Turning the Other Cheek

Turning the Other Cheek

1985 1January 6-7 Turning the Other Cheek (477) The corpse of a sixty year old man was found lying near Faiz Road in Delhi on July 31, 1984. It showed signs of brutal murder. Intensive investigations were carried out by the police but for a long time the dead body could not be identified. Finally the police managed to lay their hands on a clue. The shirt worn by the dead man bore the label of ‘Azad Tailors’ with the code no 52 on it. The police investigators now went to a small tailor’s shop called ‘Azad Tailors’ in Sawan Park. The owner, Mr. Salahuddin, knew of a person called Panday who answered the descriptions given by the police, but he was not aware of his full name. The police then tried at another shop close by called the Kamal Cloth House. Here they were able to get the information they required. The full name of the murder victim was Dev Narain Pandey. He belonged to Faizabad but lived in Delhi where he worked at polishing mosaic floors. The investigation of the murder proceeded. More missing links were brought to light one after another. It was discovered that forty years ago, the murdered person had taken the life of a man to redress some personal grievance. One Mahendar Kumar Choudhery, a nephew of the murdered man, was brought up in an environment where he repeatedly heard that his uncle had been murdered by Pandey. He decided, therefore, that he himself should avenge his uncle’s murder. To carry out his plan he came to Delhi and pretended to become friendly with Dev Narain Pandey. One day he got the opportunity he had been waiting for and lost no time in murdering him. The police finally took him into custody and he confessed. He found himself in this terrible position because his family could not bring themselves to forgive the murder even after the lapse of forty years. It is a sorry truth that in all societies people have some cause or the other for complaint against those with whom they come into contact. But retaliation is no solution to this problem. The solution lies rather in rising above such feelings of vengefulness. The deliberate overlooking of such matters can diminish the existing tensions, whereas retaliation and revenge only serve to aggravate the situation.

But it is no simple matter to stifle such feelings. Man can give up something only when he receives something greater in return. The feeling of a cause having been lost and justice not having been done can only be overcome by gaining some ‘greater good’. The only such ‘greater good’ is the life of the hereafter. Faith in the next eternal world gives man this greater good, compared to which everything else is insignificant. That is why those who have discovered faith in the life hereafter will readily bear any other loss.