Pity Is Not Compassion🔗

Q: Swamiji, you have used the word ‘pity’ in describing Arjuna’s state. Some people call it compassion that does not allow him to fight his kinsmen. Is there a difference?

There is a huge difference between pity and compassion. Pity is what you feel for someone whom you consider lesser than yourself, such as a beggar. Pity needs an object.

In the dictionary, compassion may be shown as a synonym for pity. It is actually an expression of misunderstanding. Most of us are only capable of pity. Pity arises out of ego, one’s identity. We believe that we have to express our superiority to others to prove our worth. Pity arises through comparison. You cannot feel pity unless you place yourself in a situation that is superior to that of the person for whom you feel pity.

Ego breeds violence. Pity has an undertone of violence. Arjuna is in a state of violence. It is his ego that creates the fear in him about the loss of his identity. That fear of loss of identity is being expressed as pity or sympathy for his kinsmen and elders. Arjuna has shifted his focus from the inner self to the outer object. That’s all. The fear for his identity has been hidden and expressed as sympathy for his opposition.

For pity to become compassion, ego must disappear. Until then any effort at compassion is only hypocrisy.

Compassion needs no object, it just flows.

Only an enlightened master can express compassion. It is a natural outpouring of his state. It does not matter who is in front of him and in what state they are in. A master expresses and radiates compassion as his very energy.

Compassion is an expression arising out of the experience of boundarilessness. When a person realizes that he is indeed a part of the universal existence and that he too is divine, he automatically becomes a part of all the beings that populate this universe. There is a natural empathy that reaches out to everyone and everything around such a person. This is compassion.

Compassion is possible only when one's ego drops and identity disappears; compassion is the very opposite of pity.

Q: Krishna uses the term ārya. People say that Aryans were invaders of the ancient Indian people. Is that true?

In Sanskrit, the word ārya is used to denote a person of true nobility. It is not merely nobility of birth but the expression of noble qualities in one's behavior. This has nothing to do with any foreign invader.

Recent scientific investigations have shown that there was no such Aryan invasion of India from European stock. This was misinformation spread by the British colonizers to sow the seeds of separation between the inhabitants of different parts of India. This was their planned strategy to destroy Indian culture.

In fact, they succeeded quite well. For over 60 years this misinformation has turned many people in the south of India into atheists simply because they associated religion with invasion. Just a small part of Tamil Nadu has more temples than almost all of the rest of India, and indigenous kings built these places of worship. But people have been brainwashed to believe that they need to deny their religion to return to their roots.

Sanatana Dharma, the vedic science, evolved in many parts of India simultaneously. Many religions developed from this science; Hinduism is one of them. Buddhism, Jainism and other such major religions have their roots in the same philosophy.

An aryan is one who has a thorough understanding of this vedic science. An aryan is one who, by understanding the tenets of this science, is able to practice them. An aryan is one who by practicing the truths of this noble science, radiates noble and enlightened qualities through his behavior.

Q: Swamiji, why did Krishna choose the battlefield to deliver the great knowledge of Gita?

Krishna delivered Gita in a battlefield because planet Earth is a battlefield!

Please be very clear: In the last two thousand years of recorded history, we have fought more than five thousand wars. We are doing nothing except fighting wars. The gap between one war and another cannot be called peace because it is simply the preparation time for the next war!

You do only one of two things, either fight a war or prepare for the next one. If, in the morning, you go to the office after a fight with your spouse, you know by evening that other arguments will be ready! This is the reason planet Earth is a battlefield. This is the reason Krishna chose the battlefield to deliver His message.

There are three game situations on planet Earth – ‘win-win’, ‘win-lose’ and ‘lose-lose’.

‘Win-win’ situation is between the master and disciple, where the master wins the disciple and the disciple also wins enlightenment. Both achieve something and neither of them loses. The master does not lose anything as he enjoys the act of giving enlightenment. The disciple too does not lose, as he gets enlightenment.

The next one is the ‘win-lose’ scenario. All our business dealings are ‘win-lose’ situations. When somebody wins, the other person loses.

The third situation is the worst of all - ‘lose-lose’. Both the parties lose. The battlefield is a ‘lose-lose’ situation where even the so-called winning is not winning. Krishna delivers Gita in the battlefield because he gives a solution for the worst situations. Even the worst situations in life are addressed by Gita.

The battlefield is indeed the right place to deliver this spiritual message, because if something cannot be used in the worst situations, it cannot be taken as the ultimate message. If it can be used in the worst situation, you can be sure that it can be used anywhere else. It is like a master key. If it can open the most difficult lock, it can open all other locks. Krishna gives life solutions for the worst situations.