Hoysala lion and Chinese lion

There was a restaurant near my house Caribbean restaurant , with guardian lions at the front door! 🙄  so I though ah! it must have been an Indian restaurant! No!  Thai restaurant or Chinese actually. Chinese restaurants have that lion in front of them.. not Indian .... 

but I couldn't shake of that feeling - Karanataka, Indian... then it came to me - the Hoysala Lion!! Its different but still similar...  In my mind Hoysala lion was sitting on its haunches.  

and then Ugra Narasimha ... Different but similar slightly

Sati

Sati is a word used to depict a pious wife, synonym of pativrata. one who obeys her husband unconditionally, Her life is devoted to her husband, She does not have an existence without her husband so when husband dies she enters the funeral pyre with his body.
They say the act of jumping into fire after the husbands body is called Sati after the goddess Sati.

Sati is an incarnation of Parvati,You can read her story here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(Hindu_goddess)

 What I find ironic and funny ( like so many things in our mythology) is this Sati is a very strong willed and independent woman. First she does not listen to her father and marries this Shiva against her father's wish. Then she does not listen to her husband and comes and visits her father's yagnya.  and When her father does not listen to her, she is so stubborn that she jumps into the Yagnya fire.  NOT her husbands funeral fire .  She is the total opposite of that subservient, obedient Sati women :-) 

I couldn't possibly feel worse than u?

There are so many sad things happening around us, George Floyd was killed for being black, Pregnant elephant was fed explosives, Migrant workers walked hundreds of kilo meters to reach home during lock down. It made us all very sad. We have empathy, we feel bad for others , we want to help.

In such situations One thing I want to remember  -  I will not let myself feel more sad, more depressed, more angry than the people actually going thru that.  I will not make this about me - about how sad this has made "me" feel. This shouldn't stop me from taking action or doing something about it. 

I dont know, the point I am trying to make is subtle, May be I suspect that this is some kind of indulgence? 

Do we somethings use this empathy to feel good about ourselves, as an ego boost, to make us feel like ah I am a kind person, I am good person? 

When the migrants walked 100s of kilometers. It seemed heart wrenching to me but they were smiling and walking. Is my wallowing in sadness about this, kind of self indulgent? or Not? I dont know. 

Is calling this pain self indulgent and refusing to engage my coping mechanism ? I dont know.

I was hurt a small cut but bleeding, one girl who saw that felt so bad for it. Silly girl I thought,  but then someone told me they ripped their toe nail ( yeah I didnt even see it happen) and Oh my god! the feeling is no less than nails on the black board, I felt this shudder go thru me. So empathy and feeling pain imagining others in natural to a social animal like us.

But ... I will not let myself feel worse than u. ( I feel this is somehow respectful of your suffering )