Global Forgiveness Day 2025: Sanatan's Wisdom, "To Err is Human, To Forgive is Divine," Concurs!

Global Forgiveness Day 2025 brings forth the opportunity for the masses to forgive their known ones, and for the guilty to seek redemption from their peers, family, loved ones, and distant relatives. Well, what are you waiting for? Know how to go about it here!

Every year, there is a day when it is possible to ask for forgiveness, and one will get it with no strings attached. It's Global Forgiveness Day 2025. On this day, one can seek redemption for their past mistakes, and purify their consciousness of the guilt of past mishappenings or wrongdoings. Today, it is as simple as asking and you shall receive!

There are only three categories of people who wouldn't seek forgiveness today. The ignorant, the arrogant, and the combination of people are in the category of rascals and fools.

Global Forgiveness Day 2025: To Err is Human, Why?

Human beings as life forms come from the group of 4,32,000 species created by God. Like every other creature in existence, it has limitations. These limitations are:

1. Imperfect Senses (Karaṇa-apāṭava): Man has limitations on his senses. He can't see, hear, touch, smell, or taste everything. For instance, he can see colors only possible in the human spectrum, hear only sounds of particular frequencies, and so on. This leads to the second defect of humans.

   
   

2. Be Illusioned (Pramāda): Since humans can't see the world as it is, they start making assumptions about the truth or facts. This invariably leads to humans making the initial steps for making mistakes.

   Yes, being deluded is a defect of being born as a human. No one can claim to never make mistakes. It is therefore ironic that people don't want to forgive their fellow humans when they themselves are not immune to making mistakes. This leads to the third defect in humans.

   

3. Make Mistakes (Bhrama): Due to making errors in judgment arising from limited perception due to having imperfect senses, every human makes mistakes. Yes, we are born and programmed by nature to commit mistakes.

   This is the result of accepting the human body at birth. We humans, due to our bodily limitations, are fated to misunderstand situations and misrepresent reality. If not treated with wisdom, this leads to humans making an even bigger grave wrong to their fellow human beings.

   
   

4. To Cheat (Vipralipsa): A person who doesn't realise the folly committed by them soon gets the wrong motivation to commit even greater crime, i.e., cheating propensity. Humans cheat others for their selfish reasons. The paradox is that they start doing this first by cheating themselves, believing that other individuals are fools and they won't find out how they were wrongfully deprived of their assets.

   

   This starts by twisting truths, misrepresenting facts, or pretending to be someone who is not or showing false competency or capability to the person who is about to be cheated.

Global Forgiveness Day 2025: Why Forgive?

There is a myth amongst people that one should never forget and one should never forgive. This is because people think one should never forget the good done by others for them and also one should never forget the wrong done to them.

This is a wrong chain of thought that will foster a wrong sense of belief in an individual. This is because one is born with the defect to make mistakes. Let's see how a guru expresses his views on forgiveness.

As Gaur Gopal Das Swamiji correctly pointed out we don't forgive the other person for their sake, we do it for ourselves. It is for our benefit that we forgive others not for their goodwill.

Think for a moment, won't there be a time when there will be a mistake made by you? There is also another point one forgets, forgiving is just the start, just because you forgive someone doesn't mean he will forget the mistake or injustice done to him. This leads us to the conclusion that forgiving others is the first step to forgetting the mistake.

Sanatan Gyan Overview: How Forgiveness Leads to Forgetfulness?

Just because one has forgiven others doesn't mean the affected person will forget the wrongdoings done to him. This is where the almighty's role comes into play. When you forgive someone God begins his play. You don't believe it hear it from authority.

Forgiving is like hitting ‘delete,’ but forgetting? That’s when you realize your brain doesn’t come with an ‘empty trash’ option. While forgetting may need time (or a miracle), forgiveness is a choice—and it’s the doorway to your peace.

To forgive is not weakness but divine strength. Only a strong person can forgive, not a weak one. Lord Krishna, the supreme personality of Godhead, is immensely pleased when one forgives others.

क्षमा धर्मस्य मातरं सन्तः सर्वोत्तरं यतः।प्रकृत्या चान्वितं विष्णोः प्रियतमं गुणं विदुः॥

Translation:

Forgiveness is the mother of religious principles. The saints consider it the highest virtue. It is naturally associated with Lord Viṣṇu (Krishna) and is considered one of His most beloved qualities.

How about other sources? The Bhagavad Gita beautifully explains how God has created this power in the living entities. How Lord Krishna himself gives this power to the conditioned soul who finds the strength to forgive others.

बुद्धिर्ज्ञानमसम्मोहः क्षमा सत्यं दमः शमः।सुखं दुःखं भवोऽभावो भयं चाभयमेव च॥अहिंसा समता तुष्टिस्तपो दानं यशोऽयशः।भवन्ति भावा भूतानां मत्त एव पृथग्विधाः॥

Intelligence, knowledge, freedom from doubt, forgiveness (kṣamā), truthfulness, control of the senses, and control of the mind; happiness and distress, birth and death, fear and fearlessness; nonviolence, equanimity, satisfaction, austerity, charity, fame, and infamy — all these various qualities of living beings are created by Me alone.

Sanatan Dharma propounds that what is most valuable is forgiving others. It is the divine quality that any human being must strive to achieve. If one considers oneself a decent human being, one should have this quality at all costs. Here is a valid source that proves this point.

क्षमा शस्त्रेषु शौर्यं च नेत्रे दृष्टिषु शीलता।क्षमा धर्मस्य भूषणं क्षमा धर्मस्य जीवनम्॥

Translation:

Forgiveness is the adornment of dharma, its very life. It is more powerful than the sharpest weapons. Just as sight gives value to the eyes, forgiveness gives value to righteousness.

Sadly, in this current age of quarrel, the Kaliyuga forgiveness along with tolerance is on decline, and violence in the form of animal killing, abortions, physical and verbal abuse is on the rise. If a person wants to be a decent human being, they should imbibe the divine quality mentioned in the Sanatan Vedic scriptures of Bharat, that is, the current India.