Empathy over Sympathy
I told one of my friends about a sudden distressing event that happened to one of our mutual friends and my friend expressed concern for the distressed person in not more than four words, “Yes, it is sad”. Then we went on to talk about some random topics for a long time but my mind felt distant and lost.
Lately I realised that people have brought down the locus of their thoughts only into directions that involve them somehow. They tend to connect everything that happens around them to themselves, and if they find themselves not getting affected, they go on with their lives without paying heed to things that don’t involve them directly. This kind of ignorance is nothing short of misfortune for the humanity as a whole. We were all trained to run blindly in a rat race, without even realising that by the time the rat in us would get the cheese we are running after, we would be trapped beyond any sort of freedom. What I intend to do with this article is make you understand that you need to empathise with those around you. Every time you hear about a distressing incident, only expressing your sympathies over it won’t suffice. You need to give it a pensive response and think of the ways to mitigate the distress. We are living in a time of a global crisis instigated by a pandemic so if each of us would run after filling our own houses with all the essentials and ration, in some time, none of the houses would have sufficient of them. Not everything that happens around you has to be about you. However, to some extent some self-centered behavior is important for survival and success, but that behavior must not impede our willingness to help others in ways possible for us.
I see posts of people writing things like they are bored of this lockdown, quarantine and the pandemic. But, your boredom doesn’t end it my friend. Your actions however might end it. Instead of “getting bored” if you would have empathized with the losses of the bereaved, trust me you would have been ashamed at your boredom.
Do you know the verse, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam? It means that the world is one family. The original verse appears in Chapter 6 of Maha Upanishad. Also found in the Rig Veda, it is considered the most important moral value in the Indian society. The loss of one person is the loss of all, though it varies in magnitude. If the loss was yours, would you have carried on with the same callousness that you do now?
From now on, every time you hear about a distressing incident, emphathize with it instead of sympathizing. Put yourself into the situation and imagine the pain of the bereaved, lest you’ve forgotten the meaning of empathy. Then perhaps, you would want to help, which is the least you can do. We can all do the least, can’t we?
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