Freedom in Forgiveness

What is true freedom? Some would say, “It’s the ability to do whatever you want whenever you want.” That’s certainly a kind of freedom, but it’s one which ultimately leads to bondage. Living in that way, we become controlled by our desires.

There is another, more enduring, type of freedom. It comes through self-discipline, calming our mind, controlling our reactions to things, and accepting that everything in our life comes from God. This kind of freedom brings inner peace, and calm acceptance of whatever comes. Self-control frees us from sense compulsion, and from the ceaseless fluctuations of the restless mind. We become masters of ourselves.

Another key to finding inner freedom is the practice of forgiveness. We have no control over the behavior of others. Holding onto past hurts and grievances only strengthens the false thought that we are subject to the ceaseless fluctuations of an inimical universe. Forgiveness is an act of both divine courage and love. It affirms our strength, and our ability to react positively even in adversity.

“Yes,” we may think, “I want to love everyone, but if you only knew what she did to me—I just can’t forgive her for that.” With this kind of thinking, we reduce in our mind the vast field of God-awareness into mere patches of brambles and thorns. To forgive others reminds us that beyond the joys and sorrows of this world, our true life is in God.

In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells a remarkable story of forgiveness. She, her father, and her sister Betsie were resistance workers against the Nazis in Holland during World War II. Though not themselves Jewish, they hid many Jews in their home and helped them to escape. Corrie and her family were eventually arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where her sister and father perished.

Corrie survived and later began a global ministry, sharing the teachings of Christ throughout the world. She tells this dramatic story:

It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower door in the processing center at Ravensbrück. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fräulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on his. When he tells us to love our enemies, he gives, along with the command, the love itself.

The past two weeks, Jyotish and I offered you two practices to follow during this holy season: 1) to feel God’s love flowing through you constantly throughout the day; and 2) to accept willingly whatever is given to you as yours to do.

Now in this third week of Advent—the month before Christmas—we offer you another suggestion. Follow these words of Swami Kriyananda: “Claim your soul’s freedom! Bless all who ever harmed you, or ever wished you harm. Give them your love, and your prayer for their freedom in God.”

May you, like Corrie, feel God’s love flowing through you as you forgive others. May each one of us place our little candle on the divine altar of forgiveness, whose light can heal and bless the world.

Wishing you blessings in this holy season,

Nayaswami Devi