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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision crucifixion, Jesus forgave them who sent him to the cross, because they did not know what they were doing. That is why he said while showing the importance of forgiveness, "When you are going to offer ablation if you remember there is an enmity between you and your brother, return and compromise with him."
This means that if the heart is full of animosity, no religious rite will be fruitful. The Jain religion fully expounds the virtue of forgiveness. It brings us a number of virtues at once. Forgiveness is said to be the seed-plot of all virtues. If forgiveness enters, greediness disappears. With forgiveness comes renouncement, simplicity, modesty, contentment and control over the mind and sense-organs. If all these virtues are present, forgiveness can be practised.
Forgiveness means being a Jain monk (nirgrantha), free from all ties, unknotting all ties. "Ksha (1) means a knot and ma (HT) means 'to destroy'. Life today is caught up in a number of knots. Between father and son, there are differences of opinion. Between Guru and disciple, there are disputes. Between husband and wife, there are misunderstandings. Between friends, there are broils. Between master and servant, there is ill feeling. Between neighbours, there are quarrels. Love is absent in the relations between near ones. Forgiveness unites broken hearts. There are knots of arrogance and there are knots of enmity. There are obsessions and differences of opinion. Man becomes a victim of strange mental diseases. In a sugarcane where there is a knot, there is no juice. this is why relations between persons have become dry and uninteresting. Forgiveness vitalizes them. During the period covering the Tirthankaras from the second to the twenty-third, life was
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Kshamapana comparatively simple. When a mistake was made, people begged pardon, but life today is complex. Man is restless and he makes the world around him restless. Man lives as if he is in a prison cell. Knowingly or unknowingly, we become victims of anger, pride, illusion and greed. These vices express themselves through our body, speech and mind.
Outwardly we are good, but inwardly? Only God knows. Arrogance is a great vice. Illusion says, "This is mine, that is yours." Where there is anger, there is annoyance.
Where there is pride, there is insult.
What we think to be non-existent, is found to be existent. What we think to be existent, is found to be non-existent. Lust pervades everywhere. The festival of forgiveness is the festival of universal love; the festival, that promises fearlessness to the sentients of the three worlds. Let us proclaim from the depths of a generous heart and in a voice touched with tenderness :
"Love all sentients of the universe ! Cherish all good intentions of the Heart ! Come, forgive and ask forgiveness ! The world is full of vices, full of enmity. Let us sow the seeds of friendship.
Then only the world will be worth living in."
O! Brother mine! Why is there a collar round your neck ? Are you a wood-cutter for bhavas (births) ? Are you to roam with a bundle of sticks of passions (Kashayas) ? Why can't you speak in a free voice with a frank heart :
"Michchhami dukkadam! May my evil deeds be fruitless !"
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