Guilt entered the world for the first time, with the first sin of first man by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree at the temptation of the serpent.
The trail of serpent is over the modern Adam and Eve. Nowadays, individuals suffer from guilt for their acts done deliberately and intentionally to satisfy their own grudge, and selfish desires.
Man with his weapon of thought eats his fellow man not physically but in different ways like — exploits him financially, steals fellow man’s mate not by physical force but with attractive material things. Jealous people plan to dislodge someone from his/her job with false allegation; fuels poison to ruin relationship and friendship and tear people apart at different stages of life. In this way they fall from the stage of goodness to wickedness with guilt.
Adam dangled with fear and hid himself behind the trees in the Garden of Eden, when God called him: “Where are you?” As guilt and fear are often interconnected, the fear of discovery got its grip on Adam. So, he said, “I hid myself because I was afraid.” Every person on earth is afraid of something when he /she does something wrong. This ‘fear of discovery’ is inherited from Adam.
Then God asked: “Have you eaten from the tree I forbade you to eat? Adam’s defense mechanism was, “The woman gave it to me.” Then God questioned the woman; and she pushed down the blame saying: “The serpent deceived me.” We always try to blame others like Adam and Eve for wrong acts done by us.
Next, came the punishment from God: The serpent was cursed, “…. on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust …” To the woman, He said: “…in pain you shall bring forth children ….” To Adam He said, “….. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread ….”
Usually, we find, the wrong done to someone comes to light to the victim, sooner or later.
The injured person gets the evidence through tale-bearers about the evil plans or from the posture of animosity of the wrongdoer or through offender’s words and thus provides clues to the victim.
Guilt remains till one makes amends by good deeds to make up for the evil one has done to others; and by planting in the mind the seed of determination never to do wrong to others again. Thus, clearing the heart of animosity towards others is necessary.
If one cannot or will not do so, then one will be choosing to continue to hurt others and will harm oneself all the more.
