LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR
Confined to the house for the last couple of days due to the nationwide Lockdown, I was having my morning cup of tea in the balcony overlooking a lush and leafy green park ( which was completely empty at that time ) and the opening lines of a Hymn that we used to sing in the morning assembly in school started floating in my mind: “There’s my neighbours who’s seeking a lodging — it’s up to me to give him one”.
Try as I might — I have been racking my brains, talking to my classmates who used to sing it with me, scanning the internet — but have not been able to locate the complete verse. Nevertheless from what I remember, the essence of that Hymn was to inculcate love, care, compassion and above all a sense of endearment in society — beginning with our neighbours and extending it slowly, but steadfastly to cover wider sections of the society at large.
While I do distinctly remember only the opening line, what has remained almost permanently ingrained in my mind is that it tried to teach us impressionable minds, that when a neighbour( not literally, but iteratively) seeks a lodging we should help him with one, if he is hungry, he should be helped with food; and if he is ill to provide him succour; if he is mentally stricken to provide him hope and if he is in any kind of need- its our duty to provide him help. This is the kind of social symbiotic relationship that is the basis for all human existence, rational behaviour and an ingredient of human beings as social animals. The above course of action might sound intensely impractical, theoretical, antithetical and even bookish but is the basis for societal harmony with no scope or probability of any debate on the issue if societal equilibrium has to be nurtured, maintained, fostered and maintained.
It is a sheer coincidence that while these thoughts came to my mind, I was also reading a book “How to See Yourself as You Really Are — “A practical Guide of Self-knowledge” by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. The book, perhaps intense, is definitely worth reading (as all books written by him and most books written about him are). His Holiness in this masterful treatise emphasis that love and compassion are the pillars of world peace and that “humanitarians” of all ideologies seek to advance world peace and have a duty to serve the needs of the world.
To my mind the message that is sought to be conveyed by both these disparate sources , and certainly to me at vastly differing timelines is that love, care and compassion are the bedrock and basis of societal existence. The message being sought to be conveyed here might seem elementary, even commonplace, as it has been conveyed by thinkers, leaders, religious preachers across all stages of civilisational development but sadly, a fact which is more pronounced in recent times, the message seems to have lost its ways in the labyrinthine machinations of the modern Society and even if received, has not found its way as something worthy of becoming ingrained in our minds.
Dwelling on the concept of love and compassion, His Holiness advocates three levels of meditative reflection as a means to generating and feeling empathy, love and compassion for our fellow human-beings:
1. This person wants happiness and does not want suffering, yet is stricken with terrible pain. If this person could only be free from suffering and the cause of suffering!
2. This person wants happiness and does not want suffering, yet is stricken with terrible pain. May this person be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!
3. This person wants happiness and does not want suffering, yet is stricken with terrible pain. I will help this person be free from suffering and all the causes of suffering!
The three stages entail a gradual sustained progress from mere hoping to passively wishing to ultimately and actively helping our fellow human beings to be inundated with happiness and to be free from suffering. It is our duty to internalise such feelings and ingrain them as an integral part of our psyche — it is only then that the religious strife, that has been so routinely observed worldwide in recent times, will come to an end. Remember the Buddhist concept of Mudita (pleasure that comes from delighting in other people’s well-being), the Jewish practice of Eruv Yom Kippur (seeking forbearance from fellow human beings before seeking atonement from God), the credo of Zoroastrianism — Good thoughts, Good words, Good deeds and indeed all other religions without exception is feelings of love, compassion, understanding and endearment towards all human beings -only then will our Mother Earth be free from man-made affliction and conflict.
