Children, the survival of the world hinges on love and compassion. Even though there are many waves of anger, hatred and selfishness in the world today, there are also surges of love, compassion and selflessness arising in certain corners. It is the vibrations of compassion that maintain the balance of the world.
Many species of birds and beasts are on the brink of extinction. Though this is a serious issue, we are not aware of a much graver problem: the near extinction of compassionate people. While it is true that such people have not become extinct yet, kind hearts are fast disappearing from the world.
We must wake up to and think about the consequences. Many of us take pride in the intellectual strides we have made but we are not aware that the heart has dried up.
Once, students in a school for the mentally challenged were performing a play on stage. There was a scene in which a beggar seeks shelter from the freezing cold for the night. When he goes to a mansion, the people living there scold him and drive him away. Feeling hurt, he leaves.
Seeing this, one of the mentally challenged students in the audience was moved. He went up to the stage and said, “Don’t be sad. Come home with me. There is space in my room for another person.”
Hearing these innocent words, the audience started applauding in appreciation. Many eyes welled up with tears. How many of us, who pride ourselves on our intelligence, have as much compassion as this mentally challenged child?
The world is like a flower. If one of the petals becomes pest-ridden, it will affect the rest of the flower. Similarly, when an individual is affected, so too will be the family. From there, it spreads to society. From society, it spreads to the nation, and from the nation to the world.
Today, humankind has become trapped in this cycle of selfishness and greed. Love and compassion are not meant to be confined to family and friends. Love is seeing oneself in others. When the ‘I’ sense disappears completely, love becomes compassion. When we think, “my home” or “my people,” others are excluded. On the contrary, if we think of ourselves as one, as beads strung on the thread of life, everyone becomes ‘our own.’
When love overflows towards all the beings in the universe, the whole world becomes one family. This is what our ancestors meant when they said “vasudhaiva kutumbakam.” Let us all proceed then, with one mind and one goal—to work selflessly for the world’s welfare. May our acts become a noble ideal for those who will come after us.
May the tree of our life be firmly rooted in the soil of love. May good actions be its leaves. May kind words be its flowers. May peace be its fruits. May the ethos of vasudhaiva kutumbakam awaken, be put into practise, and bear fruit in everyone.