The Ripple Effect of Compassion: How Kindness Changes the World

Yesterday, I was at the Baps temple and suddenly one of the stories about compassion really caught my eye. I know my Mom talks about daya, which in Gujarati means compassion. So I was really fascinated by the point of compassion and really wanted to understand what compassion really means. According to dictionary.com, compassion is defined as follows, "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering." It says a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. In simple terms it means feeling the pain and misfortune of others and having a feeling and a desire to help them. Now the question is, how deep can compassion really go? Is it that compassion should be for only humans? Or can it be for animals, insects or even plants? In my opinion it can be for any living being on earth. You can feel the pain of a cow who does not get food to eat, a dog who wanders around for food, a donkey who carries the weight of people and luggage, a horse who is beaten to the core when he/she does not run fast enough in races, or a human child crying who lost his/her parent. It can literally be anything, as a matter of fact, as I write these things, I can even imagine and sense the pain of the things I have written. We never know what a donkey would feel like when people hit him/her with a stick, we never know what a dog would feel like when people treat them like trash, we never know what an insect would feel like when we kill him/her and we never know what a chicken would feel like when you kill him/her, imagine the pain the chicken has to go through just to fill your stomach, its the same pain a human goes through when someone murders him/her. All these pains and sorrows of the world, if someone can really understand that's the peak we can reach as souls. The good thing is since we are humans we have the ability to feel compassionate towards other humans and we can feel compassionate towards other animals as well. The pain of a deer being eaten by a lion or a tiger can't ever be sensed by us humans, because we are just too shallow, we don't come out of our routine of getting triggered by our bosses, friends or people. 

But now that we understand what compassion is, understand why is it important to have a compassionate heart. Here are certain points why cultivating compassion towards yourself, other human beings and other animals is important: 

1. Cultivates Gratitude:  When we feel the sorrow and the difficulties of others, whether that's an animal, an insect or even a human, we recognise that wherever we are, whoever we are, we have a lot of things in life to cherish. They say if you want to know the value of a job, ask someone who has lost it, if you want to know the value of having a house, ask someone who does not have a house, when you want to know the value of good health, ask an old person who has lost good health and that's the day we realise we have so much in life that can be cherished. 

2. Builds Strong Relationships: When we feel compassionate towards others, when we recognise what the other person is feeling or what he/she is going through, we bridge the gaps of communication. After all, there's some communication that can be felt, but not seen or heard. This creates a deep sense of connection between our friends and families, thus making our relationships more meaningful and resilient. 

A. Builds Trust: When people see that you genuinely care for them not for wanting anything in return but just genuine care without any judgements, that's when they start trusting you. Believe it or not, trust is the basis of all relationships, if you can't trust someone, you can't have a relationship with them after all. 

3. Improves mental health and well being: When we do something good for others, we feel good as well. It is said that being compassionate, not just in words but in actions, will improve our own mental health, decrease stress and anxiety and even fear. So be compassionate towards the world, if not for someone's benefit, do it for your own self. 

4. Encourages Positive Social Behaviour: When we feel the pain of others, it naturally brings out the altruistic version of ourselves, where we intend to help others. This altruistic behaviour further makes people feel a sense of community, where everyone feels like they are responsible towards the well being of others. 

5. Reduces Conflict: Compassion helps individual resolve their problems through the means of forgiveness and understanding the issue from the other persons perspective. Maybe someone's going through a bad time, or maybe someone's having a bad day, we all need to understand that people don't act according to us, but they act according to the situation they are in. Sometimes we have a fight with our friend, our brother or a sister, but it might be that they are just letting their anger of boss out on us, maybe they had a fight with a colleague or maybe they are just having a bad day. It's important during such times that we forgive them, without passing judgements and move ahead. These things happen and they are just a part of life. 

6. Inspires personal growth: Practicing compassion allows one to have emotional intelligence, patience and even resilience, thus leading to personal growth in every area of life. Honestly, if I have to say something, in my humble opinion emotional intelligence in today's world is just as equally important as being technically intelligent. We will find 100s of engineers who are great at coding, but amongst those 100, there would be 10 who would be emotionally intelligent and they understand and sense the emotions of others. 

7. Ripple Effect: They say in English that one good turn deserves another. When we do something good randomly, we get something good in return as well. Moreover, imagine you did something good today, whether you fed a poor person, you played with a child who was bored, or you volunteered with a ngo to educate people about something, when you do something, you create a positive example to the world. People look at you and they start doing those things as well because you did it, so never forget the impact that you can have in the world just by doing certain things. 

Believe it or not, everyone in life struggles, everyone goes through bad days, everyone goes through good days, but remember everyone in life struggles whether that's bill gates or a homeless person. I am sure the struggle of a homeless person is much more because he is not even educated about what he can do to solve the problem. After all if you cannot contribute through money, contribute through education, if you cannot contribute through education, contribute through physical strength, and if you can't contribute through physical strength, just listen, and talk to them. That's it. Sometimes, we all need an honest and an open talk, not anything else. 

Like I said, there's literally no small act of kindness, if you do something kind, your friend might follow you, and someone might follow your friend and the ripple goes on. We don't know where it ends, but remember there's nothing small in terms of being kind. 

Okay, so how do we really become compassionate, is there any practical way to become compassionate? Maybe there is, or maybe there is not, but I am going to talk about the things I know about: 

1. See it from their angle: When you see an old man/woman struggling to walk and cross the road, think about what it would mean to you, if you were that old man, if you see a person dieing of cancer, think about what it would mean if it were you, if you see a chicken being cut in pieces, think about what it would mean if someone would cut you into pieces and eat the flesh out of you, this will make you feel the pain of people and animals.

Honestly, I know there might be some other ways, but I like keeping things simple and to me compassion simply means looking at the issue from someone else's perspective, see their pain, hear their pain and feel their pain. That's all there is to compassion. Acting on compassion will come naturally, maybe you help the old person cross the road, you might help someone smile who's dieing of cancer, or you might help save a chicken by simply asking the butcher to buy the chicken and free the chicken. But once you see the pain and recognise the pain compassion will naturally come. 

Today, I am not going to give too many exercises but just one simple exercise. Try joining a NGO or donate in a NGO either through time or through money. But make sure that no one knows that you have donated anything, what I mean is don't do it for show off, do it for doing it. Do it because you care and it matters. Volunteer somewhere where you feel that you can bring a change. 

Remember to be compassionate and have a wonderful day. Your life will improve through compassion, believe me.