Invictus: When Forgiveness Emancipates the Soul

FORGIVENESS PURIFIES SOUL

Yes, they say forgiveness is the most powerful spiritual weapon to stay serene from inward until the forgiver really means it.

Long gone the days when I encountered many spiritual quotations narrating the significance of forgiveness, and they had actually their veiled spiritual sense, but alas! I couldn't measure the immensity of their wisdom.

Does that mean I foolishly ignored the wisdom part of forgiveness?

No, I didn't. I, as a matter of fact, tried to be practical in my life and that very sense of pragmatism blocked all the incoming thoughts to me that could otherwise have enlightened my soul with the knowledge of forgiveness.

It was quite incomprehensible to me that how come the deed of others, which delivered immeasurable pains and anguish in my life, be forgiven so as to put my mind or rather myself at ease/peace?

I thought if the forgiveness were to be so vital in the sense that it would facilitate attainment of equanimity, then how come me having no peace at all despite forgiving others?

Now looking inward I am finding the answer to the query which is very true even though I fought unsuccessfully hard to REJECT the wisdom part of it as I STOOD CORRECTED.

Now after watching this movie, the two statements – “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” – and – “I was thinking about how you spend 30 years in a tiny cell... and come out ready to forgive the people who put you there.”

While the first statement is not the part of this narrative (though I admit the wisdom part of it and it’s truly remarkable, life-changing statement), the other one is the motivational point behind me writing this.

When I heard this statement quoted by Matt Demon (in the movie), I had a sudden of flash of insight of the quotations that I had been reading without accepting the meaning.

I was so pensive at the time that I paused the scene for a while, played it several times in order to drink-in the wisdom, veiled in it. The dialogue not only brought me to the understanding of importance of forgiveness, but also filled my heart with tremendous respect for Nelson Mandela on which life the movie was made.

Indeed, how could someone FORGIVE those who put him in 30 years (mark, 30 years!) behind the bars with mockery, slavery, abuse, curse and humiliation!

Isn't that unthinkable? 

But it did HAPPEN!

Then I thought, if someone could be so lenient with the forgiveness, why can’t I? Compared to what Mr. Mandela went though, I've had the account of my life’s journey replete with humiliation relatively nothing.

How come I being so obdurate not to seek forgiveness as the first and last option to end (groundless) feud or acrimony?

When I cast a look on my past, I see countless turns of events wherein I stayed rigid to forgive others for their misdeed. This inflexibility, in turn, caused me nothing but harm and mental uneasiness, let alone I lost many friends because of that.

I would like to express my sincere and heart-felt thanks to the director and script writer of this movie, and I thank to my God for instilling an urge to watch this movie today. Because the insight I got today is priceless and wordless. I lack the necessary words to verbalize the gained insight exactly to my feeling.

I will try my level best to adopt the meaning of the statement fully in my life, and hell, I will.