If You Make Others' Pain Your Own.. You Will Drown — You Will Not Be Saved

Harish Rana — this name is today on the lips of every person who is on social media, who reads the news, who is a father, who is someone's brother. A young son who has been imprisoned for 13 years in a body that cannot move, cannot stir. The body in which breath still flows — that very body has become a prison for that soul.

And now the moment has arrived when doctors are preparing to remove the life support system.

Think of his parents' pain.. For 13 years they watched a young son lie on that bed. Every morning they woke up, looked at his face, and every night they slept holding a hope that was never fulfilled.

When this news came out — thousands of eyes filled with tears. Posts were shared. Comments poured in. The sounds of weeping echoed across social media. Everyone felt it — this should not have happened. This is wrong.

But.. wait for just a moment.

Crying and saving — the two are not the same thing.

Think about this — if someone is drowning in a river and the person standing on the bank begins to weep so intensely, becomes so consumed by grief, so shattered, that they themselves step into the water — what will happen?? Two people will drown. One who was already drowning, and one who came to save.

This is the difference between sympathy and seva. Sympathy — when we absorb another's pain so deeply into ourselves that their suffering becomes our own suffering. And empathy — when we understand the pain, feel it, but do not drown in it. When we remain steady and think — what can actually be done in this situation.

The person who is emotionally fragile — they will reach the sinking boat. They will sit beside it and weep. But the strength it takes to pull that sinking boat across, the steadiness it requires, the discernment it demands — they do not have that. They are crushed under the weight of that pain themselves.

Remaining submerged in grief becomes a habit..

Today the news of Harish Rana is trending. Tomorrow another news will come — something will happen to another child, another act of cruelty will surface, another heartbreaking incident will occur. And the person who is emotionally fragile — today they will drown in this grief, tomorrow in that grief, the day after in yet another.

This is a cycle of sorrow that has no end. And the one who remains trapped in this cycle — they can do nothing for themselves, nor for anyone else. They simply become a vessel that keeps filling with grief, filling and filling, and never empties.

This is why we say — emotions are not to be eliminated. Emotions are what make us human. But do not make those emotions the leader of your life. Make duty the leader. When we see through the lens of duty — only then can we remain steady, only then can we take the right decisions, and only then can we truly be of use to someone.

Where does true valour actually live??

What happened to Harish Rana — behind it lies a very deep and very old disease. The name of that disease is — valour sought in the wrong place.

Every person wants to feel heroic. Every person wants others to bow before them, fear them, acknowledge their strength. And the easiest way people have found today to feel that heroism — is to break others, suppress others, beat others.

Pick up a glass and drop it — in a fraction of a second it will shatter into hundreds of pieces. Very easy. But to make that same glass — raw material must be drawn from sand, melted in a furnace, shaped in a mould, cooled down, packed, transported. How many hands' labour, how much time, how much craft.

To destroy is the work of one moment. To build is the sadhana of an entire lifetime.

And this is the real truth — which no one tells anyone today. Valour is not in breaking. Valour is in building. Four friends joining together to beat someone — this is cowardice, not valour. Those same four friends joining together to build a company, to give employment to thousands, to give something to their family, their society, their country — this is true valour.

According to Harish Rana's father, his son did not end up in this condition because of an accident — but because of assault. He claimed there were clear marks of violence on his son's body. But often in such incidents, educational institutions attempt to suppress the truth to protect their reputation.

Think about how grave this problem is — one that everyone wants solved, yet when something does happen, getting justice for the victim becomes extraordinarily difficult.

So how do we make Harish's story meaningful??

The 13 years Harish lost — they cannot be brought back. But that story can certainly be made to count for something.

If you truly want to do something for that child — stop sharing posts. Stop weeping. And rise.

Take that child's story and go to colleges. Go to schools. Reach those young people who today are making the same mistake that was made by those who brought Harish to this state. Tell them — valour is not in breaking others, it is in building something. Whoever causes pain to others, that pain returns to them in its own time. This is the law of karma — and no one escapes it.

However many young minds you can change — that many will be repaying the debt of those 13 destroyed years of that child. That many will keep adding to that soul's fortune.

If You Make Others' Pain Your Own.. You Will Drown — You Will Not Be Saved.

Weeping is easy. Sharing a post is easy. Feeling sad is easy.

But transforming that grief into a sankalp — and making that sankalp the purpose of your life — that is difficult. And that is the real seva.

Do you want to make Harish's sacrifice count?? Then rise. Go. And go and change the thinking of even one young person.

Because when one thought changes, one life changes.. and when one life changes, one family changes.. and when one family changes, one society changes.

This is the path of that child's soul. This is what it means to make his sacrifice worthwhile.