.
“Doing nothing for others is the undoing of one's self. We must be purposely kind and generous or we miss the best part of existence. The heart that extends itself becomes joyful. This is the great secret of inner life. We do ourselves the most good by doing something for others,“ wrote Horace Mann, the American education reformer.
If we do not do so, we are in danger of judgment. “For i was hungry and you gave nothing to eat, i was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, i needed clothes and you did not clothe me, i was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.“ (Matthew 25:42.) To that lament Jesus added: “In that you have not done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have not done it to me.“
Glaring inequalities represent the failings of a community . It is well to recall here Aristotle's statement that poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. Peace will prevail in any society only when injustices are removed. A saint who lived in the fourth century wrote: “The bread you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.“
It is in the same spirit, that Albert Einstein had declared that the only life worth living is a life lived for others!
