Commentary on the Dhammapada–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

The View From On High

“When a wise man has carefully rid himself of carelessness and climbed the High Castle of Wisdom, sorrowless he observes sorrowing people, like a clear-sighted man on a mountain top looking down on the people with limited vision on the ground below.”1

When, through constant awareness or heedfulness, the wise one has dispelled heedlessness, a great thing has been accomplished. But that is far from the end of the matter. Now he must climb the high tower of wisdom (discernment). Being high, it will take both time and intense effort, for there is no elevator to the top. The Short Path and the Quick Path simply do not exist. There are, indeed, shorter and quicker paths, but frankly our distance from the goal is so long that to bother with such comparisons is laughable and a waste of time.

Once that height has been attained, sorrow is over for him. As Swami Yukteswar Giri pointed out: “Finding God will mean the funeral of all sorrows.” For Wisdom is God. Everything else is ignorance.

Once that state has been established in the consciousness, then the sorrowing state of others is clearly seen and–contradictory as it may seem for a sorrowless person–keenly felt.

Although he perceives, even feels, the sorrows of the sorrowing, yet he does so from such a distance that his mind is in no way seized or agitated by that suffering. The same factor that renders him incapable of suffering enables him to objectively observe the miseries of those he would help. He can see both where they came from (what caused the suffering) and where they should be going (to remove and avoid the suffering)–a perspective completely impossible to most of them. Does such a person decide to help suffering humanity? No. Having arisen to such a level, it becomes a matter of spontaneous volition on his part.

Who burns with the bliss
And suffers the sorrow
Of every creature
Within his own heart,
Making his own
Each bliss and each sorrow:
Him I hold highest
Of all the yogis.2

More Commentary on the Dhammapada:
1. The Mind is All 2. Thinking Makes It So 3. Conquered or Conqueror? 4. The Unworthy and the Worthy 5. Seeing Wrong 6. Rainproofing Our Mind 7. The Two Ways of Life and Death 8. Words Are Not Wisdom 9. The Holy Life Defined 10. The Secret of Immortality 11. The Way of the Wise 12. Expanding Glory 13. Each Man Must Make An Island 14. The Foolish and the Wise	15. The View From On High 16. The Way To Excellence 17. The Wayward Mind 18. The Struggling Mind 19. The Real “Pursuit of Happiness” 20. Conquering Death 21. The Bees and the Flowers 22. The Traits of a Fool 23. The Deeds of a Fool 24. The Worthy Teacher 25. Determining Association

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1) Dhammapada 28 [Go back]

2) Bhagavad Gita 6:32. “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep” (Romans 12:15) [Go back]