Tolerance

Tolerance is the virtue of a civilized age. It is the virtue that helps us to put up with those, who have different ways and opinions, and outlook on life. It enables us to see always the other side of things, to suffer fools with patience, fanatics without losing out temper.
Voltaire once said: What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.
In earlier days, difference in religion led to prosecution; difference in politics created bad blood, and difference in opinions ended in blows. This is intolerance, the refusal to be just and fair-minded. A whole community might be massacred in the name of God. Even today, purges for political opinions have not been banished from society. Intolerance comes from bigotry, narrowness and blind self-conceit. It is the result of dogmatism, a belief that there is only one attitude that is right.

Tolerance is not only an abstract virtue; it is of considerable influence in the current affairs of life. Man is a social being and has to live in a spirit of harmony and co-operation with others. In this process some amount of give-and-take is necessary, a capacity for compromise.

We cannot persuade others unless we ourselves are at the same time ready to be persuaded by practicing sweet reasonable­ness. Thus it will be seen that tolerance as a social virtue, is opposed to dogmatism or dictatorship. It is impossible for one to be tolerant if one is hide-bound and rigid in views or full of prejudices.

ntolerance leads to the worst kinds of disaster. In the mythology and history we can find many horrible acts of intolerance. Cain killed his elder brother Abel, because he could not bear the importance of Able in the eye of God. The Catholic queen Mary of Great Britain burnt the Protestants alive, because she could not tolerate the Puritanism. Aurangzeb killed Hindus under the feet of elephants, because he could not tolerate Hinduism. Sometimes we quarrel with others owing to such intolerance. Many of our enemies are the outcome of our intolerance. We cannot deliver justice, because we are intolerant to hearing the views which are different for ours. So, intolerance is a very bad quality.
In personal life, in our daily dealings, we shall have to be long-bearing. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted that one should be as tolerant as the tree that does not withdraw shade even to the wood-cutter.There is no doubt that tolerance is a very necessary quality of our every day life. If we culture tolerance we will be free from all the pain of envy within ourselves. Then our soul will live in peace and happiness.