Forgiveness is a quality that is absolutely crucial for any peace of mind or any peace and harmony within this world because in today’s age there is rampant inclination for quarrel and hypocrisy. If we cannot forgive then there is no possibility of any relationships surviving on any level – whether it is husband and wife, friend and friend, neighbor and neighbor, between various academic groups, or between nations.
The nature of this world is it is under laws. Just like there is the law of gravity, by which everything in nature goes down. A structural engineer’s whole service is to somehow or other battle against the law of gravity – to build the structure that will stay up despite the natural tendency to collapse. And there are so many impediments to keeping it up. Similarly, there are so many stimulants in this world to drag everything down, especially our consciousness and our relationships. Without the quality of forgiveness everything sacred in life must collapse.
Maintaining resentment, hatred and vengefulness affects our own heart. Someone hurts us and we are angry; we feel that our rights have been violated. It is like picking a burning hot coal and holding on to it day after day, week after week, year after year, with the intention of throwing it on the object of our abuse. Who suffers? We suffer. If we keep this burning blazing fire in our heart, it will burn to ashes all of our virtues, all of our spiritual qualities. It will make us simply miserable. Holding on to these evil intensions towards others is factually – not figuratively but factually – from an emotional, physical and spiritual point of view, like keeping toxic poisons within our mind.
Any doctor knows that emotional turbulence, especially the poison of hatred and ill intentions toward others, creates emotional and physical disease. Forgiveness is the art of liberating ourselves from that toxic deadly poison that destroys our spirituality, our emotional content, and our health, and also potentially of all those who are around us. If we withhold the free choice to forgive someone, we simply remain a victim of whoever has hurt us or abused us. We are really only a victim until we can get that poison out of ourselves through the art of forgiveness.
12 Comments
This article is so instructive…..it emanates the speaker’s positive thoughts….thanks swamiji….
Amazing explanation of how forgiveness can help us get rid of the toxins present within us – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. So true that the burning anger of resentment will destroy only us, not the person who caused it!
thank you sharing this article
Absolutely amazing article! True, forgiveness is the basis of any relationship to flourish.
Amazing concept of removing all toxins in our mind … thank you Maharaj
Forgiving others is the virtuous quality of a vaisnava as he understands others are the instruments in the hand of Krsna for his own purification. Moreover he is thankful to them. All glories to HH Radhanatha Svami Maharaja.
Thank you very much Maharaj for this wonderful enlighting article.
Great article. Jai Gurudev !!
I like paragraph of “..holding a burning coal in our hand day after day and week after week just to throw on a person to take revenge…who suffers…” ..this is a great lesson we can learn. There is no end of hetredness. Only forgiveness can help us to keep our mind cool and peaceful. This I have experience in my personal life.
If we don’t forgive others for the wrong they do to us then Krishna will never forgive us for our mistakes
If we don’t forgive, we will not be forgiven. Wonderful message from HH Radhanath Swami maharaj.
Very true, to have a peaceful mind one must forgive and don’t troubles caused to oneself seriously. One should try to learn to tolerate that can only bring peace because whosoever one is or whatsoever one does trouble are going to come in this wolrd. Only solution is to transcend it.