How does bhakti wisdom help us to become more tolerant?
Answer Podcast
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Transcription :
Transcribed by: Keshavgopal Das
Question: How does bhakti wisdom help us to become more tolerant?
Answer: By helping us see our situation not only with the person involved causing us discomfort but with Krishna as well. I’ll explain this with the help of an analogy.
Suppose there is a person who is an attendant in a cloth shop. This attendant has a customer who is very demanding and disagreeable. This customer demands to see all the cloths in the shop but keeps on finding fault with all of them. The attendant may naturally get irritated with that customer. After being very demanding and disagreeable, the customer does not buy anything and go away. The attendant might feel that he just wasted his time and may feel inclined to explode. However, the attendant thinks differently. He argues to himself that there are cameras all over the place and I am being watched by the boss who is sitting in the office. My salary comes from my boss, not from this customer. If I behave courteously, politely, then my boss will think that I am a cool-headed person and may be inclined to give promotion. I may fail to make a sale, but I may still please my boss because of my good behaviour. If the attendant sees his interaction not just with the customer but also with his boss, he can be inspired to act more tolerantly and gracefully.
Similarly, while interacting with others, bhakti wisdom tells us that we are not just interacting with them, but we are also interacting with Krishna. He is present within our hearts. If we think how best we can serve Krishna in this situation, then such focus will guide us to respond more maturely. While dealing with others, we might find their behaviour disagreeable, but other’s behaviour should not determine our behaviour. We can still behave courteously and act in such a way that will please Krishna and help us grow in our relationship with Krishna.
To summarize, we become more tolerant by doing bhakti because we not only look at the person with whom we are dealing with, but we also look at Krishna who is watching us. Bhakti wisdom raises our vision higher and help us to become more tolerant.
End of transcription.