We certainly agree that people make mistakes simply because they are people, we all make mistakes and everyone, at some point, already faces a situation that we thought we knew how to get out. decision to act according to the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” rule.
Who’s never hurt anyone? The big difference that makes us better people than we are is the attitude we have about it.
“It’s never too late to apologize
It’s never too late to start over.
It is never too late to say I was wrong.
-Anonymous-
Among Gandhi’s best-known words, we could include those we use to name the article and use to talk about grudges, revenge or forgiveness, for example, these words affect us strictly in our direct contact with the people around us and therefore define the meaning of many reflections we can have on a daily basis.
Wrong, as we have already said, is totally human, the world in which we live forces us to live relationships that continually require our attention, so it is much more difficult to maintain and preserve them.
Therefore, this latter fact makes it easier for us to fall into situations where we are not up to the task or where we fail completely. We are more aware of these circumstances, especially when the people we refer to are family, friends or our own partner.
In this sense, the error, almost innate, can be seen from different angles: we can make mistakes with ourselves, with others, or others can be wrong with us, in any case it would be useful to keep in mind this idea with which we begin the text: “eye for eye and the world will end up blind”.
When others let us down or betray us, we feel a huge void that we are forced to repair, this is the moment when, before making a decision, it would be good to ask: how far is revenge and bitterness the right way?Am I in this situation, the other way around?
The consequence of a negative attitude is that it becomes a note of its own: violence begets violence and revenge involves revenge, they say.
Therefore, an attitude of resentment and hatred has only one meaning, that of harming our own person: negative feelings are reinforced and are not a solution. If we punish all other people’s mistakes, if we all live under the “eye for an eye” directive, we would never grow up as people.
Faced with these negative feelings is the justice and forgiveness that Gandhi proposes: just as when we are in the place where he makes mistakes, we urgently need the forgiveness of the other, when it is the other way around, we must be able to forgive.
Educating forgiveness to live is essential, even more so in the moments when they leave us behind. Forgetfulness and learning start from there, to continue our lives and understand mistakes; because only then will others be able to defeat those who have abandoned them.
Therefore, the expression eye for eye and the world will eventually go blind it takes its full sense deep into human existence and in its ability to overcome. The world we would have left if we didn’t have the same ability to make mistakes and forgiveness would be very sad and self-destructive.
It is a matter of understanding, although sometimes it hurts, that punishing us because we have been punished only leads to the pain and never to the happiness that we must always seek.