I would describe compassion as the crown of all virtues. I believe it is this quality that takes us closest to the Divine within each one of us.
When we practise — not just feel — compassion, when we go out of ourselves to reach out to others and alleviate their suffering, we rise to the Highest Self in us.
There is a parable that tells us of a mother with paralysed arms, who saw her child being swept away along the fast moving currents of a river, but was unable to do anything to save the child. This illustrates the fact that feeling is not enough—we have to act; we must find the means and ways to relieve others’ suffering and pain—this is meaningful compassion.
Many of us are ready to love and sympathise with those who are close to us—relatives, friends, loved ones. We may go out of our way to help them—but when strangers are involved, do we rush to their help, or do we simply turn away? This is the true test of compassion.
The greatest form of compassion can only come by understanding the central concept of Vedanta – namely, that all life is one. The life that sleeps in stones and minerals, the life that stirs in plants and trees, the life that dreams in animals and birds is the same life that awakes and breathes in man. And this life is the very spark of the Life Universal.
And when more and more of us practise the divine quality of compassion, will our world not move towards lasting peace?
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