Chitrabhanu Man with Vision

Author(s): Clare Rosenfield
Publisher: Jain Meditation International Centre New York

Page 71

Here is a man who puts someone else first. His action comes from the silence, from understanding. It's as if he is saying, 'Let me be open to the other person's need and desire. Let me understand the environment in which he is moving and growing. Let me overlook his shortcomings, then I'll be able to have patience and boundless love for him.'
One day Rup participated in a silent vigil with a group of fellow passive demonstrators. Their 'Free India' banner irked the British soldiers trying to disperse them.
“Take down your banner, go home, or we shoot!" they threatened.
The group remained in silence and offered no response. The soldiers lost control of their tempers. They started poking the students with their bayonets which were attached to the muzzles of their rifles. Rup was in the front row and received a deep wound.
The next thing he knew he was in a hospital. There he received the message Gandhiji sent to all of his workers, “You are to practice consistent good will for everyone, for enemy and friend alike. Do not harbor even a trace of ill will."
Now Rup had a chance to test himself. He asked himself questions.
Have I absorbed and assimilated Non-Violence into the very fiber of my being?
Rup knew that still he had not. So he worked on removing fear and animosity. He thought about the soldier who struck him.
After all, it was not his fault. He was goaded by a kind of crowd mentality, a hero-soldier image. I forgive him.
It happened that just as Rup was feeling this touch of compassion, the same soldier felt drawn to check on him. He sought him out in the hospital and awkwardly expressed his regret, “I see the face of my own son in yours and I cannot forgive myself for having wounded you."
“I am glad you have come, for I want you to know that I had forgiven you long before this. So be in peace.” 54