Truly, it is a blessing from God that we can forget.
If we kept remembering the bad things that happened to us, we may never see any joy in life. Chances are, these memories will make us bitter and unhappy souls, leading to illness and early demise. They say that you retain the feelings experienced when something bad happened to you. It is not the incident but a memory of the feelings experienced that bothers us. If God did not give us the gift of ability to forget, just think how any survivors of holocaust could still live after the trauma. God helps us to heal through the ability to forget.
We should train our mind to keep away from memory of bad things. This takes conscious effort. They say the best way to do this is to replace a bad memory with a good one. There is an interesting story about the torture inflicted by constant remembrance!
This king was losing hair fast. Any amount of treatment magic oils, massages did not help. He announced a huge reward to anyone who can stop the hair fall. As it happens in such tales, there was also a huge punishment if someone who took up the challenge failed. Most would-be solution providers stayed away not wanting to invite the punishment. Not this small made naive looking young guy. He went up to the King and claimed that he can prepare this magic potion, which, when applied on the scalp, will stop the hair fall. He asked the King for a hefty advance payment to prepare his magic potion. He got the hefty advance amount. He then made a pretence of preparing this magic potion. After a lapse of time, he announced to the King that his medicine to stop hair fall was ready. On the appointed day, he came to the King’s palace and handed over his magic potion. As he handed over this to the King, he told the King that there was one condition the King must observe for the medicine to be effective. The condition was that the King should NEVER think of a monkey when he is using this magic potion. The King readily agreed.
The King, with high hopes, was about to pour the first spoon of the potion in his palm before applying it on his scalp. The Prime Minister, who was standing near, whispered to the King “Oh King, do not forget, do not think of a monkey”.
That was it!!
The King could not get the monkey out of his mind. This memory of the monkey chased him day in and day out. The moment he touched the bottle containing the potion, the memory of the monkey will immediately show up! The King was tortured out of his wits because of the monkey memory. He could not use the potion since, as soon as he touched the bottle, the monkey climbed into his memory without fail.
In sheer despair, he sent for the person who supplied the potion. He pleaded with this young man “please help me get rid of the memory of the monkey! I will give you anything to fix this memory problem “. This bright young man asked the King “what about your hair fall problem?”
The King immediately replied “never mind my hair fall; please help me get rid of the monkey memory”.
Hiding a small victorious smile, the young man assured the King that he will fix the monkey memory problem. So much for remembering and forgetting!!
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