Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Tolerance

  1. #1
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    mrityuloka
    Age
    52
    Posts
    3,729
    Rep Power
    337

    Question Tolerance

    What does 'tolerance' mean to you as a Hindu? Please present your answer in the context of hindu dharma.

    Does it mean we have to 'take' the nonsense of missionaries all smiling in the name of tolerance or is it kasatriya dharma to return a slap with a punch ?

    (I mean those kasatriyas who think that they still have a few drops of kasatriya blood in their veins)

    Does tolerance mean we live like cowards or does it mean we follow the principle of 'live and let live'?

    Let's keep the answers focused and not get into advaita/davaita discussion on this thread. I am asking the questions from 'relative' point of view i.e. I am assuming that the world is real relatively experienced.
    satay

  2. #2
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    Sahasrarkadyutirmatha
    Posts
    1,802
    Rep Power
    191

    Post Re: Tolerance

    Namaste Satay,

    Tolerance (from Latin tolerantia) is “endurance or fortitude”, as “the ability to bear or suffer something” (especially something unpleasant or disadvantageous), or “permission or acceptance”, particularly with a sense of “freedom from bigotry or severity”. And tolerance is commonly understood as “the willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from one’s own”.

    What exactly do you mean by “the nonsense of missionaries”? If missionaries use physical force to disrupt the lives of Hindus, then physical force is certainly justified in self-defense. But if missionaries are only teaching or preaching (no matter how falsely) then the appropriate response is to ensure that Hindus are properly informed about their own true Dharma.

    If Hindu parents do not ensure that their children are properly educated in Hindu Dharma, then they may be easily diverted by all kinds of nonsense!

    Tolerance means “live and let live”, and tolerance is truly courageous!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    mrityuloka
    Age
    52
    Posts
    3,729
    Rep Power
    337

    Re: Tolerance

    Quote Originally Posted by sarabhanga
    Tolerance means “live and let live”, and tolerance is truly courageous!
    namaste,
    As usual a very well thought out reply!

    Thank you.
    satay

  4. #4
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    Govinda Lokam
    Age
    45
    Posts
    738
    Rep Power
    356

    Re: Tolerance

    Quote Originally Posted by sarabhanga
    If Hindu parents do not ensure that their children are properly educated in Hindu Dharma, then they may be easily diverted by all kinds of nonsense!
    In addition, teach about the nonsensical and divisive nature of some of these missionaries....teach about how practice of religion is much more important than theory and beliefs.
    Guard your Dharma, Burn the Myth, Promote the Truth, Crush the superstition.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    March 2006
    Location
    India
    Posts
    4,193
    Rep Power
    369

    Re: Tolerance

    Quote Originally Posted by MysticalGypsi View Post
    I can't help but reply to this from a Native American historical point of view.

    This quote is from a Native American, Zitkala-Sa, circa 1902. It has been one of my favorite quotes for about ten years now. It is much longer than what I am going to paste here. In the beginning of this piece she gives a long account of being one with the Great Mystery and spending the day in somewhat of a meditative state. She arrives home to be confronted by a member of her tribe, who has been converted to Christianity.

    "As our tribe is one large family, where every person is related to
    all the others, he addressed me: --

    "Cousin, I came from the morning church service to talk with
    you."

    "Yes," I said interrogatively, as he paused for some word from me.

    Shifting uneasily about in the straight-backed chair he sat upon, he
    began: "Every holy day (Sunday) I look about our little God's
    house, and not seeing you there, I am disappointed. This is why I
    come to-day. Cousin, as I watch you from afar, I see no
    unbecoming behavior and hear only good reports of you, which all
    the more burns me with the wish that you were a church member.
    Cousin, I was taught long years ago by kind missionaries to read
    the holy book. These godly men taught me also the folly of our old
    beliefs.

    "There is one God who gives reward or punishment to the race of
    dead men. In the upper region the Christian dead are gathered in
    unceasing song and prayer. In the deep pit below, the sinful ones
    dance in torturing flames.

    "Think upon these things, my cousin, and choose now to avoid the
    after-doom of hell fire!" Then followed a long silence in which he
    clasped tighter and unclasped again his interlocked fingers.

    Brushing away from my eyes many like pictures, I offered midday
    meal to the converted Indian sitting wordless and with downcast
    face. No sooner had he risen from the table with "Cousin, I have
    relished it," than the church bell rang.

    Thither he hurried forth with his afternoon sermon. I watched him
    as he hastened along, his eyes bent fast upon the dusty road till he
    disappeared at the end of a quarter of a mile.

    The little incident recalled to mind the copy of a missionary paper
    brought to my notice a few days ago, in which a "Christian"
    pugilist commented upon a recent article of mine, grossly
    perverting the spirit of my pen. Still I would not forget that the
    pale-faced missionary and the hoodooed aborigine are both God's
    creatures, though small indeed their own conceptions of Infinite
    Love. A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their
    dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of
    the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of
    mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is
    Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.

    Hello Gypsi,

    It's such beautiful expression of contrasts.

    The sweet, the beautiful:

    Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of
    mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers.

    And the other:

    There is one God who gives reward or punishment to the race of
    dead men. In the upper region the Christian dead are gathered in
    unceasing song and prayer. In the deep pit below, the sinful ones
    dance in torturing flames.


    The irony, I feel (in a very pained way), is that the beautiful is always evicted by the brutal, at least in this world. But this is again natural. See, Jesus who lived near naked and mendicant and see the pompous gold adorned church men? They have to maintain the form, else who will listen to them? That again is the world -- lack of knowledge of spirit --- its simplicity, its light breezy beauty, and its absolute INDEPENDENCE.

    Rishi Dhirgatma says in Rig Veda:

    Those who have clothed Him do not know Him, from them He surely is hidden.

    But in this world, God allows the bare footed nimble ones to be trampled by the heavily booted. Why? Why?

    Om
    That which is without letters (parts) is the Fourth, beyond apprehension through ordinary means, the cessation of the phenomenal world, the auspicious and the non-dual. Thus Om is certainly the Self. He who knows thus enters the Self by the Self.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •