Gita 6.32

Sadhak: "This seems like an impossible standard. How can I literally feel everyone's pain as my own? Wouldn't that be unbearable—there's so much suffering in the world!"

Guru: "Notice the verse carefully. It says the yogi 'sees equality'—paśyati samam. It's about perception, not about being overwhelmed by everyone's emotional content. When you truly see that another's suffering is the same in nature as yours would be, two things happen: you respond appropriately to help, and you're not destabilized because you see suffering itself as temporary phenomenon within unchanging awareness. The yogi feels universal compassion without drowning in universal misery."

Sadhak: "But if I don't feel others' pain intensely, am I really empathetic? Doesn't true compassion mean suffering with others?"

Guru: "Consider: does a skilled surgeon feel the patient's pain during surgery? They understand it, respect it, work to alleviate it—but they don't writhe with each incision. If they did, they couldn't help. The supreme yogi's empathy is like the surgeon's: deep understanding without incapacitating identification. They feel compassion, not co-suffering. 'Compassion' etymologically means 'suffering with,' but mature compassion means 'understanding suffering so deeply that you can respond helpfully'—not being paralyzed by shared pain."

Sadhak: "'Ātmaupamyena'—through comparison to oneself. But people's experiences are so different from mine. How can I compare their suffering to mine when I haven't experienced what they have?"

Guru: "You're confusing content and structure. You haven't experienced their specific circumstances, but you have experienced suffering. Suffering has a universal structure: it feels like contraction, resistance, the wish for things to be different. When you see someone suffer—whether from poverty, illness, heartbreak, failure—you know the shape of that experience even if the content differs. 'Ātmaupamyena' means recognizing: 'This being, in their circumstances, feels what I feel in mine.' The analogy is at the level of felt experience, not specific situation."

Sadhak: "The verse says this yogi is 'paramo'—supreme, the highest. Is empathy really the highest spiritual attainment? I thought enlightenment was about transcending such emotional responses."

Guru: "Here Krishna reveals something profound: the highest attainment is not cold transcendence but warm understanding. True enlightenment doesn't eliminate empathy; it universalizes it. Before enlightenment, your empathy is limited—strong for loved ones, weak for strangers, absent for enemies. After enlightenment, empathy becomes equal because you recognize the same Self in all. This isn't emotion; it's perception. The 'supreme yogi' is supreme precisely because they've transcended the limitation of partial empathy while retaining—indeed, expanding—compassionate seeing."

Sadhak: "How does this equality-vision help in practical life? If I see everyone's pleasure and pain as equal, won't I become confused about who to help first?"

Guru: "Equality-vision is about inner stance, not practical priority. You still respond to immediate needs—the drowning child before the distant famine. But your inner motivation becomes pure: you're not helping because this is 'my' child or 'my' country; you're helping because suffering is suffering and you respond to what's in front of you. The vision of equality actually clarifies action because it removes the confusion of preferential attachment. You simply do what's needed, where you are, without the overlay of 'is this person important enough for my help?'"

Sadhak: "What about others' happiness? If I see their happiness as my own, won't I become attached to ensuring their happiness?"

Guru: "The verse includes both 'sukham' and 'duḥkham'—and the yogi sees both equally. This means not becoming attached to others' happiness any more than becoming overwhelmed by their suffering. You recognize their joy without needing to maintain it; you respond to their pain without being destroyed by it. The equality extends to your response as well: measured, appropriate, wise. You're not on a mission to make everyone happy or to solve all suffering—you simply see accurately and respond naturally."

Sadhak: "How do I develop this capacity? It seems so far from where I am now."

Guru: "Begin where you are. When someone tells you their trouble, pause before responding and recognize: 'This feeling is familiar to me. I know what this is like.' When someone shares their joy, let yourself feel: 'This delight—I know this too.' Start with those close to you, then extend gradually. Notice when you withhold empathy—from enemies, from those you judge, from distant sufferers—and deliberately apply 'ātmaupamyena': 'If this were happening to me, how would I feel?' Over time, this deliberate practice becomes natural perception, and natural perception ripens into the supreme yogi's continuous equality-vision."