Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
21th April 2019
Forgiveness
“Forgive and forget”
To forgive and forget is good virtue. This is knowledge. It is common advice given to one who is unable to forgive and forget. One is unable to forgive and forget if one is unable to accept what has happened to him or her.
One, who is unable to forgive and forget what has happened to him or her, lives a life governed by hate towards reasons that have caused what has happened to him or her.
The reasons are convincing to be the cause by logic. It is, therefore, difficult to forgive and forget no matter what effort is made to convince him or her to forgive and forget.
Wisdom of forgiveness, implying forgive and forget, however, is convincing and one lives life governed by unconditional love towards the reasons that caused what he or she cannot forgive and forget.
What is the wisdom of forgiveness, implying forgive and forget, is the question?
Man is in every moment in life. This signifies that a moment is needed in life for man to be in it. Man merely believes that he can make a moment to do, to speak or to think.
Man takes it for granted that he can make a moment because he can do, speak and think in the moment. This is because the doing, speaking and thinking happen to man in the moment, yet he cannot make them happen. This is because man does not make any moment in life.
The questions are: can man make a moment in life to be in the moment? Can man make a moment in life to do anything? Can man make a moment in life to say anything? Can man make a moment in life to think anything?
The answer why man cannot make a moment in life is that a moment was in life and the intelligence in the moment accommodated vegetation and animals, including their behaviour, in the moment much before man was in the moment. Later, the intelligence in the moment accommodated man, including his behaviour, along with vegetation, animals and their behaviour.
This signifies that man neither makes a moment nor the behaviour within the moment. The behaviour of man within the moment happens spontaneously, uncontrollably, unpredictably and cannot be other than the behaviour that is within a particular moment.
The understanding of the moment in life is: a moment in life is a gift to man by the intelligence in life, because man cannot give this gift, not only to himself, but also to another human being.
When the wisdom of forgiveness - implying forgive and forget - happens to man, he or she is filled with unconditional love and compassion towards the reasons that have convinced him or her not to forgive and forget.
The enlightened accept everyone as they are and do not have any expectation of how they should be.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
There are many occasions in a daily life that may give rise to resentment or criticism. Such reactions may be expressed physically, verbally or held silently until the emotion passes. Restraint may be advised, but it is not always practised. In knowledge, this is because a cause has been identified, based on the belief that man is the doer. In wisdom, however, the understanding of the enlightened, gifted here by Dr Shankar, reveals that man neither makes the moment that is eternally present, nor whatever is contained within the moment. Understanding this is the beginning of forgiveness.
Julian Capper, UK.