Compassion

In the ordinary, unaspiring life, compassion is a very tricky word. We say 'compassion' when we mean to say 'attachment'. In the human world there is no compassion; it is all unconscious attachment. When people who live in the physical world say that they are showing compassion to someone because he is weak and he needs guidance, this is not true. It is only attachment, and from this attachment they expect an aggrandisement of their own ego. Consciously and deliberately, or sometimes unconsciously, they are trying to feed their ego.

In the human world, we can sympathise with someone and feel that we can become one with him because we are ignorant. I am ignorant; you are ignorant; so easily I can become one with your ignorance. But to say that we are showing compassion here is foolishness. The body cannot show compassion. The physical consciousness cannot show compassion. It is only the soul that can offer compassion to the physical, the vital and the mental. Only then do we see real compassion. At that time compassion is the only reality.

Outer compassion comes from inner illumination. If one is inwardly illumined, then automatically his illumination will take the form of compassion in the outer life. First comes inner illumination; then comes the manifestation of this inner illumination in the outer life. This is compassion. If one says that he is offering compassion before he is inwardly illumined, he is only deceiving himself. What he calls compassion is only his unconscious way of showing attachment towards the earth-consciousness.

In the divine world, we offer compassion because we have reached the highest. From the top of the tree we are coming down to meet the root of the tree. But if we stay at the foot of the tree and somebody else also stays at the foot of the tree, who is going to show compassion to whom?

From:Sri Chinmoy,Life-tree leaves, Agni Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ltl