The primal scriptures, the Vedas, bring out 20 cardinal characteristics of the creator, Ishwar. One of them is ‘compassionate’. Hence, compassion is truly a divine virtue. Compassion in today’s world is understood as kindness—a sensitivity to others’ pain and misery. But pain is a part and parcel of each life. Human life is replete with moments of pain, privation or penury. None is entirely spared from one or more of these adversities. To help a person in need is to be compassionate. To feed the hungry, extend monetary help to the poor or, in general, alleviate any other misery of a fellow human is being compassionate. But true compassion comes from a selfless heart. It comes from a genuine desire to help a person out of trouble. It does not carry selfish undertones or a mindset of quid pro quo. It is altruistic.
Ishwar has been described as both compassionate and just. Scriptures exhort humans to imbibe the same qualities. But many people feel that it is not always possible to be compassionate and just at the same time. Compassion is described as a quality that makes a man help another to get out of trouble. But what if the trouble is the result of a punitive pronouncement on the person? If, as a result of an act of criminality, he is to be fined, incarcerated or punished in any other manner, is it fair to condone him? Condoning him would not be an act of compassion. It would be unjust. Hence, compassion and justice are complementary rather than mutually exclusive attributes.
A judge, while pronouncing an award of punishment for a delinquent person, may feel sympathetic towards his wife and children who will be subjected to hardship upon his imprisonment, but that cannot be allowed to dilute his punishment as per the laid-down law.
We encounter many situations in day-to-day life when we need to be compassionate. We need to show kindness for the have-nots, the poor, sickly, old and incapacitated, and the deprived. The people displaced or devastated by war, troubled by terrorist violence, hit by natural calamities like floods, tsunamis, pandemics, or earthquakes need our help, and we must extend it. Physically handicapped and mentally challenged, too, are the subjects of our compassionate actions. Their past karmas have put them in this plight, and if our one or two acts of kindness bring smiles on their faces, we end up earning a lot of karmic merit. But as for justice, we have to be balanced in our judgements. We need to be fair to all, and justice knows no favours, no appeasement.
When it comes to being just, we often falter and fumble. We are plagued by internal biases and prejudices. Our judgements are coloured by preconceived notions, personal predilections and passionate points of view. We need to think and act rationally, in accordance with the canons of dharma. In the exercise of justice, passion has no role. If at all, it has a negative role. Passion, on the positive side or negative side, blurs judgment. Passion creates strong likes and dislikes, and is often removed from reality. Compassion is a divine virtue. It connotes a sense of bringing succour to the aggrieved, providing relief to the distressed and extending resources to the deprived.
Charity is an act of compassion. But we must determine who is the rightful recipient of our alms. The donor should determine discreetly who is worthy of help and who is not. In such a situation of a charitable act, both compassion and justice can be observed. Charity should not be a blind act but a well-considered one.
Straight from folklore, an example of compassion is provided by the life story of Shri Krishna, the legendary hero of the epic Mahabharat. When the poor Sudama, Krishna’s childhood schoolmate, visited him, Krishna, as the king of Dwarka, showered him with love and riches.
An act of kindness should be a just act too if it is to meet the successful scrutiny of dharma. Often, we are overawed by emotions of sympathy for a person in distress or pain, and in that surge of emotion, overwhelmed by the desire to help, we fail to see justice in our action in dealing with him. Compassion is not a blind act of kindness. It is a kind and just act. The whole universe operates stably through the immanent dharmic laws set in by Ishwar and our actions should be ever consistent with the principles of dharma.