RETURN GOOD FOR EVIL
Goodness is a generous quality of
the heart. The antonym of goodness is evil, badness, wickedness, and cruelty.
Goodness is kindness. It belongs to the category of love, affection, compassion,
kindness, forgiveness, and mercy. Whereas evil is repulsive, goodness is attractive.
It is magnetic.
If you return evil for evil, you add
fuel to the fire. But if you return good for evil, you generate peace, love, affection, friendliness, and cordiality
in relationship.
Evil is a negative force. It is
immoral. It is brutal. Goodness is a positive attitude. It has an element of spirituality. It is
angelic. It is a non-violent response to a provocative situation. It has the
fragrance of forgiveness, not the foul smell of revenge.
Evil is darkness of the mind; goodness
is its brightness that abolishes gloom and
obscurity.
As war can be stopped by embracing peace, so can evil be transformed by goodness, love, affection, forgiveness
and benevolence.
Mercy is an attribute of God.
Blessed are they who adopt it as one of the qualities of their life-long character.
Finally, read and remember the
following sonnet written by the English poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
. It is included in the play The Merchant
of Venice.
The
quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It
droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon
the place beneath : it is twice blesse’d;
It
blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘T
is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The
throned monarch better than his crown;
His
sceptre shows the force of temporal power.
The
attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein
doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But
mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It
is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It
is an attribute to God himself.
An
earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When
mercy seasons justice.
******
G. R. Kanwal
30 March 2026 ``
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