Question: I feel guilty about being happy when others suffer. Is this right?
Answer: It is our nature to be happy — to be happy in our own Self. It is our nature to seek happiness and to avoid suffering. At the same time, suffering is often the most important inducement we receive to seek the truth and to seek true happiness. The suffering that an addict feels under the burden of his addiction can be a necessary incentive to overcome his habit.
If another person is suffering, and there’s something we can do to help him, we should try to do that like the Good Samaritan. But suffering is something all people experience in life. Lord Buddha discovered that all beings suffer from illness, old age and death. Suffering cannot, therefore, be wholly eliminated, nor, in some sense, should it be. “A comfortable life is not a victorious life,” Yogananda once said.
One can be cured of a disease but if one returns to his former bad habits than he is not yet healed of ignorance. Use therefore discretion when viewing both your own, and others’ suffering.
If another is suffering will your sadness help him? Be happy in your inner self and you will tune more clearly into how to help others.
Answered by Nayaswami Hriman