Forgiveness and Freedom
This happens when we forgive
She cried shedding copious amounts of tears.
She yelled to justify herself, “I lost sleep over the accusation directed at me which I thought was unjust. I moped around with a long and sullen face with ‘Victim Consciousness’. Why am I misunderstood all the time when I do all that I do with good intention?”. The pain had remained and intensified, solidified like a rock.
Sadly, she said, “I felt helpless and did not know where or whom to turn for solace… I did turn to that one person who I thought would understand, sympathise, empathise, and stand by me. To my dismay, the person I pinned my hopes on averted their face towards those who I thought hurt me intentionally. I couldn’t believe it! I was distraught”.
She was at the end of the tether.
“It took some mettle, a resilience I never knew I was capable of to doggedly continue the journey of life. I tearfully said, ‘Et too Brutus!’ and moved on with bruises all over my heart. No one seemed to care or see or feel what was happening to me”, she continued to vent.
She stuck her head in the mud and pretended to herself that all was well, with discontent disturbing the mind.
The lady who came to me seeking solace as one would seek from one’s own mother was an emotional mess. She needed an anchor and I was ready to be the one.
I stumbled into spirituality through a self-development workshop.
I did it not knowing there was a spiritual Guru, from my own hometown, speaking my mother tongue.
It became a divine intervention where I cleared my mind of all debris once and for all, through breathing exercises, meditations, and knowledge principles to live by; interactive processes to make knowledge experiential, not theoretical.
The wriggling snake in me shed the old skin and acquired a new and fresh avatar. I was born again!
This transformation propelled me to share and soothe many scorched hearts by becoming an instructor officially. Since the year 2000, I have been teaching what I have learned and experienced.
A great sense of gratitude envelops me every moment for being blessed for this role. Now, I had to help this lady to unlock the garbage room in her heart.
What was the key?
Forgiveness.
She was very receptive. She followed my words. “Yes, I brought face to face, one by one, in my mind, all those who I thought had hurt me intentionally and smiled at them with compassion. I said to each of them ‘I have forgiven you, for I now know you could not have done any other thing at that moment and I understand’.
That was THE redeeming moment for her.
Today she is a happy woman.
Forgiveness is a virtue to save one’s own mind.
With the wisdom that the past cannot be changed, whatever happened was destined to happen, total acceptance and moving beyond the event but keeping the lesson learned to guide further in the journey of life is one of the key principles to find freedom.
In the region I come from, there is a specific day in the year called Asking for Forgiveness Day. Knowingly or unknowingly, we could have hurt some by our words or deeds. Dropping the ego, we ask for forgiveness and become free.
Man is a creature of circumstances.
As the situations change, so also the state of mind. Intelligence is developing a witness consciousness and watching life’s happenings as one would watch a movie played on a screen.
Acting in the living present with awareness yet maintaining the witness consciousness is a skill only spiritual knowledge can bestow on us. Once we come to grips with this knowledge, life is an opera, a musical with multiple tunes, to be watched whatever it presents; comedy, tragedy, tragi-comedy, comic-tragedy.
Let’s learn to let go, let bygones be bygones, and make way for the future to unfold as the divine wills.
Leela Ramesh
18–2–24
