Life advice from a 98 year old holocaust survivor.
Why We Should Not Hate?
The soul of every person, whether they are good or bad, is Divine. Then how come some people do bad deeds? This is because the Divinity of that person’s soul, has gotten eclipsed by the ego-driven ignorance present in their mind. The more a person succeeds in erasing their ego, the more the Divinity of their soul shines through, and the more good the person appears.
Think of a beautiful lady sitting behind a dirty windowpane. Looking through the dirty windowpane, she too appears muddy and dirty. But when she starts to clean the windowpane, more and more of her beauty is revealed. So the mind of a person is like this windowpane. And just like the lady, the beauty of the soul is revealed only when the mind is cleansed of its ego driven dirt.
Since the problem arises due to the dirt of ignorance on the mind, therefore while it is alright to dislike the bad qualities of someone, it is nevertheless NOT ok to hate that person.
Because when we hate, we are not only discarding the good qualities present within that person, but we are also discarding their divine soul. So hate is never the right attitude. If a person does wrong then that wrongful tendency must certainly be addressed and tackled, but it must be done with a calm attitude, without falling into the trap of hate.
We must remember that the same soul that is present in us, is also present in another person. Atmavat Sarva Bhuteshu – All is One Existence. Keeping this truth of Oneness in mind, we must not give way to the corrosive emotion of hate, which will only cause a lowering of our own state of consciousness.
“To hate the sinner is the worst sin, for it is hating God (present in his soul). The hater knows not ’tis himself (his own soul) he hates. The lover knows not ’tis himself he loves. My rival’s downfall is my own disgrace: I look on my enemy and see Krishna’s face.”
– Sri Aurobindo
