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“Christ taught, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which deceitfully use you and persecute you.”
And what an amount of strength and undauntedness, true non-violence requires! We should not be weak, we should not be cowards, but we should at the same time be kind.
The person who does not retaliate, however he is hurt, however he is offended by others, is a person of terrible strength, and he alone is a man. All others are miserable cowards, hiding their fear and abject cowardice under a cloak of braggardism, physical and mental, and never rising to the stature of a man.
– Swami Yatiswarananda, a direct disciple of Swami Brahmananda, Ramakrishna Mission.
Summary
What Swami Yatiswarananda is saying is that true non-violence is of the kind that Christ taught us. He showed this non-violence through his actions. That is what made him so great and worthy of being worshiped by millions. He did not just preach non-violence, he lived it.
When Jesus was crucified, he must have been in unimaginable physical and mental pain. But did he get angry and curse his tormentors? Did he wish they burn and suffer in hell forever? Not even for a moment. Even after suffering unimaginable pain after being hung from the cross, Jesus asked God to forgive those who crucified him.
Jesus knew that by torturing a Divine Being like him, his enemies had gathered horrific karma and a Divine retribution surely awaited them. And in his tremendous magnanimity of heart, and fatherly concern for their well being, he asked God to forgive even his tormentors. This is real non-violence. It requires tremendous strength of mind. Even after having nails driven into his body, Jesus’s mind was so controlled that he could not wish ill for his tormentors.
