Letter to a Wounded Soul

I am aware that a letter is not the most soothing balm to a wounded soul, but I stand here before you on behalf of the whole universe, to tell you that the wound that you bear in your heart today is carved on our bones, and no one in the whole world will ever be spared from the sin of the fallen humanity; and I too am a victim and victimized, just as you are, and I would not try to shed my futile tears to express how I vibrate with your soul. I wonder why the earth did not protest against such a violation of life, when you were subjected to such an ordeal; I wonder why the heavens did not roar to stop the ferocious lion leaping onto an innocent lamb; I wonder why the birds of the air did not protest this gross injustice done to a voiceless child! I stand here to condemn the entire creation, which had let your little heart be pierced so violently that you cannot hide your wounds. I am here to condemn the God you believe in so religiously for not taking your side, and bring justice! Oh no, here I am at last to condemn myself for not opening my mouth in protest.

I can see the wry smile on your dry lips, and you had not believed in anyone speaking on your behalf, not even the very people you thought your own. How could you ever doubt that the enemy could be from within your fold and not from out? You had taken for granted that the people whom you thought would be your guardians had turned against you, and yet like a lamb you spoke not! I am here to condemn you too, not because you silently bore the scars, and did not utter a word against the sward piercing through your heart, not because you did not even open the matter to the parents who callously left you to the stars, not because you dared not jeopardize your future by claiming justice for what had been done to you; but I am here to condemn you for not condemning the world, and teach her a lesson. But you had known how to punish this world – by bearing courageously the scars that bear witness to the world that so long the scars remain on your body, the world cannot be absolved from her heinous crime.

The anger and the vengeance that you bear in your heart is enough to explode the Himalayas, and throw the endless Ganges into her depths; the earth that had given shape to your body is a mute witness to all that had happened to you, and the sky and the naked walls, and the cold earth are witness to what the earth has gifted to you! But were you in your ripe age to receive such a gift? You carry even today the scars of the crimes of humanity in you, like the blood stains of Lady Macbeth, it cannot be washed away, the scars you bear in your body will haunt humanity till there is breath in you. But there is no reason for you to suffer any more, today I have come to reverse the annals of history; I would like to rewrite the pages of the past, so that there will not be a little soul carrying the indelible scars of the crimes of humanity. I may not succeed in removing the scars from your body, but I may succeed in revealing to the world that what has happened to a little soul in a remote corner of the world has the potentiality to bring down fire from heaven and burn the whole universe.

Alas, the world has not changed much even after so many years, and do you think that the one who pierced your heart so willfully will one day return to you with folded hands, and fall on his knees and confess in public that he was not worthy of your forgiveness? No, what has happened to you has made history, but not what they make; it is a routine exercise for some, to pierce the hearts of others, and do it till there is energy in their bones. No water from the holy Ganges can every absolve the world from the crime, and today we have come to pay our humble homage to the scars that still remind us what we had done to you. I wish to bend my head with reverence and kiss the spot that still bears the scars, and shed tears till there is none, so that you may be free from the scars, and return to the fullness of joy and happiness that the universe may offer to you.

Forgiveness is a silly word, and you can only laugh at the people who may recommend it as an easy solution to hard problems. I know even the people who preach the notion of forgive and forget know not that life is not a night of drunken revelry that you would not remember what happened a night after; that would be the last thing that I would ever propose. But I have something else to offer to you. Break my heart with a blow of a sword and break me into pieces, so that the blood flowing from my flesh may wash away the ugly scars that cover your skin; I am no hero to venture into an heroic act of laying my life for humanity; I am no saint to offer my life in vain for no cause, but I would like to do this as a humble expression of what I owe to this universe. If even one soul on earth has been blind to you, it is a disgrace to the very universe. I would like to kneel before your presence and behold your scars in my bloody hands and tell the world, spare this child! Let my words reach the ends of the earth, and return to you, so that you know you have become a healer par excellence, with a power that can heal the broken, wounded universe!