The Tears of a Jnani (A Wise Person)

Echammal was 25 years old when she lost both her husband and her only son. She visited the great teacher, Ramana Maharshi, seeking comfort in her grief, and became his disciple. With Ramana's permission, Echammal adopted a daughter. When the time was appropriate, she arranged a marriage for her daughter and named her grandson, Ramana. Tragically, one day, Echammal received the news, by telegram, that her daughter passed away. She raced up to Ramana with the telegram. He took it from her and read its contents with tears in his eyes. After the funeral of her daughter, Echammal returned to Sri Ramana and placed her grandson in his arms. He held the child gently to his bosom and and again wept with tears.

I describe this incident in the life of one the greatest of contemporary Hindu teachers since it demonstrates, so powerfully, that wisdom (jñāna) does not constrict and render our hearts incapable of experiencing and sharing the pain and suffering of another. On the contrary, the fruit of wisdom is a tenderness of the heart and its opening to the suffering of others. Tulsidas puts it beautifully when he said that the heart of the saint is softer than butter. Butter melts on account of its own suffering when it is exposed to heat. The heart of the saint melts when another suffers. We must not interpret texts like the Bhagavadgita to imply that wisdom results in indifference to suffering. The "wisdom" that leaves us unmoved by the pain of another is not wisdom.

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