Everybody deserves another chance

Honesty is the best policy and truth is the best defence against all allegations. We have heard this truism often enough and it is undisputedly valued, universal and nonnegotiable. We are exhorted through religious teachings and various religious texts to confine ourselves to the straight and the narrow. And yet we are but human, deeply flawed, we stumble and falter.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The best of us, however strong or committed, move out of the straight and the narrow path into life’s arduous pathways and its temptations. Often, in a moment of sheer carelessness or thoughtlessness or even mere innocence, we can go wrong.

When the moment of awakening dawns, we have already taken a wrong turn and there is seemingly a dead end before us.

We may not have actually indulged in what is palpably wrong. We may not have committed a felony but may have been guilty of lesser transgressions or silent spectators by merely turning our face away or failing to condemn something our conscience does not permit. The cruellest lies are told in silence. When we do not raise our voices in protest, we are in acquiescence.”

Inaction in the face of wrong leaves the soul divided against itself. And yet, in our remorse, we also realise that there are those who commiserate with us, understand our predicament and give us a chance to get back on the rails and tell us that all is not lost. They are the well-wishers who say, “There but for the grace of God go I,” lend a helping hand to rise once again, to relive and restore our self-worth.

They make us better human beings rather than those who point a condemnatory finger. It is said every sinner has a future and every saint has a past, whether it was Valmiki or Saint Paul and countless ordinary others among us.

Dostoevsky says “Everyone is guilty for everyone else.”

“Judge not lest ye be judged” but show them the” kindly light” they deserve. It is our shared humanity that makes us accept their guilt and recognise our own complicity in the acts that lead people to moral
transgressions. The great Prophet himself said, “Go thou too and sin no more.” Who are we to pronounce judgement?