2 Feb 2012 —
Question
Q199: Others’ pain?
Question 199:
Amma says: “Spirituality is all about feeling and participating in the problems and pains of others.”
How do you understand this?
Please make your answer brief and clear (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
When my little finger is hurt, I know how painful it is. When my father expired, I could understand how difficult to manage the problems of the material world. Being spiritual, now I can understand that after coming out of deep meditation, this world is illusory and that I dream only the world of problems and sorrows and so I can work out effortlessly and solve all problems I can whether they are my own or of others.
i think 2 actions:(1) be the change – keep raising your vibration by healing your life (doing constant heartfelt mantra and selfless service and being in good company etc AND (2) understand the difference between sympathy and compassion as AMMA defines it (compassion is more help than sympathy possibly) If you see suffering help.
To be happy in everyones happiness and be sad in everyones sadness but internally be calm and remain in oneness
Isn’t being close to the other (at last only yourself), being fare away from ego and that way, very close to our soul
AMMA can hear the cry of HER children who are physically far away. For AMMA, the entire universe is a part of HER. If not to that extent, we should at least develop empathy and understanding for those less fortunate, and try to feel their woes as if they were ours. A kind word, a loving smile and a helpful act can go a long way towards making life worth living!
pain and sufferings are all different forms of the same thing.
as all forms of ‘Life’ are different forms of the same ‘God’ or ‘Divine Being’.
to see others pain and sufferings as my own is to understand that they are my own as we are only separate from the unenlightend point of veiw.
so to be with others in that, is to practice in self-trancendence or unconditonal Love.
Seeing all beings as ourselves and seeing pain of others as our own pain and trying to alleviate the pain by word , action and prayer .
One of the best ways to cleanse our karmic acts is to participate in the problems and pains of all beings(atleast our fellow-beings). By doing so we are not only climbing a step further in spirituality, but also are agents who take part in making this world a better one. We should be proud and blessed that we have a role model, the Maha-Guru, Amma.
Our most beloved Amma always quoting a fact in the sadsangs that each every person loves more “Himself” than anyone in the world. The above mentioned “Himself” is our “PureSelf”(in a higher stand point.)The famous declaration of Bhagavan SreeKrishna in Sreemad Bhagavad Geeta to Arjuna is like this(verse.30.to32,chapter 6)
“Yo mam pashyatisarvatra sarva cha mayi pashyati
Thassyaham na pranshyami sa cha me na prashyati”—-
(He who sees Me everywhere, and sees everything in Me,he never gets seperated from Me,nor do I get seperated from him.)If one understand the meaning of Bhavan’s declaration, then he can or he will not have any problem to participate in the problems and pains of others. Here there is not a seperate entity other than myself.All are my own Self and me is the Self of all.This is the Bhava.
I understand this, that if you can connect and feel another, then that is the essence of spirituality. To feel the heart and pain of someone else, is the same as feeling your own heart and pain. Therefore you can say you have achieved unity, or the feeling that you are the same. Then naturally from that, the feeling will arise to want to soothe, to help, to aid, to clear the problem and pain in any way you can. Participating in the problem then means helping to alleviate the pain on the level of the person at the time.
I think But I dont know!!!!!!!
At the same time the tsunami hit Japan, I woke up in California engulfed in heartache and fear and did not know why. At 2pm while working one afternoon my body began to tremble and did not know why. Two hours away at the same time children were being held at gunpoint on a school campus. When more than a hundred trees were ripped from their roots and snapped in half by a vicious wind storm 10 minutes from my home, I woke up for two weeks at 3am trembling and crying and did not know why. We are connected, every thought, word, action, prayer matters.
Being Amma’s children, Amma has sown in us this divine quality and given en number of opportunities in our life to experience this. But Amma’s life is in itself an example to follow. But do we always feel this? We don’t feel this when we are egoistic or selfish.. and this is humane to be like that. Let us pray to Amma to give the strength to follow Amma’s footsteps!!!
When we understand the pain of others the separation of you and i disappear. Isn’t that the goal of spirituality, for us to know that we are all one!
To be true spiritual means we should be able to feel the pain of others. It is said that God is compassionate even to listen to the footfalls of a tiny ant. A poet once said that if one is not able to feel the pain of others, it is not a wonder Formless God becomes invisible to them. Amma is a true example in this context. She can feel the agony and subtle pain of every one.
Feeling and particpating in the problems of others, is something that you don’t question, it’s an automatic reeling that starts in your heart. You feel no difference between yourself and someone else. They are your beloved, and just as if you would feel unbearable pain in your heart when your Beloved is hurt you feel that pain inside when it happens to someone you don’t even know. The action that follows does’t reach your brain. It is a flowing of love that puts into action help that doesn’t come from you, but from Amma working through you. You are empty when you are working, thinking and acting from your heart.
In short, you can’t turn away because their pain is your pain. The only answer is to respond in love, and the answer to help doesn’t come through your mind, but from your heart that is connected with Amma. She is working through you.
With totally Understanding can be brotherhood
Give all of us and give all that is of us. God sees and provides.
When someone strikes out at us we naturally think about our own suffering first. However, after tending to our wounds by applying the ointment of Amma’s love and teachings, we become able to also think about the “attacker’s” suffering too. In this process we have the opportunity to realize that though we externally appear as foes, internally the experience of suffering for each of us is the same. No one wants to hurt or fight, but sometimes the hurt inside overflows. Gaining the understanding that in truth we are not different, when we tend to the wounds of our attacker’s ailing body, heart or mind, we also care for our own wounds at the same time.