To Light One Candle

Author(s): Pramoda Chitrabhanu
Publisher: East West Unity Press Ananda Ashram New York

Page 40

III KARUNĀ
Cultivating a Kind and Compassionate Heart
All of our good intentions and spiritual practices are still not able to create the ultimate breakthrough from the small self to the cosmic experience so long as we are still creating pain in our lives and the lives of others. Karunā absorbs the meaning of maitrī and transforms our heart so much that all we long to do is to relieve ourselves and others from suffering and its causes.
Karunā is a deep empathic relationship with every form of living life. It depends on the mighty bedrock of one's own practice of non-injury to life called ahimsā and on one's genuine reverence for life. With this in mind, as we sit, stand, walk, rest, eat, and work, one of our prime concerns is to feel how we are affecting others so as not to hurt anyone through neglect, apathy or intention, subtly or openly, subconsciously or consciously.
Karunā inspires us to deepen our wisdom, dynamize our compassion, and turn ourselves into instruments of harmony and peace in the world.
34