Bhagavad Gita 6.32

ātmaaupamyena sarvatra

samaṁ paśyati yo ’rjuna

sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ

sa yogī paramo mataḥ

 

“Who sees all beings as their own,

In joy or sorrow, not alone.

O Arjuna, that yogi wise,

Is highest in the Lord’s own eyes.”

 

My dear Lord, as I take to the spiritual path, I recognize how attachments can entangle me. While seeking detachment, protect me, my Lord, from the danger of becoming heartless.

You, my Lord, describe the vision of the topmost yogis who are so renounced as to leave behind the entire world to enter a forest for exclusive meditation. Yet even those so detached don’t reject others’ joys and sorrows as illusions; far from it, they become profoundly empathic.

My dear Lord, help me to develop similar empathy. Let me see, my Lord, that just as my attachment to material things  dragged me into a universe of worldly troubles, so too, everyone else is just as vulnerable. And just as, my Lord, spiritual realization has given me access to a happiness I had never imagined—a happiness so fulfilling and vast that both material pleasures and material troubles fade into insignificance in comparison—the same holds true for everyone.

Grant me, O Lord, not just this spiritual vision, but also the resulting vigor to share spiritual wisdom with all—so that they too can experience this relief-giving liberation from material illusion and this joy-giving connection with spiritual reality.

O merciful Lord, let empathy and compassion be the fruits of my spiritual growth—never apathy or coldness.

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06.32 He is a perfect yogī who, by comparison to his own self, sees the true equality of all beings, in both their happiness and their distress, O Arjuna!