Sai Baba Gita - When to Use Forbearance and when it is Inappropriate

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When to Use Forbearance and when it is Inappropriate

In the great epic, the Mahabharata, which chronicles the war of righteousness

between the Pandava brothers and their wicked cousins, there is an incident

depicted in which Arjuna dragged the murderer of all her children, before

Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandava brothers. The Pandavas had just won the

war when the horrendous deed was committed. Even though Draupadi was overcome

with sorrow, she pointed out to Arjuna the circumstances under which a wicked

person should be excused. Draupadi told Arjuna that it was not proper to

execute a person who was overwhelmed with fear, or a person who was humble and

penitent and pleading for mercy, or a person who had lost his sanity and become

deranged, or a person who had acted out of inconsolable grief, or women and

children, in general, even if they deserve such punishment. For such, it is

proper to show forbearance and treat them mercifully.

But, for people who are repeatedly ungrateful and malicious, who are unrepentant

and untrustworthy, it is not appropriate to display forbearance. You need to

deal with them firmly, according to the circumstances. But remember that all

such actions relate only to your outer worldly life. In your heart, you must

never lose your peaceful inner state of forbearance. For your spiritual life,

forbearance is an essential quality necessary to reach the divine state, and

you must practice it assiduously.

In the case of Jesus you can also see his highly-developed quality of

forbearance. There were 12 disciples living and traveling about with him. Jesus

extended all love and compassion, all protection and shelter to them. But one of

them, Judas, was tempted by money and became a traitor to his master. Despite

Judas' infidelity, Jesus remained unperturbed and continued to extend Judas his

love. There is no need for you to pray to God to see that such people are

punished. As was the case with Judas, their own acts will bring them to ruin.

Whatever wicked actions a person commits, the fruits of those actions will have

to be borne by him alone. No one can escape the fruits of his own actions. You

may not be able to predict when and under what circumstances he will suffer the

consequences, but the suffering is certain to come some time.

In both great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, there are a number

of instances depicted which show how people suffered in the end, when they did

not practice forbearance. Consider the great suffering the five Pandava

brothers underwent, having to go to the forest and live on roots and leaves,

because of the hasty action of the eldest brother, Dharmaraja, in accepting a

challenge to play a game of dice. Dharmaraja, as the king, felt it his

righteous duty to respond to the challenge, and although he knew the game was

rigged against him, he was in such a hurry to defend his honor, that he ignored

the instructions given by Krishna and the advice given by his brothers. With a

determination to be true to his principles, he hastened into the gambling game

and had to suffer the consequences. As a result, he and his brothers lost their

kingdom and were banished to the forest for fourteen years, undergoing untold

deprivations and difficulties. It is only because

of Dharmaraja's haste and lack of forbearance that all these consequences occurred.

You even find that a great soul like Rama, at times, did not have sufficient

patience. At the end of the Ramayana, there is the incident in which Rama,

after hearing the criticism and comments of one worthless washerman,

immediately decided to banish Sita from the kingdom. Afterwards he suffered

great pangs of separation. But, Rama was the avatar of his age, the embodiment

of all the divine principles. In the case of the divinity, there will always be

some deeper meaning and significance to the avatar's actions. Still, when you

try to understand Rama's actions in a worldly sense, you can see that because

of losing patience, Rama banished Sita and then had to suffer afterwards. Of

course, when people who do only good and live only for the welfare of others,

experience various troubles they will suffer their problems graciously. In this

way they act as an example and teach the value of patience and forbearance when

undergoing hardships in the world.

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/saigita236.html

Sai Baba Gita, Compiled and edited by Al Drucker - Published by Atma Press -

http://www.atmapress.com - ISBN: 0963844903Online Edition:

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/index.html

 

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