Revered & Respected Brothers
and Sisters,
My Humble Pranams. On this auspicious occasion
of the 107th Birthday Celebrations of Our Revered
Master Pujya Sri Babuji Maharaj, I am happy
and grateful that I got an opportunity to express
some of my thoughts related to the virtue of
“TOLERANCE”.
What is Tolerance ?
Generally we all understand Tolerance as “To
put up with”. That means to put up with
ideas, concepts, methods, practices, and their
purposes with which we do not have agreement.
The field of disagreement can be many or rather
in all the fields namely, physical, emotional,
mental, intellectual, political, cultural &
religious, and spiritual. Some of the meanings
given in dictionaries for tolerance are:
The capacity for (or) the practice of recognizing
and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.
The capacity to endure hardship or pain.
The disposition to allow freedom of choice and
behavior.
A disposition to tolerate or accept people or
situations.
A disposition to yield to the wishes of someone.
The act of tolerating something.
An inclination to tolerate or overlook opposing
or shocking opinions or behavior.
Tolerance is accepting that another person
has ideas different from yours and they have
every right to believe strongly about it just
as you believe strongly about yours. Tolerance
does not mean accepting or vehemently opposing,
but bear it or ignore it.
TOLERANCE – A Virtue and its
Value
That tolerance is a virtue is a fact that is
felt and accepted universally. It promotes harmony,
as it is not only putting up with, but respecting
the beliefs and practices of others. With reference
to religions, even in one faith, there are many
divisions with different concepts and beliefs.
Each one has its own philosophy that has many
differences with each other. Some even diametrically
opposite. In each one of these divisions, there
exists further subdivisions or sub sects with
many differences amongst them. No religion is
free of this. Inspite of these differences,
if we are able to live in peace and harmony,
it is only because of Tolerance. In fact, all
the countries in the world rightly admired India
for this great virtue.
It is only tolerance that helps us to gain
the next virtue of co-operation. If everybody
has the same or similar concepts or ideas or
goals, practices and attitudes, then the very
word co-operation itself may not have any meaning.
It goes to say that one has to co-operate with
others even though they may not be in agreement
with him in order to maintain a peaceful and
an overall growth-enabling environment for the
society. Otherwise there can be no harmony and
peace. In short, Tolerance is the suffering
and the flowers are harmony and peace.
Tolerance enables us to look into the viewpoint
of others and appreciate the good and the right
in them. It also helps one to grow over oneself
and understand that like oneself, everyone also
has his right to freedom. Tolerance not only
leads us to see the viewpoint of others, but
also the circumstances that forced them to arrive
at that viewpoint. It is because of this, one
is able to express the virtues of forbearance,
sympathy and empathy. And out of that are born
the great virtues of Forgiveness, Compassion,
Sharing, and Sacrifice. The development of these
virtues is not limited to one’s own clan
but Unconditional and Universal. Therefore,
I feel bold to say that Tolerance is not only
a Virtue but the Mother of all Virtues.
Tolerance – Its value in Sadhana
Spirituality is a word that is not understood
correctly by many. They think that if one goes
regularly to temples, participates in bhajans
and discourses and performs religious rituals,
then he is considered to be spiritual. Persons
who do some tantric tricks are also considered
to be spiritual. As against this, one of the
definitions of Spirituality given by our Master
Pujya Babuji Maharaj is “Spirituality
is a sort of feeling or consciousness of the
Highest. It is the doorway to enter into Divinity,
Pure and Simple, i.e., the Highest Evenness
all along.” [Pg. 157, SDG 3rd Edn.]. Therefore,
it is necessary for one to get rid of those
things that create noise inside him so that
he gets into a State of Silence, which alone
can help him to feel the Highest Evenness or
Divinity, which is the Subtlest. To feel the
subtlest, we have to become subtle ourselves.
In order to move into the state of feeling
the Highest Evenness, in other words the presence
of the Divine in the heart and identifying oneself
with That, the spiritual practices are undertaken.
In our system we begin with meditation. What
we do in meditation is to give the suggestion
of the presence of Divine Light without Luminosity
in the heart once and then ignoring whatever
thought that rises. Rev. Sir remarked in one
of the letters to an abhyasi that “Learning
to Ignore thoughts is another definition for
meditation in our system”. This is what
is Tolerance, as one of its definitions is,
“to put up with or to ignore the disagreeable”
and here in meditation any thought other than
the Divine Light is not acceptable.
We are also asked to maintain a waiting attitude
for the Divine in meditation. That alone is
etiquette before the divine. One cannot have
any sort of demands but has to patiently wait.
This waiting also can be called as Tolerance.
Thus, in a way, we begin our Sadhana with the
practice of Tolerance.
Rev. Sir has also expressed once that “Tolerance
does not mean acceptance”. We may tolerate
many ideas and behaviors of others but that
does not mean that we accept them as right.
All that we do is just ignore them. Any forceful
rejection of the same, which is what is termed
as Intolerance, will lead to anger, resistance,
hatred, and violence. These things will spoil
the peace, harmony and balance. This is what
will happen if we entertain thoughts by way
of resisting them during our meditation. That
is why Rev. Master has given us Tolerance as
the only way that is to stay indifferent to
the thoughts that arise during meditation by
asking us to treat the thoughts as uninvited
guests.
Some are of the opinion that it is difficult
if not impossible to maintain this tolerance
or indifference and meditate in an already disturbed
and perturbed atmoshpere. Once to such a query
to an abhyasi, Rev. Sir expressed that by assiduously
cultivating an attitude of indifference (tolerance),
we will be able to meditate and pray in any
environment.
By developing the right attitudes in our Sadhana
with the support of Pranahuti, when we proceed
in meditation, we gain Viveka. Viveka is identifying
the real and the unreal, the temporary and the
permanent, the good and the bad, then the capacity
to ignore successfully the bad and the unreal
develops. In other words, when we mature in
Knot-1, our tolerance and patience gains maturity.
Rev. Sir has also expressed that the highest
Viveka is what is Vairagya and that is the attachment
to the REAL or the MASTER. So we can understand
that the value of Tolerance in Spiritual Sadhana
is indispensable and without it there can be
no progress.
Nothingness is taken as the goal in our system.
That means we have to empty ourselves. In other
words, we have to get rid off all our thoughts,
ideas, notions, and concepts that are buried
in us. This is what happens to us during our
meditations during which time, these various
ideas rise up to leave us. If at that time we
deal with these thoughts, either by enjoying
them or by forcefully resisting or suppressing
them, we do not then allow these things to leave
us. The only way during that time that will
help our purpose is to ignore or tolerate them.
This method continues till the end until we
become totally empty. That is why in our system
the method is the same from the beginning to
the end.
While proceeding thus on the meditative path,
we begin to understand that these thoughts and
ideas are mostly related to the external life.
That is, meeting the personal needs, the dealings
with others, and our desires and imaginary projections
which are all related to sensory perceptions.
In order to reduce the load of these impressions,
we have to prevent them from entering into our
consciousness. It is for this purpose, we have
to be tolerant in our life in all aspects.
Intolerance allows negative attachments, thereby
providing an entry for these inputs adding to
the existing contents. To become empty, we have
to do two things, firstly we have to throw out
what is already in us, and secondly to prevent
outer things to enter into us. The practices
of meditation on Points A & B in PAM is
mainly for this purpose. Moreover, it is only
in this system alone, we get the Pranahuti which
is indispensable in developing the Viveka essential
for developing Tolerance which in turn helps
us in emptying the content of our consciousness
as well as preventing further accumulations.
We understand, in our system, that in order
to become empty to reach the goal of Nothingness,
we have to get rid of the samskaras. These samskaras
come to us for bhog in the form of miseries
and sufferings, which can be due to:
Our wrong doings.
Ill health, poverty, etc.
Adverse actions of fellow human beings
Natural Calamities
These things cause considerable pain and hardships.
When such samskaras come to bhog, we have to
exercise tolerance towards them. Otherwise,
we will be creating more samskaras and defeat
the purpose of emptying ourselves. It is for
this purpose Rev. Lalaji Maharaj used to say,
"Our home is the training ground of patience
and endurance. To endure calmly the adversities
of a household life is for us the greatest penance
which is the noblest of all other forms of penances.
What we have, therefore, to do under the circumstances
is not to give way to the feeling of anger or
grief but to assume an unquestioning attitude
thinking that we ourselves are in the wrong
for which we have to forbear with a cool mind.
Solitary life in a forest and aloofness from
all worldly concerns may be, to some, the means
of cultivating patience and forbearance but
to us, the taunts and rebukes of our friends
and relations is the greatest penance and the
surest means of success". In fact, to put
up coolly with miseries and troubles contributes
much to our betterment, hence they are valuable
assets to our progress. It is only by their
wrong use that we spoil their effect and thus
get deprived of their best advantages. [DR-29,
30]
This emphasizes the value of Tolerance and
its indispensability in practicing the 5th and
7th Commandments effectively. This signifies
the value of tolerance in achieving our goal.
The Viveka that we develop gradually makes
us feel the dependency on Master more and more,
thereby leading us to a state where we not only
tolerate the faults of others, but also forgive,
forget and pray to the Master for their transformation.
This kind of prayer grows from the level of
praying for an individual or for a few, to praying
for the entire humanity. This is the kind of
service or participation in the Divine Endeavor.
This is how we get transformed from animal to
human to the Divine.
The life of the Masters of the Order reveals
the virtue of Tolerance they expressed in their
lives. Rev. Lalaji Maharaj was a big Zamindar,
lost all of his 532 villages including the house
in which he was living. He had to live a life
in poverty. Yet, he tolerated all these and
said, “These are all nothing in comparison
to reality”. In the life of Pujya Babuji
Maharaj, he displayed Tolerance and Compassion
to a person who made his life miserable in the
court where he worked. In the case of Rev. Dr.
KCV, he put up with the discriminative treatment
meted out to him in the University where he
was working. His juniors superceded him and
were given promotions. His salary was reduced
to half. Yet he continued in the service tolerating
all these ridicules as he considered Reality
more than anything else. These are a very few
of many such instances in their lives. I would
request all to go through the stories of their
lives, which will be an inspiration for all
of us to aspire for the virtues displayed by
the Great Masters.
I wish to conclude by saying that tolerance
is an indispensable virtue that has to be developed
by one and all. It ensures the birth and development
of all other virtues and helps us to progress
on the Natural Path, with the support of Pranahuti
and the Blessings and the Grace of the Master.
My Humble Pranams. |
