Divinity on Earth

There are different kinds of values, different kinds of virtues, that we see in this world. We like all of them. But there is this one virtue that is truly powerful and leaves us overpowered by emotion. That is truly forgiveness.

It is forgiveness which binds humanity strongly despite all the bloodshed, spite and violence , which we have silently witnessed and endured. When someone wrongs you, our first and most humane instinct is to fight back, but it takes a brave man or woman to let go and forgive. It is this noble virtue of all virtues that keeps the world going on and on.

Unknowingly or knowingly we wrong a lot of people. We do not really even know at times of the other person`s existence at all, yet it happens. And the most important part is that we get forgiven a lot. Both are blessed, the forgiving and the forgiven.

It was recently while reading about Mother Theresa, I came across this interesting anecdote. Mother Theresa, once while walking in the streets of Bengal, saw in a garbage dump, an old woman, with barely any clothes, left there to die. Her face had been half eaten already by ants and rats. There was just that small tidbit of life left hanging in her body with hope.

Mother Theresa brought the lady to her home for the Dying and nursed her and prayed for her. She found out that the lady had been thrown there by her own son. In those last moments, before her tormented soul left her body, she was asked to pray to the lord and to forgive her son, by mother. She, with tears in her eyes said, "I forgive my son, my child I love him, Thank You", and then passes away.

What really struck me most about the story was how the lady seemed to regain some peace and happiness in her broken heart as she became one with divinity in those moments of forgiveness. The truth is forgiveness is not at all easy. It is not practical and hence it is the most apt example of being a divine virtue. We, as humans have never been able to forgive, be it in the form of riots, or in the form of capital punishment, we seek our revenge with a monstrous passion, which is frightening.

Therefore in every moment of our life, we come across these situations, where we just cannot keep quiet, we fight with our brothers, with our sisters, our society. Our mind has not been capable of maturing with the ages. But Life always seems most colourful and full of hope in those rare moments where we witness some divine act of forgiveness. These incidents are few and far but they do exist. Let us learn to forgive. It is surely the right path towards that which we seek in our quest to completion of meaning for our lives. Forgiveness is truly a work of art. Let us become those great artists who can paint those masterful strokes of forgiveness upon our lives, thereby crafting portraits of divinity upon earth for the generations to come and learn.

To preach is not what I yearn for. Just making a mental note of those small things which I learn from life, which I hope to note down and share.