Talk:Maitra-Karuṇaḥ : Friendly and Compassionate

By Vishal Agarwal

Story: Ma Anandamoyi supports a misbehaving man

In the Ashrama of Ma Anandamoyi, a young man started misbehaving repeatedly. Everyone else in the Ashram was so disgusted with his behavior that they requested the Ma to expel him. To make a decision in this regard, Ma Anandamoyi summoned all the inmates of the Ashrama into a meeting with her, and asked them what their opinion was. Everyone, without fail, said that they hated the misbehaving young man, and wanted him to be expelled from the Ashrama.

To their utter surprise, Ma Anandamoyi replied, “Look, when all of you hate him, he has no one to turn to for love and compassion except for me. Other than me, he has no one else to depend on. Therefore, I cannot abandon him. I have decided that he will not be expelled from the Ashrama.”

Story: Sant Shankardev saves a deer and shows compassion towards the hunter

Once, Shankardev was passing through a forest with his students while on a pilgrimage. He saw a dear ensnared in a hunter’s net. Very soon, the hunter would have returned and taken the deer for slaughter.

Shankardev took pity on the creature and freed it from the net. But, he was worried that he had deprived the hunter of his livelihood. Therefore, he placed a gold coin in the net out of compassion to compensate the hunter for his loss.

Story: Sant Vallalar cries out of Compassion for exhausted Bullocks

The compassion of Ramalingam Adigal Vallalar (1823 – 1874 CE): In the 19th century CE, there lived a charismatic saint Vallalar, close to the temple of Chidambaram. He opposed caste based distinctions among Hindus, promoted vegetarianism and Sevā, and feeding the poor as the best worship of Bhagavān. His sermons were very famous, and many people travelled from distance places to listen to him.

One day, a village headman from a village at a distance started from his home on a bullock card to listen to the Swami’s sermons. On the way, the bullocks felt hungry and thirsty, but the headman told the cart driver not to stop the card lest they are late for the sermon. As soon as they reached the residence of Vallalar, the headman rushed in and bowed to the saint. But, the Swami just got up and went outside the room, surprising everyone because he never got up in the middle of a sermon.

When the Swami did not return after a long time, the assembled people went out to check. They saw that the Swami was feeding the bullocks some water and grass, and had tears in his eyes. He was telling the animals, “Because of me, you had to suffer, and had to go hungry and thirsty.” When the village headman saw this, he realized his mistake, and fell at the Swami’s feet. The Swami’s act of piety and compassion made the headman realize that Bhagavān resides even in animals. Therefore, if we cannot be kind to animals, there is no use of attending spiritual sermons.