It was early morning, and as all of the other students stood exercising, I sat atop this cloud and simply watched.” Po’s expression did not change. “So you dream of mastery?” He ushered me over to the exercise floor. “Only practice breeds mastery, not dreams.”
Tolerance is virtue, until intolerance becomes duty.
One significant story involving Lord Krishna and his chakra (discus) is his battle with the demon king Shishupala during the Rajasuya Yagna conducted by King Yudhishthira.
Shishupala was a cousin of Lord Krishna and an enemy of the Yadava clan. He had a deep-seated grudge against Krishna due to a past rivalry. During the Rajasuya Yagna, as part of the ceremony, King Yudhishthira was to honor someone by offering them the first ceremonial worship. Yudhishthira chose to honor Lord Krishna, which angered Shishupala, who despised Krishna.
As Yudhishthira began the ceremony, Shishupala started insulting Krishna with a series of vile words. Lord Krishna remained calm and patient, allowing Shishupala to continue his tirade. However, when Shishupala's insults crossed a certain threshold and became intolerable, Krishna decided it was time to act.
Using his Sudarshana Chakra, a powerful discus weapon, Lord Krishna swiftly beheaded Shishupala, thus ending his life. This act fulfilled a prophecy, as Shishupala had been cursed since birth that he would meet his end at the hands of the person he hated the most after committing 100 offenses.
The story illustrates Lord Krishna's tolerance and patience but also highlights his determination to protect dharma (righteousness) and his devotees. It also showcases the power and significance of the Sudarshana Chakra as a divine weapon wielded by Lord Krishna. 🦚
Every great story of faith is built on a foundation of tests.
In Job 42:1–6, Job makes his final response, confessing God's power and his own lack of knowledge "of things beyond me which I did not know". Previously, he has only heard God, but now his eyes have seen God, and therefore, he declares, "I retract and repent in dust and ashes".
God tells Eliphaz that he and the two other friends "have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has done". The three are told to make a burnt offering with Job as their intercessor, "for only to him will I show favour".
Job's health being restored, his riches and family being remade, and Job living to see the new children born into his family produce grandchildren up to the fourth generation.
The return of the younger, wayward son is joyfully welcomed by a forgiving father, despite the resentment of his responsible older brother.
The parable begins with a wealthy man who had two sons, the younger of whom asks for his share of the man's estate. The implication is the son did not want to wait for his father's death to receive his inheritance, and instead wanted it immediately. The father agrees and divides his estate between the two sons.
Upon receiving his portion of the inheritance, the younger son travels to a distant country, where he squanders his wealth through reckless living. He runs out of money just before a severe famine strikes the land, leaving him desperately poor and forced to take a filthy and low-paying job as a swineherd. He reaches the point of envying the food of the pigs he is feeding. At this time, he finally comes to his senses:[ii]
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
This implies that the father was watching hopefully for the son's return. The son starts his rehearsed speech, admitting his sins, and declaring himself unworthy of being his father's son but does not even finish before his father accepts him back without hesitation.
The older son, who was at work in the fields, hears the sound of celebration and is told by a slave about the return of his younger brother. He is not impressed and becomes angry.
The parable stops with the father explaining that while the older son has always been present and that everything the father owns also belongs to the older son, because the younger son had returned, in a sense, from the dead, celebration was necessary.