Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Forgiving your enemy


“You know that girl sitting in the corner” yelled my friend sitting across me in a hotel, “She ditched me when I was in 11th standard and went around with another friend of mine. As he said this, his face fell and he was fuming with anger. The delicious pizza which he was feasting on before he saw that girl did not interest him further. Our conversation which was climbing high altitudes of life, career, health had started dropping to lowest depths of anger, frustration and irritation.  But there you are, the reason for misery – the girl who ditched him sipping her coffee and giggling away with her friends.  A simple thought crossed my mind – having so much hatred towards somebody when the other person is enjoying and hardly aware of your anger, is it really worth it?

When you ask someone to forgive somebody, what is the initial reaction you get? “Why should I forgive her, you don’t know what she has done to me?  I will not leave her” But my dear do you know what you have done to yourself because of this? Your fertile brain which could have been invested for your good health and wealth has been infected by your hatred and anger. Some might argue that hatred gives direction and motive in life. If that is the case, wouldn’t have countries like Syria, Iraq and Pakistan be the world’s most developed and successful countries.  A mind devoid of any hatred and anger is always creative as well as productive.

It’s really a pity that a person with anger and hatred is really looked up to nowdays. A messenger of peace and nonviolence is typecasted as weak and passive. If that is the case, a thin, frail and bespectacled person with a stick in his hands wouldn’t have got us Independence. When we had so many aggressive freedom fighters during that time, it was only Mahatma Gandhi whom they  finally gave into. Being peaceful, doesn’t mean being passive. As Sri Sri Ravishankar says “Patience in mind and Dynamism in action”. Right action comes to your mind only when you are at peace.


Hatred is a slow poison, it might give a pleasure feeling that you are achieving something, but in longer run, it eats you up from within.

1 comment:

  1. Very well written thought. Although it is not easy to get rid of this natural emotion and at times it is really very difficult to deal with it. But I guess only by practice you can control your anger and may make a difference in your life. Basically the idea is to be aloof from such emotions and not to overreact on the things around. Only then you can attain the supreme peace otherwise, life is anyways a struggle everyday.

    ReplyDelete