Forget and forgive. You will have Peace. You will become Divine. – Swami Sivananda
Do not develop any ill feeling inside your heart for the person who insulted you or injured you.
Carrying ill feeling is worse than open anger. Carrying ill feeling is mental cancer. Do not nourish grievances. Forget and forgive. This is not just an idealistic maxim. This is the only way to retain your centred Peace.
The habit of nurturing grievances is highly injurious to one’s own Self. You will lose sleep. You will poison your blood. You will develop blood pressure and neurasthenia. After all, the injury or insult was done to you once. Now it is past. It is all over. It is spilled milk.
Forgive those who slander or speak ill of you. Do not harm anyone who injures you. Forgive and forget the harm done by others. Do good to those who express hate toward you. Control fits of anger by practicing serenity, patience, love, mercy and tolerance. Forget and forgive. Adapt yourself to gatherings and events. Every good act is charity. To be kind and loving is charity. To forget and forgive some harm done to you is charity.
Why do you want to perpetuate the misery of that injury or insult by constantly remembering it? Why do you want to feed the dying embers of hatred and ill will? Is it not highly foolish? The span of human life is so short that you cannot afford to waste time and life in such trifles. Get over the bad habit. The best way to do so is to keep yourself ever busy in any work which absorbs your interest. You can gain peace of mind if you actively follow a calling or profession, or even hobby, which holds your interest. You will then have a sense of fulfillment, of achievement. Remember the proverb: Man does not live by bread alone.
Forgive. If anybody from aversion speaks disparagingly of you, greet them courteously without caring for those disagreeable words. Forgiveness, patience, abstention from injury, impartiality, truth, sincerity, control of the senses, cleverness, mildness, modesty, firmness, liberality, freedom from anger, contentment, sweetness of words, benevolence, freedom from malice – all these combined create your Sadhana practice.