It is easy to advise someone to forgive; but it is not that easy to put it into practice. Forgiveness has an extraordinary beauty about it. Here, let us have a glimpse of a couple of unusually beautiful instances of forgiveness.
It was ten days before Avantika’s sixth birthday that her parents were shot dead by some assassins at their house in Keerthi Nagar, Delhi. Her father was Lalith Maken, a Member of Indian Parliament and Congress political party leader, and her mother was Geetanjali, daughter of Shankar Dayal Sharma, former President of India.
Lalith Maken died on the spot and Gitanjali breathed her last in the operation theatre. It was with a bitter hatred for the assassins, who made her an orphan, that Avantika spent her childhood days and teenage years. The gravity of her hatred grew with her. The assassins of her parents were Harjinder Singh Jinda, Sukhdev Singh Sukha and Ranjit Singh Gill alias Kukki. By murdering Lalith Maken and Gitanjali, these men, who belonged to the Sikh community, were actually retaliating the mass killing of Sikhs that followed the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Sukha was arrested in 1986 and Jinda in 1987. Both of them were hanged for murdering Arun Vaidya, the key architect of the ‘Operation Bluestar’. But Kukki escaped to the United States. When he was later handed over by the US to India in 2003, he was sentenced for life imprisonment. In the same year, a petition for mitigating his punishment was filed.
Avantika’s consent was a condition for accepting that file and mitigating his punishment. No one expected that Avantika, who was a scorching volcano of hatred and retaliation, would give her consent for mitigation. But, the unthinkable happened!
The sight of Kukki’s parents weeping bitterly when they saw their son, moistened the eyes of Avantika. She remembered her own grandparents at that moment. This inspired her to take a decision in favour of Kukki.
“No one can give back what I have lost. I think Kukki has already suffered enough. I decided that Kukki need not die every day, inch by inch.” Avantika said on her decision.
“I have completely forgiven Kukki. The fire of revenge in my heart has been quenched and I have a serene mind now. I realized what happiness is only when I forgave” Avantika adds.
*****
Walter Scott, a black man from South Carolina, was killed by Michael Slager, a white police officer, in 2015. And Slager was sentenced for twenty years of rigorous imprisonment. The words uttered by Scott’s mother to Slager are heart-touching. She said: “Michael Slager, I have forgiven you!” The reports say that hearing this, Slager was brought to tears. What else can he do other than wipe his tears and beg for her forgiveness?
*****
True forgiveness does not look at someone’s religion or caste. It is enough to have divinity in you. God is present in everyone who forgives.
There is nothing in this world as beautiful as forgiveness. How long will it take for me to forgive everyone?
