Forgiveness Bestows Healthy and Happy Life
The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as “to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offence or debt”. Forgiveness may be considered simply in terms of the person who forgives including forgiving themselves, in terms of the person forgiven or in terms of the relationship between the forgiver and the person forgiven.
Studies show that people who forgive are happier and healthier than those who hold resentments. The first study revealed that just by forgiving an offender it leads to improved functioning in their cardiovascular and nervous systems. Another study at the University of Wisconsin found the more forgiving people were, the less they suffered from a wide range of illnesses. The less forgiving people reported a greater number of health problems.
Lack of forgiveness gives birth to guilt issues. This can not only destroy a person's spiritual health, but can also damage physical health. Researches on cancer patients revealed that maximum patients who had problems in forgiving had severe problems. Cancer is caused by guilt and unforgiving nature.
Most of our sufferings are caused by our interpretation of the action of others, and the fact that we are always blaming others for the problems in our life. Now, let us try to understand why we blame others. We blame others when we are expecting something from the persons we blame. Quite often the person whom we blame is not ever aware of this fact.
For every practical reason we should not blame anyone. We blame something when we feel that thing to be the cause of our problems. As and when we blame it, we allow that thing to control our life, even when we are not presently in association with that particular thing. We waste much of our energy in thinking about the subject of blame. This is just like doing the work of our enemy in his absence. Further, if we stop blaming others we not only clear our mind from needless prejudice. We can also take steps to patch up with our enemies. The best way to win over an enemy is no doubt by finishing enmity.
We should take the entire responsibility of our life on ourselves. Then, what to do next, should we carry on the burden of such guilt throughout our life? No, we should forgive ourselves for all our failings because forgiveness starts when we are able to forgive ourselves. We can be kind to others only when we are kind to ourselves. As soon as we forgive ourselves we feel free, our energy doubles and we can work more efficiently. We feel that the burden, which we were carrying since a long time is removed in a minute.
Forgiveness takes us to a stage, where we are able to forgive everybody who has been able to cause major harms in our life. This is evident from the life of many enlightened souls in this world. Jesus Christ is still remembered till date, because of the act of forgiveness. He even forgave those people who had him crucified. Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi often used to say that the devotees who endures and forgives others are his favorites than those who cause problems for others.
Written by: Anand Sagar Pathak
