Answer: Compassion is the ability to recognize the suffering of others and then take action to help. It embodies a tangible expression of love for those who are suffering. Thiruvalluvar places compassion as the most important virtue with the potential to solve the myriad problems facing humanity. Compassion as a gracious virtue:

• Goes beyond feelings and promotes action: Compassion goes beyond the feelings of mere pity, sympathy, and even empathy and drives people to act to help relieve the suffering people.
• Build social connections: It enables people to listen and understand the issues faced by others in a mindful and caring manner and take corrective actions. This promotes the feeling of fraternity and promotes humanism in society.
• Addresses the root cause of suffering: It goes beyond the symptoms of pain, distress, and hardships. It allows people to understand the problems faced by others in a non-judgmental manner and help them solve them.

Significance of the virtue of compassion:

• Individual growth and development: Compassion gives one an opportunity to not be too critical regarding his/her own mistakes and find solutions to his/her own problems.
• Address the social evils: Compassion can empower people to understand the root causes of social evils such as poverty, hunger, child marriage, beggary and slavery, drug abuse, untouchability, sexual violence, and inequality and drive them to address these issues.
• Help save the environment: The feeling of compassion among individuals and leaders can help them better understand the negative impacts of their actions and inactions on climate-related dangers.
• Prevent wars and conflicts: They are the result of disputes over natural resources or struggle for power, influence, and wealth. It can be avoided if the feelings of humanity, brotherhood, fraternity, and welfare of all take precedence.

Compassion can be imbibed by being more altruistic, avoiding judgment, practicing gratitude, and learning from the lives and teachings of great personalities like Gautam Buddha, Gandhiji, and Martin Luther King Jr., etc. who practiced compassion.