Inability to stand others’ weaknesses is a weakness Gita 16.04 (4 min video)
When we are good at something, we can easily spot others’ weaknesses in that area. For example, if we are good at language, our attention automatically zooms to others’ grammatical shortcomings.
Still, when people have an ability deficiency – they are tone-deaf – we learn to live with it. But when they have a behavioral deficiency – they are forgetful, untidy or unpunctual – we often find that intolerable. We feel that they could easily improve if they would just try.
However, we are seeing their situation from our perspective, not theirs. To be fair to them, we can contemplate that just as we have our conditionings that we struggle with, so too do they have their particular conditionings that they struggle with.
Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita states that aversion to faultfinding characterizes the godly (16.02), whereas anger, arrogance and harshness characterize the ungodly (16.04). If we harp on others’ faults, we act in an ungodly way. Moreover, we irritate, even alienate them; and we inflate our ego. As our faultfinding aggravates our ungodliness, our inability to tolerate their weakness becomes our weakness.