In the previous articles in this series, we described attitudes toward others which help to cultivate a higher state of consciousness. These attitudes are taken from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. In the current article, we will further discuss three of these fundamental attitudes.
Have Compassion for those who Suffer
Patanjali says that when we see people suffering we need to have compassion. The opposite of this is indifference. Every time we see someone suffer and we are indifferent, we strengthen the shell of ego. We strengthen ignorance, we make our minds more agitated and we become smaller and smaller.
Every time we have a fight with someone we love, and we see them in pain and they say “ I am in pain”, but we reply with “I don’t care about your pain, you are wrong and this and that…”, we enter into a very deeply unconscious way of being. Every time we pass by a beggar and we don’t let them into our hearts. Every time we see someone in pain and we don’t let it touch us, we strengthen this suffocating shell of the ego, and we become smaller and smaller as human beings.
But if we cultivate this attitude of Patanjali; that when we see suffering, we become compassionate, this will make us soulful. Sometimes we are fighting with somebody, we are arguing, and then we see that they are in pain and we stop, and say: “Are you in pain?”, “Yes!”, “I am sorry.”. Then we soften and the fight stops, because our perspective expands, because we start to see, because we care.
Letting Compassion In
Is not like feeling that they are right and we are wrong. Our state of consciousness becomes wide as soon as we let compassion in. Saint Francis became very enlightened by taking care of the lepers that nobody wanted to touch. He would kiss them and caress them and wash them. And they would complain: “Francis, your monks, they don’t know how to clean me, and they all the time hurt my scars. The food they bring to us is not good.”
And he would say to that annoying leper: “I am very sorry. I will clean you myself.” He would clean all his wounds with such compassion. The leper would be healed and Francis was exalted to enlightenment, simply by these acts of love repeated.
When Ramakrishna was travelling through India he saw poor people who didn’t have clothes and food. He said to his rich disciple Maturbabu: “If you want me to travel with you, give a piece of food to all of them. I will live with them if you don’t give them money.” He convinced him.
These acts of compassion became a source of enlightenment. By really having compassion and caring for all sentient beings. When we care like this, we see ourselves naturally as spirit.
Friendship to the Happy
Another attitude that Patanjali describes is to give friendship to the happy. The opposite is when we see people who are happy, and we become envious, or critical. “What is with this joy now? Look at these people, they are not mature, this is why they are happy.”
When we are like that we disconnect from happiness. And we say to ourselves that the walls of our separate identities are more important than happiness. By being miserable we do not connect to happiness or to the happy.
The opposite of that is when we rejoice together. When there is happiness and friendship. When we are happy with our friends we feel it gives meaning to this life. When we are out together, or even more, in spiritual camps, in spiritual gatherings, when people sing and dance and meditate together. Then, all the happiness of everyone combines and gives a tremendous meaning to life.
Joy in the Face of the Virtuous
When we are envious and critical of virtues, we block ourselves in front of virtue, and in front of our souls. If we see someone doing charity, or being kind, and we say “Yeah, they just want validation, they are hypocrites. I hate them. They remind me I am not virtuous, I am envious.” Then we separate from virtue and from the others. When we rejoice with the virtuous, we assimilate their virtue and gain their friendship. One of the best ways to practice this is to read the biographies of saints, of masters, of yogis.
Read the Biographies of Saints with Happiness
If we read about the life of Gandhi, the life of Milarepa, the life of Christ. If we rejoice in the glory of their actions. We don’t just read in a scholarly way, we read with faith, with happiness; we can assimilate their qualities.
Very often the Christian saints and the great yogis begin their early life by reading about the lives of other saints and rejoicing. Stories of great masters, the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita. These stories thrill the hearts of the children who will themselves become saints. If we allow ourselves to really be happy, this happiness will be a connective point and the virtue of such masters will enter our being.
In the next article in this series, we will discuss the attitude of Patanjali which is the most complex and difficult.
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This article was transcribed and edited by Zita from the following video: