Category: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam

Forgiveness

I am the forgiveness of the tolerant and the good qualities of those in the mode of goodness.

Śrīmad Bhāgvatam 11.16.31

Forgiveness has long found success in psychological therapy. And with good reason. The practice has its origins in our deepest spiritual roots. 

What is forgiveness?

In worldly terms forgiveness is a kind of judgement. To forgive is to release someone from some debt, obligation or guilt caused by some previous action. It means to cancel a clash between expectation and reality. By erasing the expectation, it erases the clash. Such expectations require neither a basis in the actual world nor the consent of the person who has disappointed the expectation. 

Forgiveness, in this sense, is a psychological process of giving up the feelings of bitterness attached to disappointed expectation. Psychologists tell us that this method has positive therapeutical effects.  

In spiritual terms another reality appears. Vaishnavism teaches that we are an infinite soul in a finite body. The soul, this mysterious, immaterial expression of who we truly are when we are entirely being ourselves, is untouched by mundane matters.

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The purification of desires

Verse 1.9.32

Standing at the door of death, Bhīṣmadeva declares that he will turn his undivided attention to Kṛṣṇa. Although Kṛṣṇa is self-sufficient, he sometimes descends to the material world that he created, in order to enjoy transcendental pleasures. 

By turning his mind to Kṛṣṇa Bhīṣmadeva wishes to intensify his devotion, purify his desires, and join in union with God at the moment of his passing. Prabhupad clarifies that the reason for Kṛṣṇa’s occasional return to the material world is precisely to give to those who are pure devotees the full benefits of devotion. Kṛṣṇa is there to given instruction but this instruction can only be heard by devotees. 

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