SOME THOUGHTS ON HATRED
‘Hatred’ is defined as dislike, ill-will, aversion,
hostility, revulsion, odium; antagonism; antipathy; enmity; loathing; detestation;
etc. It also means strong dislike.
Some of Its antonyms are : love; liking; affection; fondness;
regard; respect; admiration; attachment; attraction; passion; adulation; esteem;
etc.
In this world of dualities, hatred
and love co-exist like light and darkness, life and death, dry and wet.
If there are cardinal virtues like :
kindness; patience; humility; chastity; charity; temperance and humility; there
are also some deadly sins like: pride; greed; gluttony; envy; lust; adultery
and blasphemy.
According to the Bible, God can both
love and hate. He hates “haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the
innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness
who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.”
Hinduism detests: lust for sensual
pleasure, anger, greed, desire, ego, envy or jealousy.
The general
principle about hatred is that one should hate the sin, not the sinner; or hate
no one; hate their vices, not themselves. The English divine F. B. Robertson (1816-53)
said: I will tell you what to hate. Hate hypocrisy; hate cant; hate
intolerance; oppression, injustice, Pharisaism; hate them as Christ hated them
--- with a deep abiding, God-like hatred.
It is not wrong to say that we hate
some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we
hate them.
According to the Greek philosopher
Plutarch who was born around 46 AD and died after 119 AD : if we hate our
enemies , we shall contract such a vicious habit of mind as by degrees will
break out upon those who are our friends, or those who are indifferent to us.
Finally, this quote: Hatred does not
cease by hatred, but only by love: this is the eternal rule.
*********
G.R.Kanwal
1st December 2024
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