A person who can tolerate all kinds of offenses from the opposite party is known to be forgiving.

Lord Krsna's forgiving quality is described in the Mahabharata in connection with His forbidding the killing of Sisupala. King Sisupala was the monarch of the Cedi Kingdom, and although he happened to be a cousin of Krsna's, he was always envious of Him. Whenever they would meet, Sisupala would try to insult Krsna and call Him ill names as much as possible. In the arena of the raja-suya sacrifice of Maharaj Yudhisthira, when Sisupala began to call Lord Krsna ill names, Krsna did not care and remained silent. Some of the people at the arena were prepared to kill Sisupala, but Krsna restricted them. He was so forgiving. It is said that when there is a thundering sound in the clouds, the mighty lion immediately replies with his thundering roar. But the lion doesn't care when all the foolish jackals begin to make their less important sounds.

Sri Yamunacarya praises Krsna's power of forgiveness with the following statement: "My dear Lord Ramacandra, You are so merciful to have excused the crow's clawing on the nipples of Janaki simply because of his bowing down before You." Once Indra, the King of heaven, assumed the form of a crow and attacked Sita (Janaki), Lord Ramacandra's wife, by striking her on the breast. This was certainly an insult to the universal mother, Sita, and Lord Ramacandra was immediately prepared to kill the crow. But because later on the crow bowed down before the Lord, He excused his offense. Sri Yamunacarya further says in his prayer that the forgiving power of Lord Krsna is even greater than that of Lord Ramacandra, because Sisupala was always in the habit of insulting Krsna-not only in one lifetime, but continually throughout three lives. Still, Krsna was so kind that He gave Sisupala the salvation of merging into His existence. From this we can understand that the goal of the monist to merge into the effulgence of the supreme is not a very difficult problem. Persons like Sisupala who are consistently inimical to Krsna can also get this liberation.