By: BK Usha
Source: The Daily Guardian https://epaper.thedailyguardian.com/view/2444/the-daily-guardian/15
Dated: May 17th, 2025
The word mercy refers to benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in different contexts. Mercy has been extolled as a great virtue in many religions, and is praised as one of the attributes of God. Some faiths emphasise performing acts of mercy -- such as giving alms and caring for the sick -- as a part of religious beliefs.
Compassionate behaviour by those in positions of authority is also called mercy, such as the leniency shown by a judge to a convict.
In the Bible, God is said to be "merciful and gracious" and is praised for it. In Islam, Most Merciful is one of the names of God, and Compassionate is the most common name occurring in the Quran. Both Buddhism and Jainism hold ‘karuṇa’ or compassion to be an important virtue.
Mercy shown by one person to another reduces suffering, heals relationships, and serves the cause of justice.
But what is God’s mercy and how does He show it? When most people think of divine mercy, they believe it means God absolving people of their sins, thus saving them from punishment. However, human actions and the return thereof are governed by the law of karma, which says that we reap what we sow. No one can avoid the consequences of their actions, good or bad, and God does not intervene in this mechanism. If He were to intercede on behalf of some people, that would be injustice to the rest.
God bestows mercy on all His children by showing them the path to happiness and liberation from sorrow. He first reminds His children that they are souls, not bodies, and points out that forgetting this simple fact has caused them all their suffering. God tells souls that He is their Father, and that they have the right to receive His powers and virtues as their inheritance. They can get these by maintaining the awareness that they are souls, and remembering Him. Such remembrance of God is called Rajyoga. The powers that souls receive through this mental link enable them to overcome their weaknesses.
With regular practice of such remembrance, souls gradually become free of defects. They are able to give up damaging habits of thought, feeling, and reaction, which leads to an improvement in the quality of their attitude, actions, and interactions. This practice also stills the mind and enables the intellect to gain an understanding of the spiritual laws and principles that govern life and sustain harmony in our relationships and in our interaction with nature.
Souls who regularly practise such remembrance experience constant peace and happiness and become instrumental in enabling others to have a similar experience. They help fellow souls connect with the Father and receive their inheritance from Him.
From a state of want, in which they used to pray for God’s mercy, love, and peace, the souls reach a state of fulfillment and completeness where they no longer need to ask for anything. Instead, by their sincere effort to be a better person, they become worthy of receiving God’s love and blessings.
This is how God’s mercy reaches His children. There is a lesson in this for all of us. When we can seek mercy from God in spite of our faults, we should be willing to show the same mercy to others. We only gain by doing this. Mercy is said to be “twice blessed”: it blesses him that gives and him that takes.
BK Usha is a Rajyoga teacher
at the Brahma Kumaris headquarters in Abu Road, Rajasthan.
