Mahatma Das is the founder of Touchstone Training, a company that facilitates workshops, retreats and online courses on spiritual self development. He personally facilitates courses on forgiveness, meditation, prayer, vows, kirtan (chanting) and bhakti (devotional yoga).
Jahnava Hausner is co-founder of Touchstone Training and has been a practitioner and teacher of bhakti and hatha yoga for nearly 20 years. Her teaching and studies have taken her around the globe, and while spending many years in India, had the fortune of learning from and working with many elevated spiritual teachers and masters.
The Yoga of Forgiveness
Last year I forgave four people who were responsible for causing pain and frustration in my life. Actually I didn’t forgive them of my own accord; I was asked to forgive them. And I was asked to forgive them for my own benefit. First I focused on the ways these people hurt me. Then I was asked to look at them in a different light, to consider that they were just doing the best they could in the situation they were in. Next, I was asked if I would be willing to forgive them, not with the hope that they would ever change or that we would have a better relationship, but in order to free myself from the negative effects this resentment was having on me. I went along with it because I realized there was no point in holding onto these bad feelings. The moment I let go of those feelings, I felt cleansed, uplifted and energized.
How Much Can We Forgive?
All spiritual traditions are full of stories of forgiveness. Most of these stories are about extraordinary acts of forgiveness, the kind of forgiveness that seems possible only for special souls. When you hear these stories you might think that this kind of forgiveness is reserved only for saints. I thought that way for years. But two things changed this attitude.
A friend told me a story about a boy who was flirting with a girl in a bar. The girl became so enraged that she took out a knife and stabbed the boy to death. Imagine how you would feel if you were the boy’s mother? But his mother did something quite amazing: she decided to help the girl. She regularly visited her in jail and made it her mission to comfort this girl and help her overcome her problems. Here was a woman who was not a revered saint but a person like you or I. But still, she was able to forgive and help the girl who murdered her son. What excuse do I have?
Testimonials
"I found it much easier to open up because you open up, are vulnerable and not afraid to expose your own problems and defects to the audience.” Sarah, London, England
“Mahatma makes us look into our hearts, see what's there and deal with it, all in a gentle, kind and loving way.” Teresa, Philladelphia, PA