COMPASSION:

Just like rain water collects in a pond, virtues congregate in a kind

heart. Be compassionate to be strong.

Almost in all walks of life, if your inner strength, your

focus, your efforts can outlive the adversities, you can
succeed at pretty much anything you set your mind to. A
kind heart leads to greater mental strength. It may sound
paradoxical but compassion and tenacity are directly
proportional to each other.

Today, I am sharing with you a powerful practice to gain

inner strength, to purify yourself, to help you transform
yourself emotionally, mentally, so you may be the person
you have always wanted to be.

I have written a few times in the past that a certain

degree of inner strength is required to be able to love
somebody, to be their star, their guiding light, their
pillar. Interestingly, the reverse is also true. If you choose
to be loving, caring, supportive, compassionate, you will
invariably emerge stronger.

There was a mystic once, most considered him a self-

realized soul. He practiced and preached compassion,
truth, non-violence and other virtues. However, he had
the habit of stealing. He would steal, hand himself in,
plead guilty in the court and end up in the jail every time.
This baffled his disciples, neighbors, the police, judge,
even the jailor. They could not comprehend why would
he steal, even though he lacked nothing. He clearly
exhibited complete control over all his other actions, how
come he could not conquer his habit of stealing, they
thought. Nine out of twelve months he would spend in a
prison. He was a serial offender, the judges were
sympathetic towards him but there was little they could
do.

Over time, he got old yet he continued to steal. One day,

his disciples and followers got together to confront him
and said, “All your needs are taken care of, if there’s
anything lacking, just order us and we’ll provide it for
you, but please don’t steal. We can’t fathom your actions
but it grieves our heart to see you go to jail and we really
miss you when you are not around.”

“Oh, so you miss me when I’m away! That’s exactly the

reason why I go there because the prisoners miss me
when I am not in the jail. You are free and you have
access to many teachers, but they don’t have the same
luxury. That’s why when I’m released, I steal again to go
back in because not all prisoners are culprits and even
those who are, they could do with a little compassion, a
bit of help, some good company. I’ll continue to steal and
help them.”

The anecdote above is not to be taken literally of course.

A jail is a place where your freedom is greatly restricted.
Similarly, exercising compassion may not always be most
pleasing to you, it may not be the attractive option, it
may be like going to the jail, why else would the greatest
prophets, preachers, messiahs bother to grace our planet,
compassion remains a powerful catalyst of
transformation though. It is a conscious act, a gesture of
love, of care, of charity, you do with the sole intention of
helping the other person.

Anything you do with a selfless motive, with no hidden

agenda, is always going to strengthen you. Such strength
will help you experience peace and bliss, you will feel
contented and fulfilled, just like you do shortly after your
favorite meal. Think about it for a moment, why does a
lion roam freely in a jungle? Because it is aware of its
strength, its view of itself gives it the confidence and
fearlessness to patrol and prey. In much the same
manner, those with inner strength are naturally more
confident, they are at greater ease, they are more
peaceful.

Compassion is one of the shortest routes to divinity. If

you are expecting even gratitude in return for a
compassionate act, your gesture is not the purest type. It
is compassion still, but it may spark a negative emotion
in you if recipient’s response does not meet your
expectations. The finest compassion is without any
expectation at all, a compassionate act is not about right
or wrong, it just is. It need not make sense to the whole
world as long as even one creature stands to benefit from
your act.

I am tempted to share another story with you:

An elderly man was taking a stroll on the beach one
morning. Ruthless tidal waves of the night before had
pushed out many creatures to the beach, notably, the
starfish. There were thousands of starfish lying on the
beach, not all were dead. He felt sorry for the state of
affairs but continued with his walk, for, there was
nothing he could do about it, he felt.

A few meters away, he saw another man, younger, more a

teenager, childlike, bending down, picking something
and throwing it in the ocean.

“What are you doing?” he asked, somewhat amused.

“Oh, I’m saving these starfish. Sun’s gonna be up soon

and they’ll die as the waves are receding.”

The old man chuckled and said, “There’s miles and miles
of beach, it’s littered with tens of thousands of dying
starfish. Your saving a handful won’t make any
difference.”

The young one reached out to another starfish, picked it,

tossed it back in the sea, and spoke, “It made a difference
to that one!”

I find this story truly beautiful. An act of charity is not

always about material things, compassion is not
necessarily about making grandiose plans and never
finding enough time or steam to bring them to fruition, it
may well be a small gesture, a random act, to an
acquaintance or a stranger. It all adds up, it is like
depositing money in your bank account. Your each
compassionate act is a deposit in your emotional account
of positivity, balance, and bliss. Practice compassion to
be strong, you will feel grateful too, a sense of peace
engulfs automatically as a result. However insignificant
or irrational your act may appear to the world, let that
not bother you, let that remain irrelevant.

Either be strong, wise, kind and big-hearted to practice

compassion, or simply be compassionate and other
virtues will cling to you naturally, like pollen on bees,
moth to a light-source, like iron to a magnet.
Simiti simiti jala bharahi talava jimi sadaguna sajjana
payi ava, virtues accumulate in the noble one the same
way as rain drops do in a pond, writes Goswami
Tulasidasa. Practice one virtue and many more will make
a permanent home in your heart.

Go on! Practice a random act of kindness today! Make

someone feel special, offer someone kind words, offer
help, buy a movie ticket for a stranger in the shopping
mall, for the parking attendant, for the cleaning staff,
customer service, someone, anyone at all, pay for
someone’s meal, for an ice-cream, whatever you can
afford, anything that comes to your mind. Not only will
you make a difference to someone’s life, you will sow the
seed of goodness, it will sprout in their hearts one day
and it will get passed on in one form or the other. This
world will become a better place, and you, an even better
person.

Think of compassion as sacrifice. It is putting other person's

interests before your own. It's a choice.

“Are you compassionate?”

“Most of the time,” they answer.
“Are you forgiving?”
“Yes, most of the time,” they reply.

This is the most common response to my two questions

no matter whom I ask. To tell you the truth, when we are
compassionate or forgiving only some of the time, it
means we are doing so at our convenience, it means we
still think that there’s a choice more reasonable than
compassion. True compassion is not based on the cause
or the action, it is simply a virtue, a response, an
emotion, a feeling, we choose over any other.

I know this is not an ideal world and, in the present day

and age, it almost seems that compassion or forgiveness
is considered a weakness, but let’s take a moment and
read the following passages from Bible. Even if you have
read it numerous times before, just reread and allow it to
sink in.
Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them
again, but they kept shouting, “Crucify! Crucify
Him!”

A third time he said to them, “Why? What has this

man done wrong? I have found in Him no grounds for
the death penalty. Therefore, I will have Him
whipped and then release Him.”

But they kept up the pressure, demanding with loud

voices that He be crucified. And their voices won out.
So Pilate decided to grant their demand and released
the one they were asking for, who had been thrown
into prison for rebellion and murder. But he handed
Jesus over to their will.
(Luke 23:20 – 25)

Two other criminals were also led away to be

executed with Him. When as they arrived at the place
called The Skull, they crucified Him there, along with
the criminals, one on the right and one on the left.
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they
do not know what they are doing.” And they divided
His clothes and cast lots.
The people stood watching, and even the leaders kept
scoffing:“He saved others; let Him save Himself if
this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!” The soldiers
also mocked Him.
(Luke 23:32 – 36)
“Father, forgive them, because they do not know what
they are doing.” This was what Jesus of Nazareth said in
response to the excruciating and fatal pain he was
inflicted. This was his reply to the injustice done to him.
And, what happened next? “And they divided His clothes
and cast lots.”

Those who had mocked him, those who had put a crown
of thorns on his head, those who had nailed him on the
cross, Jesus forgave them. But, this was not enough as,
blinded by power and greed, they threw a dice to see
which solider would get what part of Christ’s clothing.
There, in the same picture, you have the two extremes of
our world. On the one hand is the compassion of Christ
demonstrating there’s no limit to how high you can rise
above what you are subjected to, and on the other hand is
the greed, ignorance and cruelty of the soldiers showing
there’s no end to how low one can stoop.

Throughout the history of our race, good people have

been ridiculed and mocked, they have been jeered at,
spat at, they have been unjustly punished, beaten even
killed. Someone asked me once that what purpose did it
solve, their sacrifice?

“Well,” I said, “because Christ sacrificed his life, more

than a billion people lead a life of inspiration today, even
2000 years later. Because Buddha sacrificed his
kingdom, more than 500 million derive the benefit even
today.”

Compassion and forgiveness are simply synonyms of

sacrifice. When you forgive, somewhere you sacrifice a
part of your own existence, your respect, your dignity,
yourself. But, by forgiving you also go beyond the
shackles of ego. Besides, sacrifice is not a trade, you don’t
expect anything for yourself in return, it is philanthropy,
it’s an act of charity.

Ask me not what if the other person doesn’t deserve your

compassion or what if they don’t acknowledge it?

Because if you still have these questions, you’ve not let

the Passion of Christ sink into your heart. Allow it.

Reread the passages above, do it as many times as you

need or till a tear trickles down and you’ll know what I
mean.

A young man was mugged, beaten and left for dead on a

street.
As he lay there bruised, wounded and unconscious, a
man passing by, who happened to be a psychiatrist,
rushed to the victim and exclaimed, “My goodness,
whoever did this really needs help!”

One needs assistance and the other compassion, either

way, they both need help. In our example, if the victim is
not offered help, he may die and if the culprit is not
extended help, he may kill someone else. At any rate, it’s
a loss to our world.

Upanishads have a term for our world — Vashudhaiva

Kutumbakam (Mahopanishad VI.71-73), the whole world
is one single family. It’s one planet, one world, one
family. Let’s do our part.

Compassion does not require a reason or reward, only a

desire, a discipline. Forgiveness doesn’t even need
discipline but only a big heart, big enough to absorb their
mistakes. When your heart is as big as the ocean, their
shark like mistakes and tuna like presence in your life
will coexist without so much as causing a ripple in your
mind.

COMPASSION IS UNREASOBALE

Here's a beautiful short story from the life of Jesus Christ with an
important lesson on compassion.

I often get asked what if you are compassionate towards

someone but they don’t value it? What if they see your
generosity as your weakness, should you still show
compassion in that case? These are reasonable questions
but that’s exactly what compassion is not — reasonable.
Compassion is in fact an unreasonable emotion. It is not
really based on any reasoning. For, mind is the seat of
reasoning whereas it is heart for the compassion. As a
behavior, compassion may well be supported by some
reason, but as an emotion, a feeling, it is neither
supported nor triggered by any reason. Behavior can be
deceptive but feelings, because they live inside you,
cannot be artificial. They are what they are.

Having said that, if you behave compassionately (even if

you don’t feel it for the other person), that’s still just as
beautiful because most of us have little or no control over
our emotions but we can control our actions at least.
Behavior fuels feelings. You behave a certain way and
before long you’ll start feeling that way. The question,
however, remains who is deserving of your compassion?
Should you still exercise it even when the other person
doesn’t really care about it? Allow me to share a simple
but beautiful story.

A man of dishonorable reputation once approached Jesus

and invited him for a meal at his place. Everyone knew
that Christ would never accept his invitation, for the man
was a sinner was no secret. Or, so they thought.
Maintaining his ever serene countenance, Christ
accepted the invitation while his disciples looked askance
in as much disbelief as shock. How could their lord agree
to visit the home of such a rogue? they thought.
The news spread like wildfire and after some deliberation
the village seniors decided to take up the matter with the
sage.

“Lord,” they said, “there’s no reason why you should visit

this man. He’s shunned by everyone, he has committed
numerous sins. It doesn’t suit someone like you to be
seen with him.”

“Tell me something,” Christ said, “whom does a doctor

visit? A sick person or a healthy one? A doctor must treat
the sick. I’m here to spread the love of God and I don’t
know of anyone who is not worthy of it.”

When someone approaches you for something, before

you reject their plea, just take a pause. Maybe you are
bigger than their mistakes, maybe you can forgive, maybe
you can exercise compassion. Maybe. This is a choice and
depending on your own temperament you may make a
different one. When it comes to compassion though,
everyone is a deserving recipient, for compassion is
unreasonable. Beyond reason. But, compassion is not
always unconditional. At least, not for the average person
out there. And this leads me to an important point: show
your compassion to the one who wants it.

Please let this sink in: show your compassion to the one
who wants it. We don’t have to judge the other person,
we don’t have to discriminate, we should take it as a
given that everyone deserves our compassion, but this
does not mean that you have to offer it to the one who
rejects it, who doesn’t value it. Such compassion often
hurts both the offerer and the recipient because the one
exercising compassion feels unappreciated and let down,
and the recipient sees it as a weakness.

Even in our story Christ did not visit that man uninvited.
But, once the inviter did request for his presence, Christ
did not judge him based on his merit (or lack of it). Like a
true sage, he agreed. Because, exercising compassion is
not based on merit, it is not even based on the need of
the other person as much as it is based on their
readiness. When they approach you, they are more likely
to be ready than when you offer it unasked. The emotion
of compassion flourishes, benefits and survives only
when the recipient is ready. And readiness is not the
same as worthiness.

Imagine a patient who believes he is not sick. You can’t

really treat such a patient because he won’t take the
medicine. The moment he accepts that he’s unwell and
needs medical attention, he is ready to be treated.
Similarly, if the other person does not want your
compassion, you can do whatever you want, it won’t
really work because they are not ready for it. No matter
who you are, you have a lot to offer. Your love, time, care,
wisdom, offer it to the one who wants it. Nearly three
years ago I made a short video called The Ten Golden
Rules of Giving. You can watch it here.

Let me reiterate my belief: anything unsolicited, be it

advice, love, help or anything else, is rarely valued. Be
compassionate but give priority to those who are ready to
receive it, who have at least asked for it. This way you are
no longer judging anyone for their worthiness, yet you
are being compassionate at the same time.

When you are truly compassionate, you no longer expect

anything in return. Not even a thank you. Practice
compassion in your daily life as a behavior and
eventually, it’ll become your second nature, it’ll become
an emotion. You’ll feel it in your bones. At that point, you
will have gone beyond the message in this post. Then,
you will know what I mean when I say that compassion is
always unreasonable. Just like it’s always non-
judgmental. Well, it’s divine. And divinity transcends
both the action and intention of the other person. It
operates independently. One for another time.

Like love, compassion is unreasonable, but unlike love, it

isn’t blind. Both are fulfilling though, they help you
discover more about you, about others. Come to think of
it, they are near synonyms. Practice one and the other
one shows up on its own.