Mum­bai based so­cial ac­tivist and a for­mer banker shares his views on com­pas­sion, which he dis­plays dur­ing his in­ter­ac­tion with a gamut of ben­e­fi­cia­ries of his hu­man­i­tar­ian work in Mum­bai and around.

If we are not com­pas­sion­ate, we are nei­ther hu­mans nor hu­mane. To my mind, to be a so­cial hu­man be­ing, the first trait that a per­son needs to pos­sess is com­pas­sion. This is a qual­ity that ig­nites pos­i­tive vibes and in a very pure man­ner makes one re­spond to prob­lems of oth­ers, in­still­ing a de­sire to ex­tend all pos­si­ble help to lessen the pain and suf­fer­ing of oth­ers.

Dur­ing the course of my in­ter­ac­tion with pa­tients, par­ents of pa­tients, par­ents of spe­cial chil­dren, the spe­cial chil­dren them­selves, I have ex­pe­ri­enced a unique joy which I can share but can­not re­ally ex­press in words. Cel­e­brat­ing fes­ti­vals with them gives me more hap­pi­ness than cel­e­brat­ing a fes­ti­val in the com­fort of my home.

My de­f­i­n­i­tion of com­pas­sion is that it is a com­pound of love, sym­pa­thy and a burn­ing de­sire to as­sist and share. Any­one who is truly com­pas­sion­ate goes out of his or her way to serve al­le­vi­ate oth­ers’ suf­fer­ings and while serv­ing is ready to face prob­lems and hur­dles that hin­der. Peo­ple do­ing such Sewa, will never feel that they are do­ing any favour to any­one, they would in fact only be car­ry­ing out a duty en­trusted by God and do­ing so gives them im­mense sat­is­fac­tion and hap­pi­ness. There is no bet­ter ex­er­cise for the heart than reach­ing down and lift­ing peo­ple up. Lift the fallen and you see great changes tak­ing place not only in oth­ers’ lives but in yours too.

Stress of mod­ern times, pres­sure of our own needs and de­sires have taken hu­mankind away from the magic of the kind word, the smil­ing face and the car­ing hand. The heal­ing power of these ges­tures is to be seen to be be­lieved. In fact, you can test it on your­self and your fam­ily and see how won­drous life can be if you are com­pas­sion­ate. Be­lieve me, it costs noth­ing and for those with whom we share the lov­ing smile, it is noth­ing but the a godly ap­proach and we are seen as pos­sess­ing mirac­u­lous pow­ers. Com­pas­sion de­liv­ers mirac­u­lous pow­ers with­out even let­ting us know.

As the world is filled with hate and agony, the pace of peace and progress is halted. No com­pas­sion amongst in­di­vid­u­als leads to no car­ing and com­pas­sion among na­tions and to­day in­di­vid­u­als and na­tions are at each oth­er’s’ throats.

Some­one has said it well, “If we have no peace, it’s be­cause we have for­got­ten to be­long to each other.”