SURROUNDED BY THE HIMALAYAN KNOWLEDGE OF FORGIVENESS

The irony of war is that it destroys the meaning of life in site of victory, because in reality it gives only a fake layer of temporary delight. A beautiful creation called life gets lost in the wind of hatred; and strangely, people keep talking about the end which is 'so close' and instead of learning to live with love, they prepare themselves to learn to die.

Again, there are so many inner battles to fight which are far greater than those fought outside. Military achievements are superficial exultation celebrating the life of a few survivors damaged internally for eternity. Whereas the triumph of the soul with the weapons of forgiveness and compassion brings the prize of eternal peace and harmony.

There are life performances happening all around us which require us to dive deep in order to understand them. Making life or destroying life definitely points in opposite directions. As we see hatred running all around us at top speed, we are most likely to be puzzled as to why it fails to catch up with the speed of love.

This is the clutter of emotions I find myself submerged in today. Two recent happenings in India, got me focused enough to get into the range of my hearing, a thoughtful whisper.

A Pakistani couple bid a teary farewell to India after their four and a half month old son recovered from a complex heart surgery. Taking a flight back home to Lahore after a month long stay in India, the couple expressed their gratefulness to the country whose doctors had been instrumental in the recovery of their child. The child with a hole in his heart had a rare chance of survival because his heart was pumping blood without oxygen and his body was turning blue with continuous bouts of pneumonia. It was only after a five hour long surgery that the boy did fully recover.

These lucky parents got to travel to India in spite of the prevailing climate of hostility and returned with great spiritual strength of love, to the land they call home. However, at this same time nearly two hundred school children were evacuated to safety in bullet proof vehicles in Nowshera sector amid heavy shelling on three villages along the border by the Pakistan army.

With such diametrically opposite happenings of some worthy and unworthy acts of life, I couldn’t but help wonder as to how some men seem to ceaselessly pump the blood of hatred and revenge without oxygen of love and forgiveness. Don’t they know that they will never find rest until they learn to finally let go of hatred and hurt that has taken residence in their hearts? Unfortunately the answer is ‘no’; because these are the damaged people themselves, and it’s this damaged personality that causes them to move further into destruction. They live in zones of pain and therefore it’s very unlikely for them to even think of themselves as wrong. They therefore take no responsibility of their actions; neither do they have any understanding or concern for the damage they do. They are dwellers who live even today in structures of a painful past which has robbed them of all happiness and joy of the present and future.

Someone may ask, ‘Is India a fool to constantly help those who don’t care for her, and instead repeatedly come to cause her pain?’ Certainly not! India has grown on the soils of love surrounded by the Himalayan knowledge of the strength of forgiveness and the immense depth of the waters of peace and therefore she continues to heal holes in hearts.