BY DEEPAK DHARNE 

 

IMAGINE a society where compassion is an alien concept: hospitals would turn away the sick, leaving them to suffer and die; neighbors would ignore each other's cries for help, allowing violence and despair to fester unchecked; global leaders would prioritize power over people, leading to wars that decimate entire populations without a second thought. Historical tragedies like the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide starkly illustrate the horrors that unfold when compassion is overshadowed by hatred and indifference. Conversely, movements led by figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. show how compassion can unite and heal fractured communities, bringing about profound social change. In a world ravaged by relentless conflict and unprecedented suffering, the absence of compassion is a silent catastrophe that threatens the very fabric of our humanity. Compassion follows humanitarian values. If a human is devoid of compassion and sensitivity, they are called callous and stone-hearted. As we take a glance at the ongoing scenarios of the geopolitical landscape fraught with chaos and turmoil, we get an abysmally bleak picture. The Gaza war is still not taking the name of ceasefire, let alone a permanent truce. The war is getting fiercer and killing thousands of innocent civilians and soldiers on the ground from both sides. The Ukraine-Russia war witnessed blitzkrieg tactics, with both sides causing irreparable colossal damage and heaping horrendous casualties and suffering on the people caught in the insatiable greed of political leaders. In the conflagration of wars, the glimmer of hope seems inconspicuous for the sufferers.

 

As contemporary human beings of the twenty-first century, are we really discreet and wise enough to realize the lesson of King Ashoka, who witnessed the horrendous massacre of humans on the Kalinga battleground? The battle brought cataclysm and caused havoc, resulting in children becoming orphans, wives becoming widows, and aged parents becoming helpless. King Ashoka wept profusely over his gross blunder and embarked on a journey of course correction by sending out harbingers of peace and non-violence across the world. Thereafter, in the nineteenth century, colonialism and expansionism ensued, leading to WW-I and WW-II, bringing about a holocaust and an existential crisis with formidable threats of nuclear warheads and deadly arsenals. Still, nightmarish memories of wars haunt us like an invisible spectre never to be exorcised. Compassion is the only panacea for humanity to bring paradise to the earth. Acrimonious behavior is bound to plunge humanity into a fathomless ocean of misery and destruction. The incessant inferno and conflagration have become indelible marks on the forehead of humans. On the other hand, it is an alarming bell that environmental crises are looming large over our heads, yet we are deliberately oblivious to the imminent full-blown repercussions of them.

 

We are fraught with endless challenges and bogged down in the rat race of who becomes a superpower. What we desperately need in the chaotic conundrum of destruction is the adoption of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, enshrined in and espoused by Indian civilization since time immemorial. Mahatma Gandhi says that the earth is capable of fulfilling human needs but not greed. It is the eponymous "vishwachi maze ghar" expounded by Sant Tukaram Maharaj. Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj in his Pasaydan solemnly asks ‘Duritanche timir jaavo, vishwa-swadharma surye paho, Jo je vanchil to te laho, pranijaat’ meaning the darkness of ill-wills, cobweb of negative feelings be vanished and wish for the well-being and contentment for the entire living entities and humanity of the world, irrespective of religious and creeds backgrounds. It is high time for all of us to manifest our humanitarian streaks to bring about a positive sea change as an antidote to man-made crises. The world is torn apart and Buddha’s compassion and well-being towards all beings can find resonance with today’s solutions for grief and suffering.