The heart is the seat of all virtues, the foremost is karuna or daya, compassion. Mercy flows from compassion. In the Brihadaranyak Upanishad, Dayadhvam, mercy, appears along with Datta, charity, and Damyata, self-control. T S Eliot borrows these virtues and incorporates them in the section ‘What the Thunder Said’ in the sound of the thunder as ‘DA DA DA’, in his epic poem, ‘The Wasteland’, for which he received a Nobel prize. After outlining the malaise of modern-day existence, Eliot states that adherence to these values is the path to redemption.
When Mahatma Gandhi broke his fast in Yeravada jail in 1932, Rabindranath Tagore was present, and when he was asked to sing a song appropriate for the occasion, he sang from the Gitanjali: ‘When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy.’ The poem exalts the heart as a repository of all virtues. Louis Fischer, in his biography of Gandhiji, records that ‘many eyes were wet’ when Tagore sang in Bengali.
The Buddha symbolises compassion. It is also mentioned in the Bhagwad Gita. Anasakti Yog, non-attachment, involves the three virtues; and as per the Gita verse 12:13: ‘Advesta sarva bhutanam maitrah karuna eva ca’ – he who is amiable and compassionate harbours no ill will towards any being.
Compassion is a feeling, not a thought. A compassionate man is a tearful man. Today, our eyes are dry because our hearts are dry. Our hearts are dry because our living styles are dry. All that we need is to be sensitive to suffering from which we can learn the rudiments of morality.
