Question: Why Should The Past Be Forgotten?...

Question: Why should the past be forgotten?

Sri Chinmoy: If he drags out his past, his painful past, then he is not moving forward. One has to look forward; one has to proceed. Suppose yesterday an individual committed a Himalayan blunder. If he drags yesterday's Himalayan blunder into today's reality, he will only curse himself. But if he can totally obliterate it from his mind, if he can feel that yesterday didn't exist, then he will only look forward toward the light.

The past drags us to the death-consciousness. It makes us feel that life has no value. If we do not forget the past, we are only carrying a heavy load on our shoulders and we won't be able to move forward. Suppose in a past incarnation someone was a low type, a thief, and in this incarnation he comes to know that he was a thief. Then, in this incarnation, if he wants to grow out of his previous incarnation, he is not going to budge an inch. He will feel, "Oh, I was such a bad fellow; it is impossible for me to become a saint." So he has to consciously obliterate the past from his mind; he has to go forward, and not stay with the achievements or the sorrowful experiences that the past has given. Then, when he becomes a saint, he can easily deal with the past, if such is God's Will.