A Portrait of Compassion

By Bipin Nair

As Amma travels around the globe on Her world tours, She brings the mystique, the bewilderment, the curiosity and the intrigue of Her presence to the world at large. To Her devotees -- Her children all over the world -- She brings peace, love, happiness and the satisfaction of being able to unburden their sorrows and difficulties on Her lap and have Her shower Her love and compassion on them. For most of us who try to spend as much time as possible in Amma's divine presence, we very often find ourselves in situations where people who have heard of Amma recently, or have come to see Her for the first or second time, ask us several questions.

A curious bystander or onlooker at the airport when Amma is flying from city to city or at a hall where a program is being held may ask you: "Who is She?" You reply, "She is a Mahatma, a saint, a spiritual teacher." The next question would be: "What is Her teaching?" You reply, "She teaches the language of Love. She is Love; She is the embodiment of compassion; She is Compassion personified. Every moment, every stage of Her life is a portrait of Compassion." There is a nice verse which conveys all that Amma embodies and teaches through Her actions every day:

I sought my soul, but my soul stayed hidden from me,
I sought my God, but my God eluded me,
I sought my compassion, and I found all three.

So what is compassion? Amma says, "Compassion is consciousness expressed through your actions and words." Compassion is the art of non-hurting. It cannot hurt anyone because compassion is consciousness manifested. Compassion does not see the faults of others. It does not see the weaknesses of people. It makes no distinction between good and bad people. Compassion cannot draw a line between two countries, two faiths or two religions. Compassion simply forgives and forgets. Compassion is like a passage. Everything passes through it. Compassion is love expressed in all its fullness.

Amma says that one can experience love, compassion, self-sacrifice and other godly qualities in the presence of a Great Soul. This experience can be compared to the vastness of the ocean. You can see the vastness to a certain extent, but you cannot see all of it. You may get a glimpse of it, and although you are seeing just a tiny bit of it, it allows you to grasp the fact that the ocean is immeasurably vast.

The ocean is not only vast; it is deep. The depth is within and the vastness is without. The love and compassion of a Mahatma that we experience can be compared to the vastness of the ocean. The Mahatma's love and compassion is an external manifestation that gives us a tangible experience of that which lies within. However, we do not know how to be completely open like children. Because of this the experience of infinite compassion showered upon us by a Mahatma is only partially felt by us. We are only able to experience a fraction of the divine qualities. But that which lies within that immeasurable depth is like the depth of the ocean. It is not visible to us. To experience that depth one has to penetrate the surface and go beyond. One should see beyond the love that is manifested outwardly.

Amma says that a real spiritual master is both love and compassion in all its fullness. Sometimes that love and compassion manifests as discipline. Normally a certain amount of pain is experienced when one is being disciplined, but the Guru's compassion removes it. Amma says that when you correct someone or you scold someone, the ego is hurt; the individuality is crushed. That is what a person dislikes the most. However, when a Guru disciplines a true aspirant, the disciple accepts the disciplining or scolding with a positive attitude. He surrenders to the Guru fully. He knows that whatever the Guru does is for his highest good. The most important factor in this is the Guru's compassion, which has tremendous healing power. All the pain, anger, hatred and other negativities are healed by the Guru's compassion. The Guru's overflowing compassion heals the wounds and helps the disciple to become positive. The Guru's compassion overlooks the disciple's anger and hatred; the Guru's compassion forgives all. That supreme compassion encompasses the disciple completely and soothes all the negative feelings. So we can always take heart, and although events in our life may seem to break our resolve, we can always be assured that Amma's compassion and grace is always with us and will carry us through the most difficult times, if we have the faith to hold onto Her feet and not lose heart.

When we face adversity, we often find ourselves in a situation where we question God or the Guru's perfection. There is a moving story that helps to put these thoughts into perspective. In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to teaching disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional schools. At a Chush fundraising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that will never be forgotten by anyone who attended. After extolling the virtues of the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God's perfection?" The audience was shocked by this question, pained by the father's anguish, and stilled by the piercing query. "I believe," the father answered, "that when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to the child."

He then told the following story about his son Shaya: One afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let me play?" Shaya's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya's father understood that if his son were chosen to play, it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging. Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning." Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. He was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team scored again and now, with two outs and the bases loaded, with the potential winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shaya was given the bat. The pitcher took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. As the pitch came in, Shaya swung the bat and hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond the reach of the first baseman. Everyone started yelling, "Shaya, run to first. Run to first!" Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman, who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head, allowing Shaya to run to home base. Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate, and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team. "That day," his father said softly, with tears now rolling down his face, "those 18 boys reached their level of God's compassion."

(continued in January)