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✍️ Written by Saket Suman There are some words that a civilisation carries for centuries and in due course of time it becomes a part of our living memory. Karuna is one such word in India.  It does not translate cleanly into “compassion” because it asks much more of us than sympathy, charity, or even kindness. Karuna is an obligation. It is the unsettling recognition that somebody else’s suffering is not separate from our own and therefore cannot be ignored without cost to the self. In the Indian philosophical imagination, Karuna holds together ethics, community, and governance in ways that are both simple and righteous. To speak of Karuna, then, is not to speak of benevolence in the abstract but of the moral mechanics by which a society chooses to function or fail. Reprsentational Image of Aloka, the peace dog! Via: Bobby Devito Across India’s spiritual traditions, compassion has never been passive, or at least that is what I found in my limited readings. In Buddhist thought, K...