FORGIVE & BE A SINNER

Yes you read it right, forgive and you commit a grave sin. But before we proceed further just pen down why would you forgive anyone? And under what circumstances?

Forgiveness has been considered as the biggest virtue, we assume forgiveness brings us close to God. But forgiving someone does absolute opposite of it. Whatever reason you wrote before reading it further, you assume the other person was wrong, had committed mistake or had hurt you. We become judgmental while forgiving someone, without considering the circumstances under which he acted the way he acted and without knowing what his intent was. We become judge, jury and the prosecution and handover a trophy of greatness to our own selves for that great judgement.

Before you forgave, you, for sure might have felt anger and pain, which you might have felt- emanated from actions of others. What you felt, happened because you see the world that ways. Thus, feelings of anger and pain cannot be ascribed to someone else. They are yours and you are responsible for them.

Biggest error in process of forgiveness is that we hold other person guilty, for doing that, we are not qualified, neither has God empowered us to do so. What the ‘erring’ person did to you was his Karma. The cosmic law of Karma will take its own course and reward or punish him. You are not entitled to forgive or seek retribution. Your role is to forget and move ahead, because cosmic law of Karma delivered to you what you deserved.

“I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you”- Lord Buddha.

Holy texts talk about forgiveness at length. But only when such texts are read and understood without considering their context. Whenever forgiveness is talked about, its talked about in the absence of duality of existence i.e. Oneness with God. Forgiveness is talked about in absence of existence of good and bad, day and night, fair and unfair and so on. Once concept of duality is put to rest purpose of forgiveness becomes infructuous.

For good to exist bad must exist, for darkness to be felt we must experience light, for us to be joyful we must experience grief. A counter force is necessary to experience all of them. But to experience divinity and for divinity to exist no counter force is needed and that is absence of duality, that is Oneness with God. A Hindi hymn sums it up very well “हर देश में तू, हर भेष में तू, तेरे नाम अनेक तू एकही है” (You manifest in every shape & form, but it’s only You that exists)

Shiva is one of the most revered deity in Hinduism, where Sanskrit word Shiva translates to – ‘The one who always does good to all’. A hymn addressed to Him says (replace Shiva with ‘one who does good to all’) There is nothing apart from Shiva; there is nothing other than Shiva; whatever there is, is Shiva; There is nothing that is not Shiva; there is no time that is not Shiva; there is no place that is not Shiva.

The core of discourse of forgiveness is pivoted on concept of Oneness and absence of Duality. When we understand that everything that exists, exists to do good to all, forgiveness loses its significance. Anything that does good to all cannot be source of anger, pain or grudge.

The cosmic law of Karma ensures no injustice is inflicted upon anyone. By punishing someone for his sins or by forgiving him for the same we try to interfere with the law of Karma. Though we have no authority to do so and we are incapable of doing so. The only choice we have is choice of forgetting and moving ahead. We don’t forget and don’t move ahead just because our wisdom is eclipsed by cosmic delusion, we are thus a bewildered lot.