I sincerely offer my gratitude to all of the assembled personalities that have come today. I hope you can demonstrate the art of tolerance by tolerating me in my condition. This subject is in fact of utmost importance because really one can measure a person’s character by their capacity to tolerate difficulties. Bhagwad Gita describes in second chapter who is actually a person of high character.
“Matra sparsas to kaunteya sitosna sukha-dukha deh
agamapayino nityas tams titiksasua bharata.”
The non permanent appearance and disappearance of happiness-distress, honor -dishonor, pleasure-pain, victory-defeat, success-failure, health-disease, they appear as the winter and summer seasons. One must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. We are living in a world of dualities. One cannot escape dualities. One must learn to adjust one’s consciousness and maintain integrity despite dualities. Example is given of a coin, there is a head side and a tale side. If you want one side you must automatically accept the other. They are inseparable. Distress is inseparable from happiness, pleasure and pain are inseparable, attraction and aversion, honor and dishonor, success and failure, and these dualities will come upon anyone at anytime. What is the great problem we face in life is that we all want to be in control of our destiny, today and tomorrow. But the problem is no one is in control. There are higher powers, dictating circumstances upon everyone; we have control over our future destiny by our activities today. That is the law of karma but what is coming upon us is something not always under our control. Ultimately we all are being controlled bye time. No one wants to become old, you loose your beauty, you loose your memory, you loose your physical capacities, does any one want to be old? But can anyone stop the process but it is a humbling experience to live in this world, because we are not the controllers. Everyone wants to success but so many people fail. Everyone wants it to be nice but we cannot control intense heat, intense cold. We are all subordinate, dependent on higher powers and those higher powers world on the basis of dualities. To tolerate dishonor is very difficult but it is more difficult to tolerate honor. When you become dishonored you become angry or you may become depressed depending on the person and the circumstances. We have seen some people when they become dishonored they would pull out a sword and call a war against those offenders but other people just remove themselves from society, go to a lonely placed and cry in depression. How to tolerate dishonor it is very-very difficult. Infact Bhagwad Gita explains that for one who is honored, dishonor is worse then death. But more difficult than that is to tolerate honor, without becoming proud. According to the Christian Bible- St Paul has said pride cometh before a fall. The very integrity of ones humanness is destroyed when there is egoism, false pride. How to tolerate being honored without becoming proud? Without considering oneself superior to others and naturally offending others. It is very difficult. Thus Krishnaexplains in this verse The non permanent appearance of happiness and distress and the other dualities and its disappearance in due course are like the appearance and disappearance of the summer and winter seasons. One must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed. Really this is what Bhagwad Gita teaches. One of the greatest themes throughout the Gita is how to learn to be tolerant. In the second chapter 70th verse the key to success has been given by Lord Shri Krishna himself in the Gita. I would like to share with you and then give some reflections on this particular subject.
Apuryamanam acde pratistham samudram apah pravisanti yadvat
Tadvat kama yam pravisanti sarve sa santim apanoti na kama kami.
A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flaws of desires which enters like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still can alone achieve peace and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires. Bhagwad Gita is explaining the consciousness of a person who is in an elevated state is like the ocean, the ocean because of its vast depth is not disturbed by the changes that take place surrounding it. In the rainy season sometimes the rivers are several kilometers in width where huge quantities of water are pouring into the ocean and in the summer season the rivers may become small trickles. Does either one disturb the ocean? Not at all because of the oceans own volume of depth. Everyone is working for peace and satisfaction. If we do not find great satisfaction within our souls then we are much affected and afflicted by the circumstances surrounding us. The key to real peace is within and not without. It is interesting, two days back I was in Bangladesh, I read a newspaper, according to the local newspapers there it explained that how Bangladesh is the poorest nation in the world. Now this is very interesting because the BBC the British Broadcasting Company did an evaluation of the whole world and their conclusion was thatBangladeshwas the happiest country in the world. Now by material standards that just does not make sense because the world is under the fever that money will buy happiness. In factAmericawas very low on the scale and they have a lot of money ‘How is that the poorest countries have the happiest people. It does show something that the promise of happiness, the promise of satisfaction through acquiring of more and more material things does not bring happiness. In Gita Krishna explains that a happy person is one who is illuminated within. Who rejoices within, who finds satisfaction within, I often speak of my meeting with mother Teresa inCalcutta. She told me these poor destitute children who die in my arms in the ghettos ofCalcutta, I see light in their but when I travel toNew York,Los Angeles,Paris,Sydney,LondonI meet some of the wealthiest people in the world. I do not see that light in their eyes. Real poverty is not of the belly, that can be easily solved by giving food, red poverty is of the heart. People’s hearts are lonely, they are unfulfilled and because of the poverty of the heart translates into so many other types of physical, emotional and social poverty within the world. A person who is finding happiness wants to make others happy with whatever they have.
A person who has spiritual peace wants to share with others joy; so inner peace is the very substance of satisfaction, because satisfaction is of the heart not the mind and senses, they are always changing according to the circumstances we are in so herein Gita is explaining. If within ones heart one is experiencing the natural peace that is our own nature. We are not these bodies, these bodies are temporary. They are subject to the three fold miseries Adhidaivik, Adhibhautika, and ……………………….. The miseries of body and mind, miseries created by other living beings and the miseries created by the natural circumstances. But the conscious force, but the actually essence of our life or true self is discriminating this body and mind with consciousness. But it is transcendental. It is Sat, Cit and Ananda – eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. When the red wealth of the soul is uncovered then yes we enter into this best ocean of spiritual satisfaction and when we are not disturbed by the dualities of material existence. Now let us study this subject briefly. Srila Prabhupada, our beloved Guru Maharaj in one of his books speaks one line which I consider to be so very important to be understood by all classes of human beings. This one line goes beyond all sectarianism. It is a universal principle. Who is a great person? People come to adore great people or envy great people. And people like to become great in their own way somehow or the other but what actually is greatness. A Mahatma is a great soul so what are the actual qualities of a great soul. Is greatness to have a lot of money? Some of the most degraded people in the world are billionaires and millionaires even today we see very wealthy people are funding terrorism, cruelty to innocent. Is that great? Is greatness fame, being a good singer, being a great dancer or having a beautiful body or being very strong and athletic or being heroic, Srila Prabhupada according to the universal principle of all spiritual paths describes what is greatness. Ones greatness has to be estimated by ones ability to tolerate provoking situations. It is easy to make a show of being great but when you are challenged when provoking situations face you, then is actually the test of the substance or your character and this the great scriptures give us as a constant theme. There are six enemies that exist within our own hearts and they are provoked by both circumstances within and without. What are those six enemies? Lust, envy, pride, anger, greed and illusion. A great personality is one who is able to tolerate these urges. Lust – today its actually quite fashionable, popular and even heroic to succumb to lust. A person is considered very manly to the degree they are enslaved and weakened by lust and engage in such activities again and again and again. That is what most of the movies are teaching in the cinema houses, in the television, the great heroes are people who give in to their passions, perform tremendous heroic activities to fulfill their passionate desires. This is the sign of a very degraded civilization that people are entertained and hook up to such inferior mentality. It is very sad and we see throughout history that people in very high and powerful position are degraded by the provocation of lust. They are not able to tolerate the circumstance.
In the holy Bible of the Christians and the Jews there is Samson. He was the strongest man on earth but Delilah was very beautiful and he lost all of his power, all of his strength and all of his integrity because although he could defeat hundreds of men with his bare hands, the beauty of a woman defeated him and he lost everything and we have seen some of the greatest people in the west. One of the greatest superstar athletes tried, whether he is innocent or guilty we will see but it happens all the time unable to tolerate lust. His entire reputation, carrier finished. Even we find recently one of the presidents of theUnited Stateswas under severe criticism. Commander in chief of the armies, commander in chief of the navies. Of the air-force, commander in chief of the politics but not the commander in chief of the senses or the mind. That is the meaning of Goswami. Goswami means commander in chief of the mind and senses. It is very difficult. So yes marriages are spoilt, nations are put into ruination because people cannot tolerate the provocation of lust. But we have examples, wonderful examples. Just recently I visited a place called Bnapol. Benapol is just on the border of India-Bangladesh and that is where the great Haridas Thakur lived. He was provoked by the most beautiful amorous prostitute. He was alone in the seclusion of the moonlit night of the forest. There was no one to see and for 3 consecutive nights she tried everything within her power to seduce him but he tolerated. But how did he tolerate, because he was tasting the sweetness of the holy name. As he was chanting the holy name of Lord Krishna he was experiencing something so high, so deep, so wonderful, that the charms of this woman were simply insignificant to him. Ultimately the prostitute seeing the depth of his inner satisfaction, it was so great that he was not in any way finding it difficult to tolerate here attack, she surrendered to him and within a few days that prostitute became like Haridas Thakur. She became a saint by tasting the sweetness of chanting of God’s name she found much inner satisfaction that se was not only able to tolerate but transcend all of her previous conditionings as a social maniac and she lived by the highest principles of social and moral integrity. Then there is greed. It is very difficult to tolerate the provocation of greed. Recently inCalcuttaI was asked to give a lecture in a management institute on ethics in business. Because today people are very much disturbed and confused due to such unethical behavior even by people in such high positions. It is very difficult to tolerate temptations. Here inIndiait is very difficult to be honest.
Not only inIndia but in many parts of the world it is just part of life to take bribes. Taking bribes is unethical you are selling the character of the soul for a little money and degrading the integrity of the whole nation. That is what it its all about when it becomes something normal we can understand that Kaliyuga is full fledged affecting our world. In enron that great scandal, people are so wealthy are cheating the same people who gave their lives to make them what they are today so that they can get a little more. What did that do to the moral of the nation? If these people would come enron, big big politicians ask a little money or a lot more money they are causing pain to others. That is greed. People cheat, people lie, people even kill, provoked by greed. Our colleges should and must teach children how and must to follow proper ethics and morality otherwise they may be big, they may be rich, they will simply cause damage to the planet. It is a fact we can teach theoretically all about high moral and ethical principles but unless we have conviction, we have inner realization, then we are very much prone to be overcome by temptations for greed. In the country I am from is practically common, that governors of state, mayors of cities, land up behind bars in jails because of their not able to tolerate the temptation of greed. To make extra money in an immoral way ruins live. How to tolerate that greed we must understand what is real wealth. Real wealth is in our integrity. Real wealth is how the Lord within our hearts is seeing us. Premdhan the greatest of all wealth is the wealth of love. Money cannot buy love, name and prestige, cannot buy love. If we love and we are loved, we are wealthy people and what is the ultimate love? The love between soul or God because in that we can see all living beings equally and that is the means by which one can tolerate envy. Have any one of you have been victimized by envy. What is the root cause of that envy. It is the false ego. We envy someone who we feel has more than us, it may be more wealth, more knowledge, more ability, more prestige, it may be a higher position. Envy is such a deep seated disease but envy cannot even exist where there is even a trace of real love. Where there is love God we see every loving being as part and parcel of god. Therefore we are happy at another person’s success and we feel sad to see another person suffer. To tolerate envy is very-very difficult but thorough purification of the heart it becomes natural. There is the provocation of envy on a collective basis in the form of bigotry, sectarianism, fanatism, because envy and pride are very much inseparable.
I am Hindu, I am a Christian, I am a Jew or I am a Zoroastrian or I am a Jain and because I am that, that is the greatest because if that is the greatest that makes me the greatest everyone has their scriptural quotes to show that we are the way to truth and light and there Is no other way except through me. Everyone has their logic even the circles of religion. That I am the greatest, my religion is the greatest and everyone else is subordinate or evil. Yes and look what it is done to the world. Religion is supposed to create a sense of seeing every living being with equal vision. Religion is supposed to bring about a sense of compassion and love for everyone. If you don’t love everyone you cannot love God. But religion has opposite effect of its purpose. It creates sectarianism, bigotry and hatred toward others but what does that mean inability to tolerate the envy in our heart in the name of God. When I was inAmericaI was conditioned to think thatAmericais the greatest race in the world but when I went toEngland, they think they are the greatest in the world and inHollandthey thought they are the greatest people in the world,Greece,Turkey,Afghanistan,Iran, and ultimatelyIndia. Every nation thinks that they are the greatest. They hold their flags high, yes and what is this United nations. So many flags waving high, each nation thinking that we are great and the result so many wars, territorial wars, egoistic wars, to tolerate this sectarianism, this bigotry, that is one of the greatest need of the world today amongst traces there is the black people, there is the white people, brown people, the yellow peopled red people. People hate each other because of their color. In 1960’s I grew up in the civil rights movements and Fr. Martin Luther came and it was fact I saw with my own eyes that if you were of a different color you are not allowed to use the same bathroom or to drink form the same water source as us. You cannot go to the same schools as us because a person is born with a different color skin, so much hatred when I was 18 years old, I actually marched for the freedom of the black people and I was the only white man I the march . there was about 300 black people and me, and the white people were throwing bottles at me calling me a traitor. Hare Krishna. It is insane. Inability to tolerate envy. See how it is critically creating pain and envy in the world today. And anger it is very-very difficult to be dishonored without becoming angry. When any of our desires our unfulfilled it brings about anger and what people do in that phrasing state of anger they say things. They do things that may regret for the rest of their lives.
Anger is one of the most difficult of all the provoking situations to control. There is example in Srimad Bhagwatam of Prahald Maharaj, his father Hirankshyapu was so angry at his own 5 years old son simply because he believed in Vishnu as God, his anger was so uncontrollable not only did he curse him with so many horrible words but he also tried to kill his own son in so many horrible ways but Prahlad was equipoised, tolerant loving towards his father because he was experiencing that depth of inner peace within his heart we will give examples of great personalities who really tolerated provoking situations. There was a king names Ranti Deva who fasted for long duration of time with his whole family for the welfare of the whole world. Now Ranti Deva was living in a secluded place and he has brought a large quantity of food, Prasad to share with his family to break the fast. When he was just about to break fast, a Brahmin appeared that Brahmin said –‘O Ranti Dev, I am very hungry. Please give me food.” So he fed the Brahmin to his full satisfaction and he sat to eat with his family and a person who by class classification was from a sudra background appeared before Ranti Dev and said please give me food so what did Ranti Dev do ? he fed his family and he fed that man who came. He sat down to eat and a person came with dogs- a pack of dogs and said Ranti Dev my dogs are hungry , give them food and water. Ranti Dev fed the dogs. All that was left was that water. If he did not take that water immediately he would die. It was lie or death, as he was about to drink the water, a candala, a person who is considered to be a complete disgraced to society by social conventions and said I am very thirsty will you give me some water. Would you call this a provoking situation. Ranti Dev with folded palms prayed my dear Lord, O supreme personality of Godhead I do not pray to ………..(Side change of cassette)………so that other living beings do not have to suffer birth after birth after birth after birth my Lord le me live for the welfare of others, let me suffer and die for the welfare of others. I am giving water to this candela. I will be forever free form thirst, hunger, moroseness, lamentation and all the sufferings of material existence with tears of gratitude in his eyes he gave water to that man. That is greatness- That is tolerance. All of a sudden the Brahmin, all those different personalities that came to beg him and they all transformed into devotees or demigods and gave him food. We have appeared in this way before you because we have appeared and this way before you because we wanted to show the world what is a great person. One’s greatness has to be estimated by ability to tolerate provoking situations Rantidev’s compassionate nature and his integrity to maintain that compassionate nature even in the most difficult circumstances the entire world under his regime was God conscious because he loved every living being without discrimination like a father.
Another provoking situation, Maharaj Parikshit of Srimad Bhagwatam, he committed a small offense against Swumik rishi, small offence due to that son of Saumik rishi, Shringi so outraged, unable to tolerate the provoking situation of anger and in sense of false pride of being a Brahmin and a son of a great sage cursed the king to die in 7 days, he failed and when maharaj Parikshit received the news that he was going to die in 7 days, he was grateful. He could have sent all of his armies to take that little Brahmin but he didn’t, he accepted it as the will of the Lord. He saw the good in it, he saw the opportunity in it. A great person sees positive opportunities in every situation that comes in their life and never becomes despondent human life is meant for self realization. Let me give the next 7 days of my life to hear and chant the glories ofKrishnaand with a grateful heart, Maharaj Parikshit sat on theGangaand because of him we have the Srimad Bhagwatam one of the most inspiring and greatest literatures in the history of the world. There is a story of Ambarish Maharaj, Durvasa muni was offended by a slight mistake Ambarish made and was ready to kill him, Vishnu saved Ambarish, Durvasa muni was such a great powerful sadhu, ultimately for the offense of trying to murder this grahstha, a family man he was on the verge of death but Ambarish forgave him. Ambarish fasted for one year for the welfare of Durvasa muni that same man that tried to kill him that is tolerance, in fact forgiveness and tolerance are inseparable, the power to forgive others for the offenses and injustices against one is actual sign of tolerance it is the quality of a great person. The power to change is greater than all the nuclear powers in the world today by billions of times because power to forgive can liberate our soul and can liberate so may other soul what armies, weapons and entire arsends cannot necessary liberate anyone. Jesus Christ forgave the people who crucified him. That was his last prayer O Lord forgive them. They know not what they do. We have the same story of Thakur Haridas, he wss beaten with sticks in 22 market places he was beaten so severely that no man has lived beyond 2 or 3 such market places but as he was being beaten and whipped he was praying for the welfare of the executioners and what did he do wrong? Nothing. He was tried and convicted for he tried to teach people how to love God in a different way than the government believed in God. That’s all he was teaching the same universal principles as their religion but with some different names and he was sentenced to death. It is described that Vishnu sent his Sudarshan Chakra to sever the heads of the executioners because they were hurting his devotee but because Haridas Thakur was praying so deeply from the core of his heart for forgiveness towards them, the Lord’s Chakra was powerless to cause them any harm that is the power or forgiveness. Lord Chaitanya taught us:
Trnad api sunicena
taror api sahisnuna
amaninamandena
kirtanya sada harih
that one should be more humble like a blade of grass, more tolerant then a tree, one should be eager to offer all respect to other and expect no in return in this state of mind one can constantly chant the holy name. Let us examine the nature of a tolerance of a tree. A tree will stand in the scorching sun to give shade to you and me. A tree will bear the freezing cold of the winter and give wood to create for you and me. A tree will silently even give up its life to give its body to build a house for you and me. That is tolerance. W23ho is a great per5sonality, who is more tolerant than tree. How this may seem impossible but it is actually our nature, this is our inner nature where there is love, spiritual love there is unlimited tolerance, unlimited humility. Today’s class is the art of tolerance. We have examined some of the circumstances within and without that try our tolerance and some of the great personalities that have shown in the most magnificent way how they maintained their character, their integrity and their spiritual principles even in the face of difficulties and we have also mentioned that how people fall down because of their inability to tolerate provoking situations so how does this apply to all of us today. This is the most important question. Moist of you are young with life ahead of you, there will be many temptations many provoking situations that will come upon you. First of all what do we value in our lives as sacred that is a very important question to us to contemplate otherwise we simply get lost, we get caught up in the passions of the inner and outer worlds. What is the foundational principle we want to live by in our lives. This is important, happiness comes from fulfillment, fulfillment is when the principles of our lives are in harmony, hypocrisy creates a turmoil of agitation in our own hearts. So ready what is the principle we want to live by to be a cheater, to be liar, to give into lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion or is our principle to be Narottam, first class human beings to live with character, to live with morality, to live with ethics, a person who can live by these principles is a hero. The gangsters, the mafia, the mop people, all those they are just ignorant wearings, they may have big bodies and big guns, and they may control villages or control cities or control governments but they are ignorant weakings simply conquered every moment by their lust and their greed and their ego, may die and may have to pay for all their evils. There is nothing nice about that although in the cinema and the television they are heroised as being great fearless people simply fools. Better the strongest is the person in house life who lives with dignity and character and that is a fact because it is so hard in this world.
In Kali yuga, what is religion is taken to be irreligion and what is irreligion is taken to be religion, but for our ethics, our character and our integrity to have a sustainable foundation by which we can tolerate the storm that come upon us, we must have spiritual realizations. An example, if you build a house with a weak foundation, it will fall, it may be big, beautiful, magnificent sky scraper but all luxury suits when storm come it falls, but if you have strong foundation it can withstand any difficulty. So in order be able to tolerate provoking situations. We must have a strong foundation and our principles, our morals, our ethics must be built upon that foundation. Kolvechha Shridhar was in utter poverty materially but he did not want anything else, he was happy, he was offered any benediction, he was offered wealth, he was offered fame, he was offered power, he was happy in him self because he was tasting the nectar of spiritual love. That is wealth. So first of all we must advocate in our lives what is utmost important is it just accumulating more fame, prestige, money, is it enjoying more and more through the senses or is it living with character or by doing something wonderful for the world by our example. The greatest need in today’s society is people who live by a god example.
Bhagavad Gita tells what leaders do the common people follow. All of you here tomorrow will be leaders of society on one level or another. The example you set the others will follow, your children and the people around you. So yes evaluate what is or great values in your life to live by truth or live by illusion. So the question is you the body or you the soul. If you are the body then so many materialistic ways make sense but the conception that you are the body really makes no sense at all. Your body is a vehicle, your soul is a person animating this vehicle that at the time of death the body is there, where is the soul, where is the person, where is the life, the beginning of all truth according to Gita is to understand that you are not the body but you are the eternal SOUL. That is considered to be truth, what are the needs of the soul to live in harmony with the needs of the soul is human life, to forget that principle is the life of two legged animals and what is the nature of the soul, to live, to have equal vision of compassion to all living beings, whether one is in business, engineer, housewife, teacher, student, swami, architect, farmer, wherever our particular occupation may be to express our values to express or love, our devotion to God and all living beings through our work. That is the highest life, that is natural life and in that life there is happiness and in that happiness we have the power to tolerate all provoking situations. So two things are very important to strive by proper means to purify our consciousness of lust, envy, anger, greed and pride and at that the same time tolerate those provoking situation by strong intelligence by strong commitment and conviction. If I am convinced that something is wrong I will not give into it. At the same time of conviction, the purification of the heart the, the awakening of our natural love and that comes through spiritual purification and in this age of Kali the most simple and sublime method of spiritual purification is the chanting of the holy name HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE/ HARE RAM HARE RAM RAM RAM HARE HARE. Haridas Thakur was able to tolerate the most difficult provoking situation because his heart was pure. So yes you are all so fortunate that you have an opportunity to do something wonderful for yourselves and to do something wonderful for the world by striving for spiritual perfection, by purifying your heart, by proper association in the power of God’s name and while performing this wonderful wonderful purifying process. You will have the strength and integrity to tolerate provoking situations as they will come and maintain your principles.
I thank you very much.
Relevant questions and answers
Q. Under the category of envy you were mentioning that how every religion has the tendency to say that we are the best so we also say that our Vedic culture is the best and within the Vedic culture of the many philosophies of polytheism, pantheism, the philosophy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the best. That is how any different from what other religious principles are saying.
A. What best is actually what brings about realization of unmotivated, uninterrupted love for God and compassion t all living beings. Any one can say we are best but this is religious phantom.
Sa vai pumsam parocharmo
Yato bhaktir adhoksaje
Ahaituky apratihata
Yayatma suprasidati
This is Bhagwatam explanation of what is best and this is what we are talking about Vedic culture. The fruit of all Vedic literature is Bhagwatam and Bhagwatam tells what is best, the supreme occupation for all humanity is that which brings about the awakening of loving service to the supreme Lord. Such service must be unmotivated, unconditional and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self. So if our thinking we the best causes us to be envious, hateful, arrogant then we do not understand anything about our won religion, its superficial, its hollow and its egoistical yew. So if we understand what our won religion is we will be the compassionate, well wisher of all living beings as the expression of our love for God. Let us realize that before making judgments about everyone else. Does that answer your question? The Vedas does not tell us to become a Hindu, the Vedas tell us to love God and that love must be unmotivated, unconditioned and uninterrupted. The Vedas teaches us to be an instrument of God’s love in this world. Yes that is supreme religion.
Q. Maharaj, I have heard that Vaishnavas never gets angry and if he gets angry something really wrong has happened and the person responsible for making him angry gets high reactions. So is it not it should be opposite in the way.
A. Vaishnavas get angry but they get angry for the right purpose do you see that Vaishnavas there (Hanuman) did he get angry? He was angry because Ravana told Sita but that anger was an act of love, an act of love for God, it was not based on unfulfilled love, it wasn’t an expression of unfulfilled ego, it was an expression of selfless love. It was for the benefit of allKrishnaincited anger in Arjuna, that is what Bhagwad Gita did. You can’t fight without being angry, yes,Krishnatells Arjuna, but how can you fight without being angry especially against Kurus. Duryodhana was envious. When he saw that Bhima executed him he was envious of him that means he fell down because he was provoked by envy but then Yudhisthar, Duryodhan stole the throne that was meant for him but Yudhisthar was completely non-envious. He was still ready to forgive and help Duryodhana when he was in a difficult circumstance. That is the difference between a great soul and another. The ability to tolerate provoking situations so in that situation, the war was inevitable and Arjuna fought but he did not fight out of false ego or out of unfulfilled false ego, he fought for the welfare and sake of others. Sometimes when the child is misbehaving the parent will become angry with the child out of love and care. Even act angry when they are not just to emphasize a point, yes. So sometimes when anger is born of compassion and love and as an act of service then that anger pure and many times Vaishnavas accept that type of anger to teach good lesson, to emphasize certain points and to protect innocent but that is completely different from krodha which is one of the three gateways to hell according to Gita. Lust, anger, greed are three gateways that lead to hellish existence but anger born of false ego and unfulfilled desire is extremely dangerous and very difficult to overcome unless we have very high spiritual principles to live by. Does that answer your question?
I Thank you very much.
