I had a trans-formative experience today. I was driving up to our Hindu temple here in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s an amazingly beautiful and ornate temple inside and out, with traditional architecture and symbology. I saw a young man walking by, checking it out. As I parked, I saw him approaching me. I thought he was certainly going to ask me something about the temple, as it must be quite a curiosity to many non-Hindus. So I got out of my car and walked towards him.
Stranger: “Can you save my life and let me use your phone? I just got out of jail. I’ve been walking around knocking on church doors. I need to call my brother.”
My first thought… ‘Just walk away.’ But I couldn’t do that. I was on one side of the temple’s gate and he was on the other. So I went around, and he gave me a phone number. I dialled and gave him the phone.
Stranger: “Timothy? Is this you? I need to see a friendly face. I’ve been in solitary confinement for the last 30 days…just me and a Bible. Do you know what that does to a person? I need a hug from someone who loves me.” He was weeping throughout.
I recall wondering what solitary confinement must be like. I thought to myself: ‘The body and much more of the mind are trapped and confined, inducing anxiety, depression and mania. A prison within a prison.’ I recall myself wondering just what solitary confinement must be like.
‘It’s like the mind’ I told myself. ‘A prison within a prison.’ Some otherwise healthy prisoners in solitary have even been known to hallucinate. Like many, I had experienced some forms of mental illness myself, and I had been going through something similar to what he had just scraped through on the ‘outside.’.
As he went on, I gazed downward to give him at least some semblance of privacy. He was in a state of desperation and continued to pour out his heart in front of a stranger. Tears are now coming down my face. It may have been the most genuine display of emotion I’ve ever heard. I felt embarrassed by his honesty.
After he got off the phone with his brother, he asked if he could get a hug from me. If he hadn’t, I was going to extend an offer for one. We embraced and I lost it. I was just bawling, as was he. He saw I was crying and felt bad.
Stranger: “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Thank you for saving my life.”
And it hit me. I said, ‘No. You don’t understand. I think you might be the one saving me.’ I regained my composure and told him it would take time, but that he would heal. I told him he was a beautiful person, and we parted ways, leaving me with the gifts of catharsis and perspective. There’s a fine line between the need for help and becoming a helper.
There is nothing so easy, lucky and free than kindness shown to one who hasn’t been treated with much kindness as of late, or a bit of hope given to someone who has lost all hope and is in a state of desperation. Offer love to those who have become lost and lonely without it. I will be contentious in debate. I do not always come close to the person I’d like to be, but it is my intention to be kind, hopeful and loving always and in every situation. I often fail.
All this happened before I entered the temple. Throughout my sadhana, this experience kept coming back into my mind and I had to fight back tears, quite unsuccessfully. After doing my ritual, I just had to sit in the temple for some time to process this and learn what it meant. This has been crossing my mind all day…continuing to move me…to heal me.
There’s nothing like experiencing or taking on the great suffering of another human being, to heal from your own. There’s nothing like compassion in action, to stop the mind from obsessing about your own problems.
I suppose this is karma yoga. Grace and compassion are not the limited property of any one group of people. Nor are goodness or devotion. Nor is suffering. Here we have a Christian in need, who found what his heart required…what he may have been praying to Jesus for, from someone who had left the Christian religion 37 years ago, in front of a Hindu temple.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says, “He is a perfect yogi who, by comparison to his own self, sees the true equality of all beings, in both their happiness and their distress. Those devotees are very dear to Me who are free from malice toward all living beings, who are friendly, and compassionate. They are free from attachment to possessions and egotism, equipped in happiness and distress, and ever-forgiving.”
The Bible says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.”
Sean Bradrick is a former Catholic who adopted the Hindu Dharma over 37 years ago. He is a teacher of buddhi yoga, tai chi, Samkhya, Ayurveda, and author of soon-to-be released: A Hindu’s Guide to Advocacy & Activism. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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