The Three Spritual Fs

The three Fs — faith, forgiveness and freedom — have the power of aiding healing, peace and manifestation of the life we choose.

Forgiveness is an act of letting go as mentioned in the Isa Upanishad

In the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Sri Krishna speaks about the Stithaprajna — one whose state of mind is calm, balanced and unruffled, yet who is active in the world. As one becomes more aware of one’s self, it becomes easier to move beyond the conditioned reactions, and to move towards a stiller, calmer state of being — a freer state.

From the human perspective, freedom often translates into choice. In respect to our choices and freedom, it is often easier to find and make these in our external world rather than the internal one.

How often are we able to choose the thoughts we have? Or, the way we react to situations? Our experiences directly influence our personality and bind us to conditioned responses, thus slowing our progress to functioning at our highest potential.

The journey of awareness frees us from judgments and rigid thoughts, leading us from darkness to light. With time, patience and practice, we achieve a state of constant well being, resulting in enhanced productivity, creativity and clarity of thought.

Becoming aware of oneself is a combination of letting go of past hurts and spending time in spiritual sadhanas. Whether our concept of spirituality is with form or without, within ourselves or external, or even nonexistent — at some point in time we do perceive that there is a presence vaster than our limited existence. That moment of awe is also a moment of faith as one appreciates forces that one had not heretofore comprehended.

Faith leads to the path of freedom. Whether in another person, in oneself or in divinity, it provides the strength to move forward. We find that
the latest research based on neuroscience as well has validated the importance of an optimistic outlook, another facet of faith.

Forgiveness is an act of letting go as mentioned in the Isa Upanishad — “tena tyaktena bhunjita” — meaning, let go and rejoice! As human beings, social interactions and relationships are key ingredients of our experiences experiences. We are all bundles of feelings, reactions and experiences,
and these interactions are often based on our own views of the world rather than a combined view of the world. Though we may speak the same language, the interpretation derived can be significantly different for the same words — add to this the perceived tone of voice, judgments etc. and one has a complex web of communications.

It’s natural that we often hurt or feel hurt in these interactions, whether intentional or not. Understanding this helps in taking a more objective view of past experiences. Forgiveness is not about letting the other person off the hook or condoning an action that has caused harm.
It is releasing the need to be responsible for the punishment of the person — often the subconscious reason why we need to hold on. Forgiveness of the self or the other cannot be achieved by finding reasons to forgive — that is just a conditional exercise and does not take away the burden of the problem. True forgiveness is an opening of the heart that allows one to understand the lesson we need to learn from the situation. If one is looking for peace and joy, these three Fs are very important. The strength that comes through faith in oneself or the Divine, the ability to release oneself through forgiveness, lead to the freedom of mind and soul.