JOIN USWe are residents of a hostile world. Every moment, each one of us is subjected to some kind of an injustice or violation either physically or mentally.
There are times when we are not very sure as to why we are being misjudge or suspected of being party to wrongs which might not have occurred to us in our wildest dreams.
Then there are other times when we are subjected to humiliation or rejection for no particular fault of ours. Though despondency and agitation seem to be the most natural response to such unwarranted situations, the ability to look the other way and show the other cheek can bend and break the ill will of the greatest fiends on earth.
Long before Christ and Mahatma Gandhi testified that forgiveness is the greatest panacea to cleanse the world of hatred and hostility, Kunti the queen mother in the Mahabharata set precedence to the noble idea.
Kunti’s life was certainly no bed of roses. Despite being a royal she lacked security and peace of mind. Kunti handled grave issues with amazing equanimity.
She always decided to overlook the heinous crimes committed by Dhritarashtra and his son’s because she always had the big picture in mind.
That is the reason, she did not make an issue when she discovered that Bhima had been poisoned, or when she along with her five sons were meant to be burnt in the house of lac. She stayed on with the Kuru royals when her sons and their bride Draupadi were exiled. She stayed on with the Kauravas through the war at Kurukshetra.
Initially it was a diplomatic move about burying the hatchet and moving forward. It was also her tacit way of playing conscience keeper to the wicked souls. As the years passed her determination to be a passive onlooker became her intrinsic behaviour. When the Great War was over and her sons’ regained the kingdom she actually encouraged her sons to treat the blind king and his wife Gandhari with utmost respect.
Kunti persuaded this path in the knowledge that the old couple were writhing in the sorrow of having lost all their sons. When the blind and woebegone pair decided to take up Vanaprastha, Kunti followed them despite strong opposition from her sons, because she genuinely felt compassion for them and felt the need to be of help to them in their sunset years.
What began as an act of peacekeeping soon graduated into a trait of nobility, worthy of being simulated. Those of us who find it difficult to forgive can surely begin by refraining from being hostile or vocal about the wrong meted out to us.