Abhanga 4051
A heart with no compassion for other beings is wasted, and the same cruelty that ignores others' pain will cry out the moment it faces its own.
The verse
धिग तो दुर्जन नाहीं भूतदया । व्यर्थ तया माया प्रसवली ॥१॥
कठिण हृदय तया चांडाळाचें । नेणे पराचें दुःख कांहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
आपुला का प्राण तैसे सकळ लोक । न करी विवेक पशु जैसा ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे सुखें कापीतसे गळे । आपुलिया वेळे रडतसे ॥३॥
Literal translation
Shame on the durjana with no bhūta-dayā; māyā in-vain gave-birth-to-him. Cruel-heart of such a chāṇḍāḷa; doesn't know other's duḥkha. As his own prāṇa, so should all lōka be — (yet) he does no viveka, like-an-animal. Tukā: cheerfully he cuts throats — at his own time, he cries.
What it means
A polemic against the one-without-bhūta-dayā: lacking-compassion is-the-distinguishing-defect. Compare bhakti = bowing-to-jīva-jantu-bhūta (2657).
For someone today
The cruel-one cuts others' throats cheerfully, then cries when his own turn comes — the ethic-of-bhūta-dayā is universal-reciprocity.
Where this applies
- When someone causes pain to others without a second thought but expects sympathy for their own troubles
- When a person justifies cruelty by not imagining how it would feel if it happened to them
- When you catch yourself treating another being's suffering as less real than your own
- When someone acts on impulse toward others the way an animal might, without weighing the consequences