Power of compassion

It was a pleasant surprise for me to visit a beautiful Buddist meditation center in a small town in the Hamptons. My son Prodeep, his wife Louisa and two dogs drove me there, and left me to attend two hours meditation session on a Sunday morning. A small group of people were attending the session. One kind looking American lady gave a brief guided meditation course , to make our mind still and receptive. After that she spoke about Buddha's teachings on compassion. We all know that, compassion is a great virtue,which wipes away tears of many suffering souls, and also helps to open our hearts, and broaden it with love, compassion and forgiveness toward others.But in today's hectic life,we want everything instant,we have no time to stop and reflect.So the tender flower of compassion which blossoms with love, torlerance and forgiveness is drying up in life.But now the time has come,to be inspired and learn to deal with life,more meaningfully,by being compassionate and kind to others; to our family,society and the whole world.Enlightened souls like Buddha,Christ,Gandhi,Mother Teressa,they showed the power of compassion through their self less service.They felt others sufferings as their own and dedicated their life for wellbeing of others. Young prince Siddhath,left his kingdom and family,went through austerities as a renunciate,just to know, how to end sufferings of life.He found his answer in giving unselfish love and compassion. Our love and compassions are generally tinged with our selfish desires,they are not unconditional.So when our expectations are not met,we feel frustrated and angry.Then leaving the path tolerance and forgiveness,we take the path of violence and aggressiveness.Our myopic vision,can not see life through a larger frame.The problem starts,when we ignore our kinship with others.The moment we train our mind to see our interconnectedness,our hearts open up, and then we can no more hurt others.We realize that,all life trembles at violence,and if we put ourselves in another's plannce,we can not be violent to others. Compassion and love cannot grow on the soil of anger,hatred or selfishness.Unless we nurture loving tolerance,we can neither be happy,nor can make others happy.We are all playing our different roles,in the temporary drama called "life".So it is important to learn from life,and try to give back to life,as much as we can, through our good will and good deeds.Sowing the seeds of compassion and love,we can all leave a permanent mark in this impermanent life. Actually when we encounter difficult people or situations in life,we should thank them from our hearts to give us a great opportunity to develop our patience,loving tolerance and to do good karma.Bhagawad Gita says,only brave can forgive, and return love for hatered.It says ,who is detached,remains undisturbed in pleasure and pain,same with friend and foe, is dear to God. When unexpected stormy moments appear in life, we get rattled, loose our cool,and react aggressively to others. But we can get a lesson from Buddha's story.Once when Buddha was sitting in his usual meditative mood, one of his jealous cousins came and started berating Buddha, for no reason. But as Buddha stayed unruffled, he left after some time.Buddha's disciple Ananda asked, "Lord, why did you allow him to speak such lies, you did not not even protest".Buddha answered , when some body wants to give a gift, and it is not accepted, it goes back to the giver.Buddha's compassion extended even to those, who were abusive to him. But even if we can not oblige undue demand, we should not shout back or insult a person.We may reject undue demand being calm and dignified. Bhagawad Gita says, by controlling our anger and impulsiveness we can make our own self our friend. I will end with another beautiful story called "Bishop's candle stand ", which I read in my school days. The story goes like this...,on a stormy night a much respected Bishop was all alone at home, when an exconvict came by seeking shelter. The kind Bishop called him friend, and offered him food and shelter. After some time, when the Bishop went to bed , the convict stole his silver candle stands, and ran away.But soon he was caught and brought back to Bishop by local police. The compassionate Bishop pardoned the convict, and asked the police to go back, and told them, that they were not stolen, they were gifted by him to his friend . Kind compassion of Bishop touched the heart of the convict, and gave him a new life.His path of sin was washed away for ever by his tears of repentance, and he became a new man to travel in a new path, again in life.