Let's put it this way : empathy and sympathy are somewhat similar. Similar, though only in their spellings. Why don't we look beyond the words, into their meanings?
'Empathy' is done by everyone. Everybody empathises, sometimes without knowing. For instance, let's talk of an Indian struggling to learn English. I chose this as an example because this is one very common thing among many of us and people might want to relate to it. Now this Indian, who comes from a poor farmer-family in a village in India even difficult to map, has come to Mumbai to earn a name for himself. But how will he? He doesn't know English. Somehow, after a lot of struggle, and with the help of a friend, he gets a room. This friend, who is also his roommate, is a man who has a heavy English accent and an ocean of vocabulary as his assets. Yet, he doesn't make fun of the other man and rather tries to help him out. Oh! He's so kind - all of us would say, but NO, he isn't. He's 'empathising' not 'sympathising'. He is not showing pity rather he is trying to avert troubles for the village-man because he also faced more or less of a similar situation. Since he knows what he suffered, he doesn't want anyone else to suffer either. He is doing it for himself. Every time he sees the village-man suffer, he remembers his struggle and the past, as we all know, is haunting and hurting.
Sympathy, on the other hand, is one thing I don't think people can do much of. People are selfish and greed just wont leave them alone. So, sympathy, which is completely selfless, may not work much with ordinary human beings. Only great people are able to devote their time and energy to others by sympathising. However sympathising comes with its own set of rules. Firstly, a person does not 'show' sympathy. I n other words, being kind to someone and then showing off is not sympathy. Secondly, sympathy does not aim at making someone dependent on you but to help a person stand up and face troubles.making a person dependent is a crime equivalent to being dependent.
Many a times, empathy proves to provide much more than sympathy does. It does good not only to you but also the person you are helping. Eventually, you will love to give, love to help and look through others' point of view. This will help you to slowly inch towards selflessness and learn to sympathise.
After all, we all are his creations; like puppets whose strings are controlled by Him. He wants us to return to Him with innumerable good done, whether it all starts from helping for 'our own sake', with a tad 'selfishness' in us.
