Titiksha

From Theosophy Wiki
(Redirected from Patience)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Titiksha (devanāgarī: तितिक्षा titikṣā) is a Sanskrit word often related as "endurance, forbearance, patience". The Vedāntasāra (v. 22) translates it as "the endurance of heat and cold and other pairs of opposites". In the Vivekachudamani of Sri Shankaracharya, he defines it as follows:

The endurance of all pain and sorrow without thought of retaliation, without dejection, and without lamentation.[1]

Theosophical intepretation

Mohini Chatterji defined this qualification as follows:

Fourth in order comes the cessation of desire, and a constant readiness to part with everything in the world (Titiksha). The typical illustration of this, given in our mystical literature, is the absence of resentment of wrong. When this qualification is completely attained, there arises in the mind a perennial cheerfulness, washing away every trace of solicitude or care.[2]

The book At the Feet of the Master lays out a series of virtues similar to the ones used in Vedanta. The point corresponding to titikṣā is translated as "cheerfulness" and explained as follows:

You must bear your karma cheerfully, whatever it may be, taking it as an honor that suffering comes to you, because it shows the Lords of Karma think you worth helping.[3]

Notes

  1. Mohini Mohun Chatterji (tr.), Viveka-Cūḍāmaṇi (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1968), 15.
  2. Qualifications for Chelaship by Mohini M. Chatterjee
  3. Jiddu Krishnamurti, At the Feet of the Master, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Press, 1973), 50.