Thirukkural- On Virtue- Compassion-Kural-241

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The best of all possessions is the wealth of compassion;For the meanest of men too possess worldly wealth.

Parimelalagar would explain that this compassion is the all-encompassing love that the man of virtue develops in respect of all living creature, in his steady progress towards righteousness. First, it was the love and care of the wife and children, then the kith and kin, and friends, thereafter the immediate community and finally all the world, human, animate and inanimate. It is this fully blossomed compassion which is the greatest wealth; the other wealth of material possessions could be found with the worst of men sometimes.

Christ's parable of the Good Samaritan and the Tamil stories of the Vallals, have relevance here, as 'Aruludaimai' or compassion is explained by Ilampuranar with reference to Tolkappiyam (porul 75) as follows:

Aruludaimai yaavadhu yaadhaavadhu
Oar uyir edarpadumidathu than uyir varundhinaarpoala
Varundhum eeram udaimai

(Thol: Porul: 75)

It is really great that the Tamil society of Tolkappiyam period (3rd Century B C) had cherished compassion as one of the greatest human values and defined it as the empathetic fellow-feeling experience by a person when he sees the suffering of other creatures. In Kambaramayanam (Naagapasam 268) also there is reference to 'Seyalarung Karunaichselvam'. But this was much later.

Albert Schweitzer has expressed this idea categorically when he says, 'Even the smallest creature contains something of the profound mystery of life and is entitled to a fellow feeling which must find expression if gentleness and kindness' (Reverence for life). Gautama, the Buddha, and the Sage Mahaveera found it all out for themselves and gave this message from India to the world 2500 years ago.

It was this compassion which young Abraham Lincoln felt, when he saw in the City of New Orleans a Negro slave being tied to a post and beaten. That affected his thinking, which finally altered the course of American and human history with the full and final emancipation of slaves. It was compassion again, arising out of the early exposure of Mahatma Gandhi to the racialism of South Africa and to the ignorance, poverty and disease of the millions of this country, that led him, through the path of social reform, constructive work and political freedom, to the supreme sacrifice that he consummated at the altar of his own principles and convictions, for the people.