HATRED
Hatred is the same as ill-will, enmity, malice, hostility,
dislike and antipathy. It is the antonym of love, affection, friendliness,
brotherhood, kindness, warmth, regard, sympathy and fellow-feeling. A person
who bears hatred poisons his own heart as well as that of his victim. It means
that both the hater and the hated are accursed beings. Hatred for hatred , like ,tit for tat, is no remedy
for this malady.
Hatred can lead to indifference, detachment, disinfection,
bitterness, friction, confrontation, revenge, fighting, violence, or any other
form of injurious and destructive behaviour. The loss suffered by both the
hater and hated may be physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, psychic,
moral, social, political, aesthetic or religious. Unfortunately, if hatred is
not shallow and has settled deeply in one’s heart, it is not easy to uproot it. It re-emerges at
short or long intervals.
According to the English poet Lord Byron (1788-1823) hatred
is the madness of the heart. American
educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) declared :“I shall never permit
myself to stoop so low as to hate any man.” Greek -Roman biographer Plutarch
(46 ce-119 ce)- warns “if you hate your
enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind as by degrees will
break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to
you.”
Lord Buddha who lived in ancient India (c.5th to 4th
century BCE) has the last word on eradication of hatred. According to him:
“Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love: this is the eternal
rule.”
Mahatma Gandhi(1889-1948) believed that the end of hatred is never justice; it is
retaliation; it is blind fury. He added: We are tarred with the same brush, and
are children of one and the same Creator, and as such the Divine powers within
us are finite. To slight a single human
being is to slight those Divine powers, and thus to harm not only that being
but with him the whole world.”
Finally, a couplet from one of my own ghazals:
Mein hoon darwesh, mujhey
aata nahin nafrat karna
Ghair mumkin hai ke
dushman bhi ho nalan mujh se
(darwesh: faqir,
religious devotee; ghair mumkin: impossible;
nalan: aggrieved.).
Translation: Being a God’s devotee, I have no room for hatred
in my heart. So it is impossible to think of even an enemy having any behavioral complaint against me.
4th March 2020 G.
R. KANWAL
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