Tolerance: The Way of Nature

Tolerance: The Way of Nature elephants and lions did not display this mutual tolerance, every chance meeting would mean a fight to the finish. Nature has taught this method to both the lion and the elephant. In the same way, nature has placed within the human body a complete system of tolerance. In medical science, this is known as biological tolerance. It refers to the ability of a living organism to endure contact with a substance—or to tolerate its introduction into the body— without experiencing harmful effects: “The ability of an organism to endure contact with a substance, or its introduction into the body, without ill effects.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 10, p. 31) This ability of the body to accept foreign elements is the bedrock of our entire system of medical treatment. Medicines administered during illness can be very harmful to the body as a whole. But the body accepts them, despite its susceptibilities, when correctly prescribed. It is thanks to the ‘tolerance’ of the body that medicine can enter it and effectively heal a diseased organ without there being any harmful side effects to other organs. It is imperative that there should be the same show of tolerance in human society too. What the jungle beasts do as a matter of instinct and the human body does under nature‘s compulsion should be performed by man in the full consciousness of its moral necessity. If an individual is to live peaceably with his fellow men, he must follow the path of tolerance as a matter of deliberate policy.