Question 6
QUESTIONER: KRISHNA PUT UP WITH NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE INVECTIVES HURLED ON HIM BY KING SHISHUPAL, BUT HE KILLED HIM WITH HIS CHAKRA -- A WHEEL-LIKE WEAPON -- WHEN THE KING FIRED HIS LAST INVECTIVE. DOES IT NOT SHOW THAT KRISHNA'S TOLERANCE IS ONLY SKIN DEEP, THAT DEEP DOWN HE WAS INTOLERANT?
It can appear so, because we all have only skin deep tolerance. If I lose my temper on the fourth foul word hurled at me, it means I had lost it with the very first one, but somehow I put up with three of them, and appeared in my true colors as soon as the fourth one came. But the contrary can also happen, and Krishna is that contrary; he is not like us. There is every possibility that he was an exception to this generality.
It is not that Krishna's tolerance could take only nine hundred ninety-nine invectives. Do you think nine hundred ninety-nine are not enough. And that one who can bear this huge number of abuses cannot bear one more? It is really hard to believe. The real question before Krishna is not that his tolerance has run out, the real question is that the man confronting him has reached his limit. Not only has he reached his limit, he has really surpassed it. And to put up with any more would not exhaust Krishna's patience, but it would certainly amount to putting a premium on evil. To tolerate any more would go toward strengthening unrighteousness. It is obvious that nine hundred ninety-nine curses are more than enough.
Someone, a disciple, asks Jesus, "What should I do if someone slaps me once?"
Jesus says to him, "Bear it."
The disciple then asks, "And what if he slaps me seven times?"
To this Jesus says, "You should bear it not only for seven times but for seventy-seven times."
The disciple does not ask again what he should do if he is slapped for the seventy-eighth time, so we don't know what Jesus would say. But I believe that if the disciple raises this question Jesus would say, "Don't take it quietly after the seventy-seventh. Enough is enough, because you have not only to take care of your forbearance, you have also to see that unrighteousness does not go beserk."
I have heard a joke:
A follower of Jesus is passing through a village when some stranger slaps him on his cheek. He re members this saying of Jesus, "If someone slaps you on the left cheek, turn your right cheek to him." And he turns his right cheek to the person, who inflicts a harsher slap on it. But the stranger has no idea of what the disciple is going to do next. There is no instruction from Jesus as to what one should do after he is slapped for the second time. The disciple thinks now he is free to decide on his won, and he smites the stranger with all his strength.
The stranger is flabbergasted! He protests, "What kind of a Jesus devotee are you? Don't you remember that he says, "If someone slaps you on the left cheek turn the right one to him?"
The disciple answers, "But I don't have a third cheek. I obeyed Jesus so far as his saying goes, and now I take leave of him, because I have already turned my two cheeks to you. Now your cheek should take a turn. That is why I slapped you."
Krishna kills Shishupal not because his patience has come to an end; his patience is unending. But we are apt to think otherwise, because our own tolerance is very brittle. Krishna does not lack tolerance, but he also knows that it is dangerous to put up with unrighteousness beyond a certain limit; it amounts to encouraging it. Tolerance is good just because intolerance is evil. There is no other reason for praising patience except that impatience is ugly. But does it mean that I should care for my own patience and let the impatience of another run riot and ruin him? This is not compassion; it is really cruelty to the other. A point comes when I have to stop evil from going too far. This is how I see it.
Looking at the whole life of Krishna, it does not seem that anything can exhaust his patience, but it is equally difficult for him to encourage evil. So he has to find a golden mean between the two extremes -- his own patience and the impatience of another.
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Next: Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 7
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Krishna Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy
Chapter 10
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 1
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 1, KRISHNA WAS ESSENTIALLY A SPIRITUAL MAN, BUT HE FREELY TOOK PART IN POLITICS. AND AS A POLITICIAN HE DID NOT SHRINK FROM USING THE TRICKS OF THE TRADE. IN THE BATTLE OF THE MAHABHARAT HE GOT BISHMA KILLED BY DECEIT -- A NAKED WOMAN WAS MADE TO STAND BEFORE THAT VENERATED OLD SAGE, WHO WAS A VOWED CELIBATE. IN THE SAME WAY, DECEPTION WAS USED TO KILL DRONACHARYA, KARNA, AND DURYODHANA. THE QUESTION ARISES: SHOULD A SPIRITUAL MAN TAKE PART IN POLITICS, AND IF SO, SHOULD HE BEHAVE AS ORDINARY POLITICIANS DO? AND, WAS MAHATMA GANDHI WRONG IN LAYING STRESS ON THE PURITY OF ENDS AND MEANS? IS NOT PURITY OF MEANS IMPORTANT TO POLITICS? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 2
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 2, COULD HE NOT HAVE KILLED THEM STRAIGHTAWAY WITH WEAPONS, INSTEAD OF RESORTING TO DUBIOUS MEANS? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 3
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 3, THERE WAS A KING NAMED PONDRAK IN THE TIMES OF KRISHNA. THIS MAN HAD DECLARED KRISHNA TO BE A FAKE AND HIMSELF TO BE THE REAL KRISHNA. CAN YOU SAY IF SIMILAR THINGS HAVE HAPPENED IN THE LIVES OF BUDDHA, MAHAVIRA AND OTHER ENLIGHTENED BEINGS? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 4
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 4, WHY DID JESUS CLAIM? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 5
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 5, THE LINE OF HINDU INCARNATIONS BEGINS WITH THE FISH AND CONTINUES THROUGH RAMA, KRISHNA, AND BUDDHA. EVEN THE COMING INCARNATION, TO BE KNOWN AS KALKI, IS INCLUDED IN THIS SERIES. BUT HOW IS IT THAT IN THIS LONG LINE OF INCARNATIONS KRISHNA IS SAID TO BE THE COMPLETE INCARNATION OF GOD, ALTHOUGH BUDDHA HAPPENED LONG AFTER HIM? WHY WAS BUDDHA DERIVED THIS HONOR? AND WHAT, FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF EVOLUTION, IS THE SECRET OF KRISHNA PRECEDING BUDDHA? IS IT SO BECAUSE THE MOVEMENT OF TIME IS CIRCULAR? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 6
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 6, KRISHNA PUT UP WITH NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE INVECTIVES HURLED ON HIM BY KING SHISHUPAL, BUT HE KILLED HIM WITH HIS CHAKRA -- A WHEEL-LIKE WEAPON -- WHEN THE KING FIRED HIS LAST INVECTIVE. DOES IT NOT SHOW THAT KRISHNA'S TOLERANCE IS ONLY SKIN DEEP, THAT DEEP DOWN HE WAS INTOLERANT? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 7
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 7, WOULD YOU NOT CALL KRISHNA A KIDNAPPING CHAMPION? HE NOT ONLY KIDNAPS RUKMINI AND MARRIES HER, BUT ALSO INDUCES ARJUNA TO KIDNAP HER SISTER SUBHADRA. WHAT DO YOU SAY? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 8
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 8, ONCE WHEN KRISHNA IS ON HIS WAY TO DWARKA HE MEETS KUNTA WHO REQUESTS OF HIM A GIFT OF PAIN AND SUFFERING. BUT KRISHNA ONLY LAUGHS; HE DOES NOT EVEN SAY THAT SUCH A REQUEST IS NOT RIGHT. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 9
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 9, IT ALL SOUNDS PARADOXICAL. YOU HAVE SAID MORE THAN ONCE THAT WHILE KRISHNA'S LIFE IS EXTRAORDINARY AND MIRACULOUS, LIKE A FLOWER IN BLOOM, FULL OF LAUGHTER AND PLAYFULNESS, THE LIFE OF OTHERS LIKE HIM IS MASOCHISTIC. FOR INSTANCE, NOBODY EVER SAW JESUS LAUGH. IN THIS CONTEXT HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT A DEVOTEE PRAYING FOR SUFFERING CAN HAVE A VISION OF THE KRISHNA OF YOUR CONCEPT? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 10
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 10, AS YOU TALK ABOUT GOD AND HIS DEVOTEE, AND YOU CALL KRISHNA 'BHAGWAN', THE BLESSED ONE, A QUESTION ARISES IN MY MIND IF KRISHNA IS A DEVOTEE. IF SO, WHO IS THE BLESSED ONE HE IS DEVOTED TO? AND IF HE IS NOT A DEVOTEE WHY DOES HE SING HYMNS OF PRAISE TO DEVOTION? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 11
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 11, WHAT IS THE TEST OF ONE'S HIGHEST DEVOTION TO KRISHNA? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 12
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 12, KRISHNA INSPIRES ARJUNA TO FIGHT IN THE BATTLE OF THE MAHABHARAT. BUT IT IS SAID THAT ONCE IT HAPPENS, KRISHNA HIMSELF PREPARES TO FIGHT WITH ARJUNA. WHAT IS THE MATTER? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 13
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 13, KRISHNA COULD ALSO SAY THAT SINCE BOTH OF THEM ARE HIS FRIENDS HE IS NOT GOING TO FIGHT ON ANY SIDE at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 14
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 14, YOU EXPLAINED TO US THIS SAYING OF JESUS: 'BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH' THERE IS ANOTHER SAYING OF JESUS: 'BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.' CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 15
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 15, WHY SHOULD ONE THINK OF GAINING AFTER LOSING EVERYTHING? at energyenhancement.org
- Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 16
Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 10: Spiritualism, Religion and Politics, Question 16, WHAT YOU SAY IS POSSIBLE ONLY IN A STATE OF ENLIGHTENMENT, AND WE FIND EVERYTHING OF THAT ENLIGHTENMENT IN YOU. YOU ARE UTTERLY HUMBLE, BUT WHEN YOU COME OUT AS A RELENTLESS CRITIC, WE ARE ASSAILED BY DOUBT AND CONFUSION at energyenhancement.org
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