Even as we see exhilarating portraits of Olympics and other “glorious” events in the world, I find it hard not to notice that there is still much suffering in this world (including in the favelas where the trickle down beneficial effect of Olympics is almost non-existent). Every day we learn of many unfortunate, heart wrenching situations across the globe, some of which tug powerfully at the heart – evoking feelings of sympathy. For those, we feel immense sympathy.
We feel sympathy for the murdered and missing young women along the Highway of Tears. We feel sympathy for the desperate refugees drowning in the seas, and those trying to escape war via land routes. We feel sympathy for the innocent people gunned down in France, USA, and elsewhere. We feel sympathy for homeless persons in our own backyard. We feel sympathy for the black men in the US who met with unfortunate fate at the hands of those who are supposed to protect communities.
Empathy is infinitely more difficult. I believe that we can not feel true empathy unless we experience what the victim experienced. How can someone who eats three meals a day know what it feels like to go hungry? How can someone who sleeps on a comfortable bed in a warm house know what a homeless person’s life is like? How can one who lives in a peaceful country, feel the physical and emotional upheaval and desperation of the penniless refugee who walks mile after mile, hour after hour, hungry and thirsty, hoping for kindness in the next village, next country, next refugee camp?
How can one who has lived a life of privilege really understand the fear and anxiety a black man in America feels when his car is pulled over by a cop, even if the black man is a law abiding doctor, lawyer, professor or scientist? The black man whose heart beats faster with palpable uncertainty as he thinks, “Am I going to be alive after this encounter?”
Mahatma Gandhi said, “I call him religious who understands the suffering of others.”
Empathy has to be cultivated from a young age.
When I was a kid growing up in India, once a week my family would send me to the temple with two coins – one for donating to the temple, and one to give to the beggar on the road. Our family was by necessity a very frugal one – we barely had enough for the basics of life. But they wanted me to learn that two things were most important – having God in my life (prayers at home and in the temple), and empathising with the homeless person.
While attending college in India, I spent one summer as an unpaid volunteer with a village road building crew, doing back breaking work using a pickaxe to dig up earth, under the hot equatorial Sun (this was before the advent of heavy machinery in rural road building in India). This was one of the government’s volunteer programs back in those days. I experienced what the laborer goes through every day to earn wages barely enough to support his family.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati has said, “a human being endowed with empathy reaches out to those who need care. This empathy keeps him in harmony with the order of things, with dharma.”
From empathy comes compassion. And compassion leads to compassionate action – which, no matter how small or large, is what really helps bring about change – for the better.
We can all make a difference in this world – through compassionate action. I am doing my little part, as best as I can.
Suresh Basrur practises the Hindu faith, participates in inter-faith activities in Victoria, and speaks to audiences about Hindu religion, philosophy and practices.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking HERE
