Treat everybody with politeness even those who may be rude to you; for remember, you show courtesy to others, not because they are gentlemen, but because you are a gentleman.
Pity is a feeling of sadness caused by the suffering and troubles of others. Sympathy is showing that you understand and care about somebody’s problems. Sympathizing is considered to be a nobler feeling than pitying, because when we pity something, we merely feel sad about it whereas when we sympathize, we not only feel sad for it, we are with the cause ready to alleviate it to the extent we can.
During his young age, when Swami Vivekananda was still Narendranath, he was immensely impressed by his mother Bhuvaneswari Devi, who told him a lot of stories from the rich Indian tradition that created in him high values of life. Narendranath’s father Viswanath Dutta was known for his charity. “The impulse to help the poor was almost like a disease with him.” He was locally called Vishwanath the benevolent. He tried to reach beyond his capabilities to help people in distress. His charity would not consider whether the needy deserved help or not. He would rush to help even wrecks like alcoholics and drug addicts. Young Narendranath questioned his father about this wastage which he then considered gross misuse of money. At this Viswanath said, “Life is full of suffering my son! When you grow up you will realize all this yourself and will have
Use every man after his desert, and who shall scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.
Hamlet
~ William Shakespeare ~
pity even on addicts or those who take to drink and other vices to get temporary relief from the endless miseries of life”.
True to his father’s words, under the influence of the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda transformed natural compassion into love and reverence for everyone and everything.
Ramakrishna Paramahmsa narrated the following story:
Once there was a fearful snake which used to be a menace to the people around. A holy man possessing yogic powers happened to visit the place. He used his great power to subdue the snake. He instructed it not to harass people unnecessarily. From then on, the snake became meek and harmless. Finding it mellowed down, people started taking it for granted. They troubled the snake now by pelting stones at it. The snake suffered, but did not retaliate. After some time the Saint visited the place again and found the snake in a miserable condition. He said to it, “I told you not to harm people unnecessarily. I never told you not to open your hood and hiss them away.”
Sri Ramakrishna said, “Man is a living God. Do we ever think of showing pity to God? No, on the contrary, we feel blessed to be able to serve and worship him. Therefore ‘pity’ is not the right expression. The right kind of attitude should be to serve ‘Jiva’ as shiva, to serve, humanity as the manifestation of Divinity. None is to be hated, for even the sinner is essentially God. The sameNarayana(God)ispresentinthe guise of the thief or the person lacking in culture, as well as in the righteous and refined.”
He further said, “If in this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt suffering all my life”.
***During his days of wandering as a monk, Swami Vivekananda was passing through a thick forest. A group of wild monkeys attacked him. He started running to avoid them. The faster he ran, the more aggressive and menacing they grew. Suddenly a monk appeared before him and asked him to stop running and to face the brutes boldly. When he turned to face the brutes, the monkeys stopped frightening and harassing him. Quoting this incident, Swamiji would often say that one should not run away when faced with danger or difficulty; instead, one must face it boldly.
He said “Face the terrible. Face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. If we are ever to gain freedom, it must be by conquering nature, never by running away. Cowards never win victories. We have to face fear and trouble and ignorance if we expect them to flee before us.”
The chemist who can extract from his heart’s elements compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love.
~ Kahlil Gibran ~