Persons who have offended and hurt us may not have the goodness or courage to ask our forgiveness. Or they may even be ignorant. Christ on the cross forgave those who were killing him. He said: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do (Luke 23, 34)”. Gandhi is reported to have said: “He Ram” (Oh God) on his lips when he was assassinated just before the prayer meeting. That was his life-long wish. The most important thing to remember is: It is good to forgive others if for no other reason than enlightened self-interest. By not forgiving:

1.we keeps the hurt alive within us;

2. We keep the score (who hurt us, how many times);

3.we stay entangled in that we are not as free as we can be;

4. We let the person who hurt us rent space in our head free; we carry him/her – a clear burden;

5. Keeping the hurt alive, we continue to suffer his/her abuse – this time the difference is: we abuse ourselves by choosing not to let go of this person from our system;

6. we trap some energy that is not available for our emotional and spiritual expansion and development;

7.above all, healing cannot take place without letting go of peace. No true inner peace or wholesome and complete healing can be had without true forgiving.

             From a spiritual perspective, how can we ask God to forgive us if we are unwilling to forgive our fellow human beings. In the Our Father (Matthew 6, 9-15), one of the most important prayers of all times, great importance is given to forgiveness. Of the two most important things asked of God in that prayer is

1.necessary daily need like food,

2, forgiveness. Jews in the Old Testament were required to forgive seven times

.             So to the question of Peter: “How many times one should forgive? Seven times?” the instant answer Christ gave was: “Seventy times seven”, that is, endless times (Matthew, 18, 21&22). Another important thing to keep in mind is: We have often heard the expression - Forgive and forget. Forgetting is most likely to take place when forgiving is unconditional and complete, and when what is forgiven is not traumatic. Some persons think that complete forgiving cannot take place without forgetting. That is not true. Forgiving is in our power/control as it is a conscious act of the will; forgetting is not in our control as it is not in our power to forget. In other words, while we can will to forgive we cannot will to forget. The Indian as well as the Semitic (“forgive them for they know not”) concept of ignorance (avidya) as the root of all evil greatly facilitates our act of forgiveness.

            In our spirit life we want to be like the Lord. So my daily prayer is: “Lord, Universal Consciousness, Cosmic Energy, let me see the world and all the human beings the way you see them; let me forgive them the way you forgive them when they hurt; let me love them the way you love them”.