It is said that ‘The real power is not to make war but to prevent it’. That power is the POWER OF TOLERANCE. But frankly speaking, we do not have a morsel of tolerance in our lives and the major hindrance that cease us from being tolerant is our ego and self-esteem. The feeling of ‘I will show him who I am’, when someone criticises us. The question, ‘why should I tolerate?’. Perhaps, you’ll redeem your ego by answering the critic, but it will only cause hatred. Lack of tolerance often comes out in the form of anger. Talking about tolerance always reminds me of a high school incident of my then friend Nikhil. Nikhil had failed in his prelim exams. Two days later Vaibhav called Nikhil a failure. He criticised him for not even passing the exam. Nikhil could not tolerate this, he could not control his anger and slapped Vaibhav. Now Vaibhav was not the follower of Gandhiji & what else? A BIG FiGht! I still remember that fight had lasted for over six months. Taking a sky view of the situation, what if Vaibhav had not criticised him? Or what if Nikhil could have controlled his anger. It could have prevented the big fight. There was no option of growing hatred between them. A little more understanding and a little more tolerance is what’s required to live a peaceful life.

Cutting short, just tolerate it, because anger means destruction and tolerance means peace.

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