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 Today we came across a following nice instructive quote on how to be happy. "If we want others to be happy, we should practise compassion. If we want to be happy, we should  practise compassion." Most of the time, we fail to understand others' pain and so we become careless in our dealings with others. Compassion means, 'your pain in my heart'. Vaishnavas are described as 'para duhkha duhkhi'. When we are compassionate to others, we will try to see how we could help them. Even if we are not able to help someone, we must atleast refrain from harming them. When we behave in this manner and practise compassion, we can experience happiness because Krishna is pleased by our behaviour. When Supreme Lord is pleased naturally everyone of us will be able to experience that happiness. On the other hand when we harm others, not only are they hurt, we also experience dissatisfacion.

 

Duryodhana was always troubling Maharaja Yudhishtira and the other Pandavas. He did not understand or feel their pain of losing their dear father. Instead he was trying to kill them or chuck them out of the palace somehow or the other. But we see that by behaving in that manner, neither was he happy nor did he make others happy. Even after sending them to the forest, he was thinking of how to trouble them more and by involving in such thoughts, he lost his own peace of mind and so could not relish or enjoy whatever comforts he was blessed automatically by will of Lord. On the other hand the Pandavas were very happy even when they were in the forests. In fact when Duryodhana was about to be punished by the Yakshas, Maharaja Yudhishtira was genuinely compassionate towards Duryodhana and instructed his brothers that they should go and protect him from the Yakshas. So because of this good conduct, they were able to make everyone happy. In Srimad Bhagavatam we have devotees like Prahlad Maharaj, Rantideva who are exemplary examples of compassion. Prahlad Maharaj prays to Lord Narasimha dev in Srimad Bhagavatam verse 7.9.43 as follows

 

 

"O best of the great personalities, I am not at all afraid of material existence, for wherever I stay I am fully absorbed in thoughts of Your glories and activities. My concern is only for the fools and rascals who are making elaborate plans for material happiness and maintaining their families, societies and countries. I am simply concerned with love for them."

 

When Lord Narasinghadev is asking Prahlad Maharaj to ask for some benediction, Prahlad Maharaj did not provide him any wish-list of what of all he wanted. But he simply prayed to Lord to deliver his demoniac father and all the suffering souls. Infact in Caitanya lila, Prahlad Maharaj incarnates as Vasudeva datta and offers similar requests to Mahaprabhu. In Madhya lila verse 15.162 and 3 he prays,

 

 

"My Lord, my heart breaks to see the sufferings of all the conditioned souls; therefore I request You to transfer the karma of their sinful lives upon my head. My dear Lord, let me suffer perpetually in a hellish condition, accepting all the sinful reactions of all living entities. Please finish their diseased material life."

 

Maharaja Rantideva also says in Srimad Bhagavatam verse 9.21.12, "I do not pray to the Supreme Personality of Godhead for the eight perfections of mystic yoga, nor for salvation from repeated birth and death. I want only to stay among all the living entities and suffer all distresses on their behalf, so that they may be freed from suffering."

 

So we can see how these exalted Vaishnavas are ready to suffer on behalf of others. Normally we don't want/like to suffer the distress of our own karma, what to speak of accepting others' karma. But pure devotees of the Lord are so compassionate, that they are eager to accept suffering on the behalf of others. The Lord and His pure devotees are always concerned about helping the suffering souls. And so  acaryas like Srila Prabhupada and other exalted Vaishnavas, whoever is preaching the Holy Names to all suffering souls are exhibiting this crest-jewel like quality of compassion. They don't worry about their well-being, but they genuinely care for the well-being of others and are ready to undergo any kind of suffering for the same. So we find that this compassion has been the key for everything. Pleased by the compassionate request of Sri Advaita, Lord Krishna compassionately appeared in the form of Mahaprabhu to deliver the gift of Holy Names to suffering souls, in this age of Kali. Out of compassion, Vyasadev and six Goswamis wrote so many scriptures. Out of compassion Srila Prabhupada left  Vrindavan and went out to preach to the world. Out of compassion, spiritual masters accept us as their disciples to help us progress in our journey back home, back to Godhead. As a token of gratitude to those exalted souls, we should practise this quality of compassion in our day to day lives to the best of our ability and refrain from hurting others.