Devotees would often unburden their minds before Sri Ramakrishna stating that they are unable to forgive people who had fought with them and forget such incidents. They seem to be bothered by such incidents again and again which creates hurdles in their path of Sadhana or spiritual striving. Sri Ramakrishna would explain the idea to them using a beautiful story from the Puranas.
Once, Sri Rama and Lord Shiva were conversing in a friendly manner when suddenly there arose a disagreement in their points of view. The matter soon turned into an argument and they parted after exchanging a volley of strong words. Even as they were walking away from each other, Rama thought to himself, “What have I done! I have offended the Lord of wisdom himself. I must go back immediately and apologize.” In the meanwhile, Mahadev was also having a similar feeling, “Sri Rama is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. How could I talk so rudely to him?” Soon they were engaged in a warm embrace completely forgiving and forgetting the incident. But, the followers of Rama, namely, monkeys and the followers of Shiva i.e. ghosts could never forget the incident and they continued to fight with each other for long. Thus Sri Ramakrishna would say that human beings fighting among themselves and not developing the spirit of forgive and forget are like the ghosts of Shiva and the monkeys of Rama fighting with each other. Those who are serious spiritual aspirants would always remember how the benevolent Lord is ever merciful and ready to forgive a thousand faults of human beings. Even if they pick up any quarrel or argument with anyone, they would try to forgive and forget the matter since their minds are always focused on spiritual striving. Thus if one is focused on the spiritual goal of life, one is bound to forgive and forget petty quarrels and disagreements.