A poem crafted after summarizing news and editorial reviews calls for understanding the importance of humanity, kindness, and sensitivity amid catastrophes such as floods, bombs, rape, and accidents. When a brother is submerged in grief, a sister faces crisis, or a neighbor is terrorized by hunger, if humanity does not falter, knowledge, wealth, and ideals lose their meaning as if they have all ended. The poem concludes that when barriers of caste, religion, gender, class, and selfish interests cannot be crossed, compassion dies, leaving a person’s inner life hollow.
We must ask those who have returned from the jaws of death—what is the value of life? We must ask those who have lost loved ones in accidents—how deep is the pain of loss?
Death is an undeniable, inevitable, and unwanted truth; yet every death is distressing. The shadow of death envelops all, and its pain runs the deepest. Witness the countless lives swept away in floods; observe the pure eyes of children wishing under the destructive smoke of bombs and explosives; respect the helpless flowers who have suffered from rape.
Wherever the shadow of death spreads, look there—understand the value of life in every disaster. Where is humanity and kindness? Where is the feeling of being human? Touch your own heart, place yourself in each crisis, and realize how deeply essential human sensitivity is.
When a brother is drowned in sorrow, a sister is in distress, or a neighbor is terrified by hunger, if humanity still remains within you, if the path of fraternity and conscience has not been halted there—your grandeur, wisdom, ideals, and greatness will seem to shrink. If barriers of caste, religion, gender, color, class, borders, and selfishness cannot be overcome, what meaning do knowledge, grandeur, valor, and pride hold for others beyond yourself? No matter how much you espouse ‘The world is one family,’ or however much power you display, if compassion ends, even a person who appears to hold the highest status will have an inner life that is an empty desert. The death of compassion is far more dreadful than any physical death.
