Question to Swamiji: I have a question about relationships with other
souls while on the spiritual path. My business partner swindled the business,
and drove me into the toughest two years of my life. Today I am settled again,
but I am unable to forgive him. How to get peace of mind when someone has
wronged us to no end?
Answer by Swamiji: This material world is like the prison
house of God; souls who have turned their backs towards him have been put
here. So, we cannot expect the people of this world to behave like
Saints. There will always be persons who will come to cheat us, and on some
occasions they may even succeed. That is life; we all get cheated once in
a while. But the important thing is to learn to take it in our
stride. That is where the quality of forgiveness comes in.
If we continue to harbor resentment towards those who have
wronged us, we will be unable to progress spiritually. Resentment acts like
poison on the mind, filling it with bitterness. And we keep reliving the sour
experience within, pinned down to the past. Someone aptly said:
"Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to
die."
On the spiritual path we must be careful not to nurture ill
feelings towards anyone, realizing that they will harm us more than anyone
else. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says:
"Even in your dreams, do not make the mistake of
harboring ill-will towards anyone."
Forgiveness is a sublime personality trait that immediately
releases all bitterness from the mind. It is a favor we do, not to the other
person, but to ourselves. The lives of saintly people are full of inspiring
stories of how they forgave their wrongdoers, and even succeeded in winning
them over by their love.
A person made an attempt on the life of Mahatma Gandhi,
while he was living in South Africa. Mahatma Gandhi refused to hate the man. He
said, "I shall love him, and win his love." One year later, that same
man came and apologized to before Mahatma Gandhi, and wept for forgiveness.
This is the characteristic of great personalities; they refuse to allow their
minds to dwell on hatred towards anyone.
In this blog Swamiji is explaining that if someone has hurt your feelings intentionally or unintentionally, and we are feeling disturbed by such an incident, we should practice forgiveness to reach spiritual equilibrium. Forgiveness will cause you to stop incessant negative thinking and will clear your mind of any resentment or anger towards the person that hurt or seemingly afflicted you. If we foster resentment in our mind, we might put an end to our spiritual growth.
ReplyDeleteThe blog is clearly stating that forgiveness is the unconditional important step towards spiritual growth. It is such a powerful transcendental trait that it cleanses your mind and gives you inner peace that surpasses all inner struggles. Forgiveness is one of the most compassionate things that we can do for our spiritual growth.
As we are all aware of, inner struggle in our mind is not a result of what is happening in the outer world, but a result of how we deal with life’s challenges within our inner world. I would recommend this link Bhagavad Geeta which would give us further knowledge of how to spiritually strengthen our mind to attain the peace which we all deserve.