One 75 years old lady came to see me. She had a right knee problem.

Never can I thank my father

I asked her, “How is the relationship with your father?”

She said, “Fine. We had a very cordial relationship”

“There is no thanks in your heart for him. Can you thank him? Think about all that he had done to you. Thank him for the same”.

She became silent and curtly went off.

After about one week, she phoned up to me. “As I came with my son-in-law last time, I could not tell you anything in front of him. To tell the truth, I am not able to thank my father”.

A promise that resulted in suffering

“Why”.

“Only because of him I suffered all my life”.

Her father showed her a boy when she was to be married and told her that she had to marry him. She agreed to her father.

On the date of marriage he came and asked her, “Give me a promise. Whatever happens in your life you would not divorce this boy”.

She gave a promise to her father that she would not divorce him at any cost.

Her marriage was an abusive affair

From the date of marriage, her husband had been physically abusing her. It was a total harassment.

She got two children through him and they are well placed now.

Because she gave a promise to her father, she did not divorce her husband. All along she had been cursing her father for the same reasons.

She said, “I am a free bird now after my husband’s death. I can neither forgive my husband nor my father”.

Positives in the sufferings

I asked her, “In spite of all these bad events there must be at least one positive event in your life. Only for that purpose you have suffered in your life”.

She is a staunch devotee of Puttaparthi Sai Baba. When her marriage failed, she wanted a spiritual asylum. Therefore, she went to Baba.

She composed and sang many songs on gods like Devi, and about Baba. She was also allotted a house there in Puttaparthi.

She had a great spiritual progress. Throughout the day, she was singing only Bhajans. Her life was totally changed to spirituality and she lived a life of an ascetic.

I asked her, “Is this not a positive point? I think only for this aspect your husband behaved like that. If the suffering was not there then you would have lived an ordinary life.

“We say, Atmavan Bhava, which means ‘I am not the doer’. Like that your husband is also not the doer. When we say we are not the doers, the opposite person is also not the doer”.

When she understood that Divine is the doer, automatically she started forgiving and she is free from her knee pain now.