Circle of Good Will - The World Teacher Trust

A Courageous Endurance of Personal InjusticeEndurance is the last word today in human activity.As man gets civilized, somewhere on the way he losesthe ability to endure. A civilized man is more offensivethan the one who is not so civilized. Tolerance isthe first and fundamental commandment given byMoses, given to the west. Kshama is called tolerance;it also means endurance, forbearance and the abilityto forgive. One cannot forget any injustice done tooneself, but one can forgive. Humanity is learning tobe more and more offensive. Human communities areso offensive and the general rule is: offence is the betterway of defence. With a premonition that the other mayoffend one, one causes the first step of offence. Butdiscipleship works out the contrary. Be not offensive,be not defensive, too, endure! Endurance is a great key.The one that endures is the one who wins at the end.The one who endures is the one who gets stronger.Endurance of injustice done to oneself is to be accepted.That is the step here. It is an advanced step. Virtually, itmakes man a Divine one. Who will endure these days?If you hit me once, I hit you down ten times. But it isnot so in the occult world.Yudhishthira in Mahabharata is a great exampleof endurance. His cousins caused hurt and did greatinjustice, for almost nine decades. He bore with it. Itwas not easy. The success of Yudhishthira was his abilityto bear, bear in silence. That ability has grown moreand more to overturn the cousins. He was in fact thestrongest one among the five, who could save his otherbrothers and wife twice when they were attacked byextraterrestrial beings. Even Lord Krishna appreciated,admired and praised the endurance of Yudhishthira. Inthe story of Ramayana, Rama also endured personalinjustice done to him. The kingdom that belonged tohim was taken away from him, his lady was stolen, hehad unreliable friends, and was almost alone. Yet hisstrength was the ability to endure. These are the twogreat epics of India - Mahabharata and Ramayana.Mahatma Gandhi followed this principle of enduranceto win over the British and getting independence toIndia. The British were by far the largest empire duringthe 18th and 19th century. To fight with them forthe independence of India was well-nigh impossible.Gandhi conceived a plan of Ahimsa. He protested theBritish role in India and was non-violent. This inspiredthe Indians. They too have taken to non-violenceand went on protesting. There was no war, but therewas a daily effective protest. Gandhi and his team ofprotesters were frequently humiliated, hurt and sentto jail. Such acts of the British resulted in greaterprotest by India. Many times Gandhi and his team ofprotesters served in jail in silence. Each time they were118 119