Forgiveness, Mercy and Compassion

[krsna]

 

 

<!-- end .post-top --><!-- the main section of the post goes here -->By HH Umapati Swami

http://www.umapati.net/

A reader writes, “I would like to see you write articles concerning the topics forgiveness, mercy, and compassion. I see all the negative stuff coming from devotees on other web sites, and it’s sad. I can’t for the life of me agree with the constant, vicious bashing of fallen Godbrothers…. I thought ISKCON was for the most fallen and the most merciful.”

Fortunately, this attitude toward fallen devotees is not the standard, and I see many of our people showing compassion toward their fallen Godbrothers and sisters. Still, that this negative mindset should exist at all is not a good sign.

We should, of course, learn from the mistakes of others, but we should not gloat over their misfortunes. A devotee is para-dukha-dukhi: he feels pain when he sees the suffering of others. If a devotee cannot bear to see even an ant in pain, how can he enjoy the fall of another devotee? And this bashing of fallen devotees is indeed an attempt to enjoy their misfortune. Otherwise what is the use of dwelling on it?

Krishna does not forget the service rendered by a devotee even if the devotee later falls. Srila Prabhupada writes:

“But even though he falls down, a devotee is never to be considered the same as a fallen karmi [materialist]. A karmi suffers the result of his own fruitive reactions, whereas a devotee is reformed by chastisement directed by the Lord Himself. The sufferings of an orphan and the sufferings of a beloved child of a king are not one and the same. An orphan is really poor because he has no one to take care of him, but a beloved son of a rich man, although he appears to be on the same level as the orphan, is always under the vigilance of his capable father.” [sB 1.5.19]

In 1966, a young man named David started coming to the temple. I did not know, but he had previously been with Srila Prabhupada in the loft on the Bowery.

I could not help noticing how anxious Srila Prabhupada was for this young man’s well-being. One day I heard Srila Prabhupada talking to someone who knew the young man. “He is making advancement, don’t you think?” Srila Prabhupada said.

I later found out that Srila Prabhupada had stayed for a time in David’s apartment and that David, crazed on drugs one day, ran after Srila Prabhupada with a knife. Srila Prabhupada ran to a neighbor’s apartment to protect himself.

Yet all Srila Prabhupada wanted for this young man was that he might make spiritual advancement. Let us all follow Srila Prabhupada’s example.

© Umapati Swami:pray:

July 14, 2006

[Gaea]

well said.