Easter Sunday

Today is Easter Sunday, a holiday for forgiveness. Today Jesus Christ has forgiven his enemies after all the pain and anguish they caused him. Prophet Mohamed has also forgiven the Arabs of Mecca in the public after all the wars between them, he declared “what do you think I will do with you, you are all free”. God has forgiven the Children of Israel every time they have repented for their sins. In Buddhism, the feelings of hatred and ill-will leave a lasting effect on our mind karma and the teachings of Buddha have encouraged the wise to forgive others. In Hinduism, Vidra has said that people misunderstand the forgiver as being weak and Lord Krishna has said in the Gita that forgiveness is one of the characteristic of the Devine state. Even until today, God has not given up on humanity with all their sins and greed.

Forgiveness not only means letting go of the grudges that one has against others, but also learning to pardon him/herself for the shortcomings. Forgiveness helps to free oneself from the prison of the past by letting go of bad feeling of haltered envy, thus letting one live in the present. We all have our disappointments at others and our selves. By realizing that no one is perfect including me, I became a more accepting human being and I can let go of the bad feelings. Forgiveness frees the forgiver to live on and heal his wounds.

Revenge never helps anyone, It never moves time back to undo the damage and it never heals the wounds. As Gandhi said “eye for an eye makes someone blind”. I advise, to avoid living in the darkness as a monster waiting for revenge or like Shylock waiting for his pound of flesh. I want you to live and enjoy life.
However, it is also important to learn from the lessons of the past, thus it is important to forgive your enemies, but keep your guard so that you are not hurt again. It is also important to uphold justice in the society by punishing criminals, thus deterring future crime. This means that one has to still be careful and learn from the past mistakes, a fool always repeats his/her mistakes. However, one cannot be a prisoner of the past and making it a hurdle towards one progress.

I realize that this is much easier in theory than practice; one cannot take a forgiveness pill. It takes will power to forgive and it takes courage to defeat the ghosts of the past. Start now by writing on a piece of paper all the situations that people have wronged you with or when you were disappointed by yourself , say out loud that you pledge to forgive everyone including yourself and then set it on fire, you will feel great trust me.