Skip to main content

Forgive us our sins

"Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."  That's part of a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. Jesus knew the role forgiveness plays in life. Jesus knew that life is a series of sins, committed by us and others on each other.

Atlas
That's why I don't agree with my friend Sunaina's contention at Indiblogger (Indispire Edition 124 #Forgiveness) that "Forgiveness is not easy to come by." On the contrary, I think the world rests on the shoulders of Atlas who is a personification of forgiveness more than anything else.

How would the world continue this far unless we forgave the relentless trespasses on our personal space by others? Teachers who warped our minds and preachers who perverted our souls? Politicians who assault our integrity with the ruthless steadfastness of the bulldozer? Employers' heartless exploitation? The endless craving of our gods for blood?

We forgive even if history may not forget. Our forgiveness may have certain tinges. Of subdued anger. Of bitter tears. Of endured agonies. Our forgiveness may have its roots in helplessness. Our forgiveness may be the sigh of a little dream.

But we forgive. So that we can endure new offences. Inevitable offences.


Indian Bloggers

Comments

  1. Forgiveness has another dimension. Sometimes, we forgive the fellow humans for their wrong doing since we are so weak that we can't even raise a finger against them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree - we forgive more often that not. And the 'forget'ting is the difficult part.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The injuries are so deep sometimes that the scars remain glaringly reminding us, reviving memories.

      Delete
  3. It is my experience that we never really forgive, we only make peace with the hurt. Forgiving is an active and conscious action or choice. I have never been able to forgive anyone ever. That doesn’t mean I haven’t moved passed the pain or that I want their misery. With passage of time I learn to say ‘It’s alright’ and walk past the incident.

    Loved this post, Tomichan. You have laid down with earnestness the way to peace. As always written with your signature lucidity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The kind of forgiveness you mention is the ideal, Anupam. How many people are capable of that? Most of us, including you and me, belong to the other category you've mentioned: practical forgives - making peace with the situations.

      Delete
  4. Sir,good to read about forgiveness I believe forgive and forget but stay away from that person who hurts u all d time so that u r at peace all the time
    One more thing time heals d scars only wen u separate urslf from d one who hurts

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can stay away from the whole world of man if you have the resources required for living alone or in limited company. Otherwise life is a game of sins and atonements.

      Glad to see you here. Hope those whom you want to keep away have the same attitude toward you too. Often Satan is that person... 😁

      Delete
  5. Our forgiveness may be the sigh of a little dream - how beautifully you write. The helplessness itself makes it difficult, I feel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was the first one to vote for your Indispire suggestion, Sunaina. I must thank you for reviving the little dream that's dying within me.

      Delete
    2. And while submitting this prompt, I hoped that you would write on this....

      Delete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Exactly. Can the world continue on its own without the burden carried by Atlas. A gloomy cloud in its full despair will overshadow the world if the Atlas Shrunks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Umm that should have been shrugs but shrunks sound cool yet meaningless:)

      Delete
    2. No, Atlas shrugged once for Ayn Rand. Now he will carry on bearing the burden.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

Are human systems repressive?

Salma I had never heard of Salma until she was sent to the Rajya Sabha as a Member of the Parliament by Tamil Nadu a couple of weeks back and a Malayalam weekly featured her on the cover with an interview. Salma’s story made me think on the nature of certain human systems and organisations including religion. Salma was born Rajathi Samsudeen. Marriage made her Rukiya, because her husband’s family didn’t think of Rajathi as a Muslim name. Salma is the pseudonym she chose as a writer. Salma’s life was always controlled by one system or another. Her religion and its ruthlessly patriarchal conventions determined the crests and troughs of her life’s waves. Her schooling ended the day she chose to watch a movie with a friend, another girl whose education was stopped too. They were in class 9. When Rajathi protested that her cousin, a boy, was also watching the same movie at the same time in the same cinema hall, her mother’s answer was, “He’s a boy; boys can do anything.” Rajathi was...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...

Roles we Play

When I saw the above picture of Narendra Modi in the latest issue of India Today , what rushed to my mind instantly was a Malayalam film song Veshangal Janmangal … Life is a series of roles dressed up for the occasion. There are different costumes for celebrations and mourning, and there are people who can shed one and move into the other instantly. Are your smiles genuine? Do your tears mean sadness? Or, are they all costumes that suit the occasion? Are you just an actor who plays certain roles? Is the entire cosmos just a gigantic theatre for you? Where can we find the real you beneath all the costumes you keep changing day in and day out? Have you relinquished dharma in favour of cravings? Truth over expediency?