What is the difference between tolerance and passivity?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So is there a difference between being tolerant and being passive? Yes. As I said, tolerance is so that we can focus on doing our dharma.
Passive means we are not doing anything at all. A tolerant devotee is first and foremost a devotee. Devotee means the devotee is focused on Krishna.
The devotee is absorbed in Krishna. And we can look at say Parikshit Maharaj’s example. When he was cursed by Shirdi, at that time he was tolerant.
He said, okay, I got this curse. I’ll renounce the world now. But he was tolerant.
But was he passive? No, he renounced the world. He went to the banks of Yamuna. He sought out the sages.
He understood what is the supreme principle of dharma and started practicing that. And that same Parikshit, while he was a king, he saw that Kali was performing atrocities against a cow and a bull. And at that time, he had picked up his sword and was ready to punish.
So, in both cases, his purpose was he wanted to follow dharma. So, when he was actively acting as a king, then he was assertive to punish wrongdoers. That was his dharma.
But when he decided that he has been cursed, he doesn’t want to counter, then he decided his tolerance was that he did not try to counter curse the Brahmin boy. He did not try to take vengeance against the family. He accepted it.
But even when he was tolerant, he was still very purposeful. You want, okay, now I have only 7 days. How best can I use those 7 days? So, passivity is in the mode of ignorance.
Tolerance is in the mode of goodness. Passivity comes because I just don’t have the energy to do anything. I either don’t have the energy to do anything or I don’t have the intelligence to do anything.
So, passivity is lethargy, it is apathy, it is negativity. Whereas, tolerance is that because I have something much more important to do, so therefore, this small thing, I will limit it. So, the difference is clear.
It is a very difficult difference. Externally it may appear the same, but internally the consciousness is very different.