Gita 05.23 – Tolerance is not passive, but dynamic

To the glory of the holy name, and giving us life's ultimate benediction.

Thank you. Shakunoti, Rajna, is being offered a challenge by Krishna, normally if it is possible you do it, you know, a person who is weak-minded, that person uses that, oh it's not possible, let me not do it, let me just give it up, but a person who is determined, who is adventurous, who is resourceful, then that phrase, if it is possible, is presented to that person, yes, I will do it, I'll bring it within the realms of the possible, so challenges stimulate people with character, and challenges become subterfuge, become excuses for people without character, for spineless people, how spineless people use the challenges as excuses for just quitting, but law and order, people use the challenges for bringing what would seem difficult or even impossible, bringing that within the realm of the possible, so Kshatriyas are that kind of resourceful, adventurous people, so Krishna is throwing the challenge to Arjuna over here, oh Arjuna, is it possible for you, you know, normally when we talk about something as possible, we think it more in terms of dynamic action, is it possible to climb up the mountain, is it possible to say, score a hundred tests, is it possible to hit six sixes in a over, people are mad after cricket or whatever, is it possible to do this, is it possible to do that, so normally we think of possibility in terms of activity, but here Krishna connects possibility with tolerance, so is it possible Arjuna for you to tolerate, to what to tolerate, prakshari vimokshana, actually tolerate till you give up the body, lifelong you will tolerate, so tolerance is passive and you may say what is so difficult about tolerating, but now to tolerate lifelong is not easy, kama krodhod bhavam vegam, the vega is the urges that are born of kama and krodha, if you can tolerate them, so yuktaha sa sukhi naraha, which a person is well situated and as a person is happy, now tolerance is not importance, it does not mean that we are not capable of doing things, tolerance simply means that we recognize our priorities and therefore we let small things pass, so that we can do big things, so for a person who wants to seek higher spiritual happiness, the worldly pleasures are small things, so Krishna is talking here not in terms of all those pleasures and full, he is just talking about in terms of, see that as a challenge, as a stimulating challenge, a test of your determination and grit, normally we think of testing our determination and grit in terms of acting to do wonderful things, acting to fulfill our desires, I want to become the wealthiest person in my country or whatever like that, but here Krishna is talking about tolerate about what is challenging, he says that you have to tolerate the desire, so is it a recipe for passivity? No, the next verse will talk about how the activity goes inwards, go inward, you seek happiness inwards, but while one is trying to seek happiness inwards and that time the urges for outer control and pleasure that come from growth and karma that has to be tolerated, so let small things pass, so that we can focus on the big things and this is important to understand when we are trying to fix our mind in Krishna, that we will get so many thoughts, I have to do work, this work, I have to do that, I have to go there, now those are not unimportant things, we have to do those things also, especially if they are important, but then not now, so the time for Krishna is the time for Krishna alone and that exclusivity of our attention to Krishna can be attained by tolerance, when we tolerate Krishna, let whatever other things the mind is bringing up, let them just pass, I will focus on you Krishna, this attitude enables us to make the best use of our human potential, sometimes the urges of lust and anger seem to be very dynamic, they make us do things, yes, but the things that they make us do are essentially similar to things that animals are doing, but when we learn tolerance, then we can tap our human potential for higher happiness, for turning towards Krishna, for loving Krishna and for experiencing eternal happiness thereof, so that's by recognizing that Krishna is our greatest well-wisher, that he is our greatest lover, he is the source of the greatest happiness and as compared to that all other things, all other promises, all other sources of pleasure, all other distractions, all other things, they are just not, they don't matter so much and based on that we can see tolerance not negatively as passivity, but positively as our alacrity, as our expertise, as our promptness in fixing ourselves on the most important thing, when we remember that, when we are remembering Krishna, we are actually doing something and not just something, but doing the most important thing and then we can tolerate the.