Should criminals who go on murderous sprees be forgiven?

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

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circumstance. Thank you.
Does it address the question? Yes. So, to further take one step forward, if we get the horizontal relationship and the vertical relationship completely out of the picture and we don’t have any expectation from anyone, for instance, the glaring example that’s coming to my mind right now is the high school shooting that happened in Oregon. So, I’m just trying to put myself in the shoes of the parents whose children got killed by a total stranger.
They didn’t have any expectation from that stranger. It’s a total stranger who completely wrecks their lives right now. So, how would they react in such a situation? There’s no question of horizontal relationship there.
And that’s, it happens often in the first world, in fact, like you said. That’s true. So, there’s no relationship.
There’s no expectation. And suddenly one stranger comes, you know, and completely wrecks sort of the parents’ life or, you know, the near and dear ones. How would they react? It’s very difficult to control the mind and keep composed.
No, especially if there is this kind of grievously, monstrously antisocial behavior, there has to be strong action against that. There has to be exemplary punishment given in such a situation so that people don’t give in to their despotic sides like this. So, there are definitely certain people who can be incorrigible.
And the Bhagavad Gita does not recommend a naive pacifism. Oh, whatever anyone does, just be forgiving. No, there are limits to forgiveness.
So, this sort of things are, they have to be dealt with at three different levels when such terrible, tragic things happen. Now, one is at this life, this worldly level. At this worldly level, whenever something wrong, something unjust, something grievous happens, that has to be corrected in this level.
You see, in the Ramayana, we have Sita was kidnapped. And it was not that Ram said, oh, everything that happens is by God’s will. Let everything go on.
No, took corrective action. And Draupadi was dishonored in the Mahabharata similarly. So, in this world, the whole purpose is that we should have justice from this world’s perspective.
And if injustice happens, then there has to be correction that should be done. But along with that, there is the understanding that things have a long term causal connection also. That means that if something tragic happens to someone, now, from this life’s perspective, there is no explanation for that.
But our life doesn’t begin from this, from birth. It doesn’t end at that. So, we all have been existing before this life and we will continue to exist after this life.
So, when the parents just understand that our children, they may have died, but actually their souls are eternal. And because their souls are eternal, we may not be able to do anything for them right now in a physical sense. But by offering prayers to them, by offering our spiritual good wishes to them, we can still connect with them and benefit them.
Not exactly the same way as you’re connecting before. But the understanding of person’s eternal existence that enables us to get a new dimension to life where death is not there. One of the greatest frustrations that is caused at the time of death is the sense of final, irrevocable extinction.
But when we understand that there is a spiritual side to our life which is indestructible, then that frustration caused by that sense of irrevocable extinction, that is not there. So, death is not a termination. Death is a transition.
And even those who have been so brutally killed, yes, they should not have been killed and those who have killed them, they need to be severely punished. But what has happened, even that is not terminal in the sense of having extinguished their lives forever. They are as eternal beings, they have gone to some other destination.
And by our prayers, we can still benefit them. And at the ultimate level, we can answer this at three levels. Third level is that we all have an eternal connection with God.
And in one sense, we are like pilgrims on a journey to God. It’s a multi-life journey. And within this multi-life journey, we form groups of, we all become groups who travel from one destination to another together.
So, we, during this journey together, we try to help each other as much as possible. But when we understand that we are all ultimately on the same voyage to God, we may travel together, we may travel separately. But that onward progress is not terminated, it is not interrupted, it’s just form is changed.
So, we are all on the same journey to God. And God is not just at the destination. Suppose I came from India to America here, and I was supposed to meet some XYZ, XYZ, and I never met that person before.
And then I come to that person’s home and knock on the door, and the person opens the door and I say, oh, you were sitting right next to me throughout my flight. But I did not know you, so I didn’t recognize you. So like that, God, the Bhagavad Gita describes, is always there next to us in our heart.
So God is always with us. So even if there is a small baby who cannot understand anything, God understands that baby. And God is with that baby in the heart.
So we are all on a pilgrimage, and sometimes the way events happen in life, they can appear very brutal, very pointless, very ghastly. But this is just at a level of the body, at a surface level. At the level of the soul, all of us are eternal, and all of us are eternally guided by the Supreme Soul, God.
So this vision that God is always there with, not just with me, but with everyone, and God is going to guide them onwards in their journey. And that can give us a sense of emotional closure. There is a physical closure in the relationship that is brought about by that sudden death.
But there has to be emotional closure to the relationship so that we can go on with life. So we understand this, as God had put this person in my care, God had helped me to form a relationship with this person, and I did what I could in this relationship. Now, that same God who had brought me in a relationship with this person, now that same God will continue to guide this person, and that same God will continue to guide me.
So when we understand that God is the eternal companion of everyone, and that we are all on a pilgrimage, where sometimes we are together, sometimes we are separated, but we are all moving towards the same, towards the same ultimate destination, and we are under divine guidance throughout. And that can give us a sense of emotional closure. And then we can move on in life.
Does that address the question? Thank you. Any other questions? Yes. So when somebody dies, if Dr. Parnachar is a child…