Once, Yogi Bapa and some sadhus were travelling and arrived at keriya village, where they decided to rest. During the afternoon, the sadhus were all resting except Yogi Bapa. Because he was fasting, he was awake and taking care of various tasks. Some other sadhus who were opposed to the principle of Akshar-Purushottam arrived to punish them. They entered the mandir where everyone was resting and started beating up the sadhus. They smashed pots, pushed the sadhus and broke things. They even pushed a blind sadhu, Bhagwatswarupdasji, against the wall; such was their cruelty! Finally some satsangi villagers arrived with sticks and chased away the opposing sadhus. After the disturbance, the satsangis were very upset, but neither Yogi Bapa nor any of the other sadhus muttered even one single word against their attackers. This incident truly highlights how tolerance is a definition of sadhuta – ‘saintliness’.

Even after reading this incident, we might think, “How can I stay so calm in such a blood-boiling situation?” The solution: if we always remember that Maharaj is the all-doer and that nothing happens without his wish, then we can see the above type of situation as an opportunity to erase our swabhavs and increase our control over our emotions and mind. We can use the situation as an opportunity to learn about ourselves instead of looking for faults in others. But this understanding does not come so easily. We must also pray daily to Yogi Bapa and our guru Pramukh Swami Maharaj in our puja. We should ask them to bless us with the ability to learn the virtue of tolerance so that we can be resilient in any difficult situation and behave how they would have behaved, rather than responding to our emotions and mind.