What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is maybe freedom. Because I am not doing the other person a favour, but rather I am doing myself a favour. I am unloading the burden that I have carried for however long that may be – a short time or a long time. However, once I decide that actually it is not in my jurisdiction, because whoever has been involved has been involved with a karmic connection with the Almighty, and so they are answerable to the Almighty, and I do not have to think about it. But if I carry the pain and sorrow in my heart, I carry that as a burden. So let me put God’s love between me and the other, and be able to forgive them with a big heart, a generous heart, so that I can find freedom, myself.
Forgiveness is also one aspect of non-violence. When I do not forgive, then there is a violence that I am inflicting on myself. I may also be inflicting a violence through my vibrations or my thoughts and in my attitude, towards the other. And so let me experience true non-violence, which also means being able to forgive.
In the 20th century we saw two amazing characters on the world stage in this unlimited drama of the world. One, of course, was Mahatma Gandhi, and the power of non-violence, and the liberation that came as a result of that. But we also saw President Mandela, and the power of forgiveness that was able to avert bloodshed, and bring about democracy, in a situation where people had thought it would never be possible. Through this, we understand how the power of forgiveness is incredibly effective. So let me try it, each day in my own life, and see how liberating it is and how it brings me closer to the Divine.
B.K. Jayanti is Additional Administrative Head of the Brahma Kumaris.