Gurudev, how do I forgive those who have abused me emotionally and physically? Sometimes I feel like killing them but even that doesn’t seem enough.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you get hurt, it is not only the other person at fault, it is also your ignorance and your naivety. You have not been intelligent enough, or intuitive enough to avoid it, or move out of it. So, take a little bit of the responsibility on yourself as well. If you had been strong and skillful, nobody could have abused you. When you see the situation from this perspective, you will become calmer. I want to ask you, haven’t you caused some pain or hurt to someone else knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly? You have. If others hold on to it for a lifetime and go after you, how would you like it? My dear, if someone has abused you, they have been ignorant. It is because of ignorance and some hurt inside them, that they have caused it to others. See it from a wider lens. A happy person will not come and harm anyone else. If someone is harming others, it is because they are not happy, not centered and they don’t know what you know. Consider them as sick people. If someone is physically sick, do you get angry at them? These people are mentally and emotionally sick, they are spiritually sick, and if you hold a grudge against them, you will also become one among them. You will get sick. For your own sake, you should let go and move on.