Peace of Mind: Forgive And Inhale the Fragrance of Flowers

By T G L IYER

The concept of forgiveness is portrayed succinctly in the powerful play The Black Angel by Michael Christopher. What happens to us when we forgive someone? What happens to us when we are forgiven? Christopher's play is about a former German army general, Engel, who tried to make a new life for himself and his wife outside a little French village. He had been imprisoned for 30 years, sentenced by the Nuremberg war crimes court. He hoped that people would forget and forgive the terrible past. He built a log-cabin in the nearby mountains. He wanted to start anew.

A French journalist, Morrieu, could not forget the past. His family was massacred by the general's army. There was not a single survivor in the village. For 30 years Morrieu had planned his revenge. He said to himself: "If the Nuremberg court could not sentence General Engel to die, I will pronounce his death sentence and execute it." He stoked the embers of hatred and fear in the minds of the village radicals and revolutionaries. They conspired to burn down the cabin at night, killing Engel and his wife.

Morrieu, as a journalist, had several questions for the general: Why did he do it? After 30 years in prison, what did he feel now?

So, he proceeded to the cabin, surprised the general and his wife and spent the whole afternoon probing his past actions, trying to analyse and learn the reasons for the tragedy. He found the general full of regret and repentance. He was actually waiting to download his guilt to someone he could trust. Moved, Morrieu offered to smuggle the general and his wife to safety. He disclosed to them that the villagers would attack his cabin at night and kill both of them.

The general said: "We will accompany you only on one condition; that you forgive me." Morrieu could not forgive the general. He could save him, but forgive him - never! That night the villagers burnt down the cabin and shot Engel and his wife dead.

The play when staged left the audience gasping for an answer. Why was it so difficult for the journalist to forgive and why was it so important to Engel that he be forgiven? What is it that the general wanted which the journalist could not give? The Bible (I John 1:9) says: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins".

To forgive is not to forget. Forgetting is not hard. All you need is a bad memory or to treat the incident as insignificant. But to forgive is to make a new beginning, to start all over again with the person who caused you pain. It does not take away the hurt nor does it erase the past injury. It merely ceases to obstruct the path of a new beginning. To forgive you don't have to aggravate the guilt and squeeze the soul of the person. By forgiving you can walk together into the future.

In the Bhagavad Gita (chapter 12), Krishna describes 35 qualities of a devotee; one of them is a forgiving nature. Learn to forgive. Having forgiven another, what really happens?

The rancour, the anger within, which was eating the vitals, is automatically washed and cleaned. It purifies the system. You become 24-carat gold, soft, solid and shining. Mark Twain captures this quality when he writes: "Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet releases as the foot crushes it".

Spictetus said 2,000 years ago: "It is not he who gives abuse that affronts, but the view that we take of it. Your hurt comes from not what others do to you, but from what you choose to do with their actions. If you change your attitude about the hurt, you will soon find your victim status eliminated."

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See also: Peace of Mind, Peace on Earth, Life and Beyond, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul)