by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No 6
December 2000.

    There is also another simpler aspect to forgiveness. When something apparently wrong ( to our way of thinking) is done to us, we immediately deduce that we are right and the otherside is wrong. The fact of the matter is that this is a total misconception. No one is totally right. All wrong things that ever happen to us , have their genesis in some forgotten wrong deed perpetuated by us. They say Agate visamandashah daivam arhayate narah Atmanam Karmadosanca no socatyapanditah When misfortune strikes man immediately blames the fate , but the fact that it is the result of one’s own wrongdoing eludes the unwise.

    No wrongdoing is ever forgotten. Why? Because it is a blemish on the soul and the soul has to be cleansed. How does the Lord help us in this? He sends a warning through someone. It is for us to recognise this and atone the misdeed through a good enough deed. Hence even if someone is doing wrong to us, we may resist his actions but it would be foolish to retaliate by doing wrong to him. Is it too much to ask to forgive him?

      If everyone goes about bringing equal harm to some one who has apparently harmed him, the whole world would soon be full of violence in no time. What will happen to Dharma in that case?

    The next aspect is Dama or control over impulsive actions dictated by one’s emotions and executed by our outer sense organs. How many wrongs are perpetuated by people who act on impulses? Each of us can easily reflect upon our own experiences and come to the conclusion that, when ever we have come to grief, it is because we acted too hastily, too reactively and did not weigh the pros and cons of all happenings. Any thing that happens to our dislike, we immediately react against it. More often than not we realize what fools we have been. A misfortune which could have been avoided by little restraint, we blow up to unmanageable proportions. All the world’s, society’s and individual’s problems are solvable if we act with understanding rather than being impulse driven.

     Study of human nature from the earliest of times has established that sense gratification is the surest way of human degradation. The fire of desire once kindled, unless controlled firmly, gains strength in no time and then drags the person to any lengths down the hill. It is a road with no stops till one pulls up himself from total destruction. A moot point here to remember is that, dama does not mean a total annihilation of sense organs or the indriyas. Indriyas are also given to us with a purpose without which we shall not be able to perform. But Sanatana dharma advocates only mastery over them. Do not be a slave to your sense organs , let the organs be your slaves. Use them to serve your ultimate purpose which is, self-development. Do not let them drag you away from the path of righteous living. That is all that is required. – (to be continued)

(Rest of the article dealing with Asteyam, Akrodha, Dhi, Vidya and Satya shall be dealt with in the next article. )

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