No, no, this is not a diatribe about how eyes are useless if used only to binge-watch OTT series. Nor, indeed, is it a push for the latest online tutorial class on AI which will push your marketability so high that Trump will have to set a special tariff rate to ensure that American companies do not queue up for your services. Nor, indeed, is this a push to ensure that you work 120 hours a week instead of wasting your eyes on looking at your wife.
So, then, what exactly is it? Well, it is certainly not going to tell you what you want to hear. Tiru is not made like that, you see.
Pannennaam paadarku iyaibindrael kanennaam kannottam illadha kan - Tirukkural
As useless as a tune that fails to fit the song is the eye that lacks empathy - Loose Translation
So, Tiru feels that to look on the world without empathy in your heart is as good as being blind. Yeah, he does tend to go overboard while pushing his point but then THAT is the prerogative of poets, isn't it? Hyperbole is one of the best ways for a poet to drill his point in the hearts of the readers.
But, in a way, it IS true that you may as well be blind. If you use your eyes as a means of navigating through the world physically, empathy may not be a necessity. But to navigate your way socially, you NEED empathy, failing which you may as well be blind.
I mean, if you cannot see the man in front of you and understand that he is in distress; if you cannot see a group in front of you yawning their heads off and realise that your speech is not exactly being appreciated...well, to really SEE the world, you need to put yourself in THEIR shoes and understand why they could be frowning or distracted or whatever. THEN you can navigate your way socially. Failing which you will only be stumbling and colliding with people and wondering what went wrong. What do they say these days? Lacking in EQ.
Empathy is the art of looking at the world from the other person's point of view. The first prerequisite is to shed judgmentalism. If you can truly be empathetic, then you can really see the world around you. Otherwise, your view of the world will be myopic because it will be warped by your own beliefs and prejudices. Your eyes will see only what they want to see and not what really IS.
AND Tiru calls such eyes useless.
