Rising of "EMPATHY" is one of the milestones of the Right Path

There are two words in English, `sympathy' and `empathy'.

Sympathy is when you feel superficially: somebody is miserable, somebody is sick and you feel sympathetic. You sit by the side, cry a little and then go on to the movies. What else to do? Your eyes are more clean, and now...

Empathy means that you become so one with the person that sicknesses or anything can be transferred.

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(It happened in Ramakrishna's life. Ramakrishna's was just in the last centuryothers are very ancient, maybe just parables . And there were hundreds of eye-witnesses, reports and not a single denial of the fact, what had happened.)

Ramakrishna was going in the Ganges in a boat to the other side -- a few disciples were with him.

Suddenly he started saying, "Don't beat me, don't beat me, it hurts! I say don't beat me!" And tears started coming to his eyes.

And the disciples said, "But nobody is beating you. Is this a new game you are playing? We have seen many things you have done, but this is absolutely new."

But he was really crying and weeping and shouting, "Help me, save me! They will kill me!"

The disciples said, "But what should we do? Because nobody is beating you, nobody is killing you."

When they reached the other shore, they found a sudra -- one of the untouchables, the lowest Hindu category of people, who are not treated like human beings -- was being beaten by his master, by his owner, because he had made some mistake. That man was half nude, and there was blood on his back and lines from the lashes.

Ramakrishna's people suddenly took away his shirt, and they could not believe it -- the backs were both exactly the same: blood oozing... And Ramakrishna said, "I was telling you, but you did not listen. They were beating me."

Then they looked at that man who was lying almost unconscious. He was a sudra but for Ramakrishna this stupid and criminal categorization of society did not exist. That sudra used to come to Ramakrishna, he was one of his devotees. Even Ramakrishna's own people used to say, "This sudra should not be allowed."

Ramakrishna said, "Then I should not be allowed either, because I don't see any difference.

Everybody is born a sudra. Then if he becomes enlightened he can be a brahmin. If he becomes a warrior, he can be a chhatriya. If he becomes a businessman, he can be a vaishya.

But as far as birth is concerned, everybody is born a sudra. It is the lifestyle and the raising of consciousness that can make a difference."

There was so much disturbance that Ramakrishna told the sudra, "When nobody is there... By the evening all these people go away" -- he used to live outside Calcutta, near the Ganges -- "and you can come then. You live on the other side, so if you cannot come, I can come. We can have a little chit-chat. And you play the flute so beautifully... you can play the flute."

The man was immensely in love with Ramakrishna and Ramakrishna showered his whole heart on him.

What happened on that day was empathy: so much at-oneness that the same experience starts happening to both persons.

OSHO