An incident from the life of Swami Vivekananda:
One night, Vivekananda woke up at two a.m. and woke up his disciples. His disciples became anxious. Vivekananda said that he was feeling a lot of pain and that in some part of the world there was a natural calamity happening that was causing him the pain. The next morning, the newspapers carried the news of a terrible earthquake in Fiji Islands that consumed many lives. Vivekananda was sensitive to a calamity that happened in some corner of the world thousands of miles away!
What happened in Vivekananda is what we call empathy. It is not sympathy. Sympathy is a very superficial word. We are all capable of sympathy. When someone tells us that they are suffering, we make some noises and just confirm their suffering for them. That is sympathy.
What an Enlightened person or a Master feels is never sympathy. It is empathy. Empathy is when we feel another's suffering in our own being. It is when a person does not have to tell us he is suffering, but we simply know because the Existential energy in us feels it. Masters are one with us because they are one with Existence and we are a part of Existence. It is only that we see them as separate. In reality that is not the case.
When we realize the sense of non-duality and infinity with the entire Universe, we experience a tremendous overflowing of love and compassion for every being without discrimination, because we realize that everyone is a part of the same Whole.
Just as the fingers on the hand and the toes on the feet belong to the same body, we will be able to see that everyone is a part of the same Universal Energy. This is when true compassion, empathy and sincere service towards enriching everyone can happen. Until then we will only be using our logic, mind, ego and conditioning, to enslave others.
When we realize the infinity of everyone, we will express our unconditional love and compassion towards everyone without discrimination, because we know that all discrimination is baseless and false. Our very walk and talk will start radiating so much bliss that our very presence will start healing others.
We will become a blessing for planet Earth and the people who experience our presence.
Goals: To help children understand non-duality, to see the divine in everything
- How does Kṛṣṇa become always available to us?
- How do we dissolve into Existence?
- How can you tell who is the right Master for you?
- Why did Vivekananda wake up feeling a lot of pain ?
- What is the difference between sympathy and empathy?
- What happens in us when we realize the sense of non-duality with the entire Universe?
- What is discrimination?
- How can we start healing others by our very presence?