Practice empathy daily- for a better tomorrow

Empathy refers to developing insights into the emotions and perspectives of others and acting on those insights. It is placing oneself in the other person’s shoes and feeling what the other is feeling, or seeing things from the other person’s eyes.
To understand its importance, let us recall an incident that happened years ago.
A professor was taking his evening walk near the

IIM Ahmedabad

campus in Vastrapura.

A few steps ahead were two people wearing dark glasses and holding canes in hand which they tapped on the ground as they walked cautiously. He concluded they were blind and his instinct was to guide them.

They walked into the IIM campus, sat on a stone and removed their dark glasses. Under the glasses, they were wearing blindfolds, which also they took off. They were not blind at all, but had perfect vision. He felt cheated and could not help asking why they acted like blind men.
Their reply moved the professor greatly. They said they were undergoing training to teach blind men at the nearby

Institute for the Blind

. “How can we teach blind people unless we know how a blind man’s world is? This statement reveals the

importance of empathy

.
Your own existence goes through a profound transformation when you start to feel the pain of others. It actually helps you grow – spiritually and emotionally. You benefit directly when you act selflessly.
Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. Instead of offering empathy, we often have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain our own position or feeling. Empathy, however, calls upon us to empty our mind and listen to others with our whole being. You will begin to understand their challenges and barriers, their aches and pains.
‘Hanuman’ returning from Lanka after locating Sita, was charged with ecstasy and enthusiasm to share his successful mission. But, seeing Rama grief–stricken, worrying whether `Sita’ was alive at all, and if so, where she was, Hanuman empathised with Rama, sensing his emotional state, controlled his excitement and said briefly, “Seen Sita” (Sita Dhrustvati).

Analysts say that had ‘Hanuman’ uttered the word “Sita” later than in the beginning of his sentence, within that fraction of a second’s delay, Rama might have collapsed, thinking that `Sita’ was dead. So Hanuman first conveyed the successful sporting of `Sita’ to Rama. He narrated his experience only when Rama was desirous of listening to it.
Putting oneself in other’s shoes and experiencing their pains and sorrow is a hallmark of spiritually advanced persons. If we observe the lives of saints, such as Sri Ramakrishna or Ramana Maharishi - we can find that they experienced pain when other beings experienced pain. By transporting others’ sufferings unto themselves, such saints have shown highest standards in empathy.
The Bhagwad Gita provides a template for reaching such high states of empathy by every individual.

Sri Krishna

exhorts the sadhaka to settle his mind in the Universal force. “enter your intellect into Me”, ‘mayyeva mana aadhatsva mayi buddhim nivesaya’, says the Lord to experience a feeling of closeness to everyone and secure the fruit of devotion.
Simply put, empathy is a genuine effort to see the world from the perspective of the other person. Practice it and you will experience it. If you do that, before long, the river of empathy will murmur in your heart all through the four seasons.
In the words of Buddha: Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life, you will have been all of these.
Authored by: V.Balasubramaniam