Yogi Bhajan Lecture: Tolerance to the Infinite Degree

Excerpts from a Gurdwara lecture at Summer Solstice on June 16, 1996, at Guru Ram Das Puri, NM.  (Scroll down to see the full video.)

What is the Age of Aquarius we are entering? For centuries we have been trying to learn, trying to know, trying to improve a lot. We want to grow, but in this age which we have entered in 1991, knowledge will be available to everybody. Computers can make a most foolish person the most wise person because there will be a qualified intelligence at the disposal of every person.

Judgment of a person on the basis of wisdom will be eliminated. All knowledge will be available to a human. The art of communication between humans will be so vast that everybody will know everybody and everything about everybody for all purposes or for no purposes. Now these are three good aspects.

The worst of it is that it will be most difficult to handle it. Individuality shall disappear. In this coming age it is not: you know me and that is enough; we have a gathering and that is enough. Sitting at home you can communicate with anybody, anywhere for any purpose at any short notice. The individual shall have no strength because there shall be no individuality.

There will be a time when there will be no place for ego. You want ego; you want to maintain ego, and there will be no chance. It will be just the opposite of this age. It shall be the age of a sage where everybody shall be a sage.

So we are entering a new age where we have to learn to acquire our own inner self, the very being. We shall always have a soul. You have a body to maintain the soul for the time being. But one thing we don’t have: how will we develop our mind to get that information. How we will handle that mind inside of us? How will we tolerate the total information and rise above it? That is what the Age of Aquarius is all about.

We want to be us with control of our emotions, of our feelings and our intellect and our intelligence. And that is our practical approach in the Age of Aquarius. You have to learn the art of tolerance up to the infinite degree. You have to learn the art of communication to the infinite degree. You have to learn the art of instant forgiveness. Show no sign, show no reaction, show absolutely nothing of you but your virtue. Life will be very fast.

Anybody who wants to have an expanded consciousness and says, “I see my heavens within me”—you say what? And this is the just start of the cusp of the Age of Aquarius. Our thinking, our ideas, our thoughts have become so big, but our mental attitude has become so small that it is painful to even explain.

For centuries our religious tolerance is so bad that we have killed millions of people on just ethnic cleansing. So in this world we are acquiring a peace, a mental peace, a satisfaction of individual grace. Human grace has to be respected by the human himself and by the humanity in general. That is what we are seeking. We are seeking a grace where we can welcome with our divinity those who do not have divinity. If, in the Age of Aquarius, man cannot welcome the more condemned man, man has not risen from his beast. If man cannot welcome the most unwanted living thing, man has not considered his consciousness as infinite.

It is our dharma to honor those who have no honor. Guru Amar Das said, “You shall be the place of those who have no place; you will be the home of those who are homeless. You shall be the honor of those who have no honor; you shall be the shelter of those who have no shelter.” We will be the strength of the person who is weak and has no strength. We shall be the protection of all that is. And that is just human.

Adopt a personal conduct of infinite tolerance. Our mission is to mingle and tangle our spirit, our soul; to understand the unisonness.