The Cult of Endless Forgiveness

In urgent need to forgive everybody everywhere all the time, we hear occasionally, as if in need to be forgiven themselves, the preachers of such an unconditional cult of forgiveness spreading their “love.”

Will they forgive those who may disagree with such an indiscriminate policy? Hardly. Why not? Because the doctrine of unconditional forgiveness is a dream only.

If such a dream were reality, there would be no need for the battle of Kuruksetra; there would be no need for the Bhagavad Gita to be spoken; we could all wish the best to each other, leave things as they are, and go home.

Forgiveness is a laudable attitude...only applicable when the opposing party achieves a humble introspective state of consciousness and is ready to accept superior guidance.
Such a reformed soul can be given another chance to prove to those who suffered from her selfishness and cruelty that things indeed changed. To see such a reformation of heart is most inspiring to any real devotee.

How many times could we witness such a wonder happen? Not many times. Instead, the cult of unconditional forgiveness opens doors to chronic, repeated abuse and violence committed by those who came after prolonged time of their criminal activities to understand that actually they have the right to act the way they do due to their secured institutional or individual position. And the forgiving one became unwillingly a collaborator of crimes he may not commit himself. As one man said, “I am not afraid of those who are violent. I am afraid of those who faciliate violence.”

In this way, violence and abuse spread epidemicly until they reach such an established level that Krsna Himself must activate the law of karma to finally bring such predators to a level to which they belong.
He himself and even His pure representatives are able to use the most harsh vocabulary in order to point out to the public who the real criminal is.

And so forgiveness is a noble act of mercy, provided the one who is guilty of a particular crime is entirely changing its course of action, turning from an abusive, cruel master to a servant. It is the action that provides the evidence for such change, not a mere usage of words.

In this way, following Srila Prabhupada's example of discriminate forgiveness, we can avoid getting cheated by notoric cheaters and opportunists who got used to it to “be forgiven” all the time.