Miscellaneous - Religion   

Need for faith

CHENNAI : Faith in God and in the teachings of the scriptures and preceptors is the bottom line of spiritual life. As the spiritual quest is in the realm of the unknown an aspirant can only begin his journey on the basis of the guidance of those who have traversed this path before and realised the objective: realisation of the Supreme Being.

It is very easy to be an agnostic, disbelieving that which has to be taken on faith, but in the end a sceptic becomes the loser. Faith is also necessary to begin with because God is beyond the ken of the human senses and the intellect through which man gains all other knowledge except spiritual knowledge. But, God can be experienced and till it becomes a fait accompli the spiritual seeker has to progress on the path only with faith.

In his discourse, Swami Gautamananda said knowledge (Jnana) increased as faith deepened. The example of the manner in which a child learns is apt for the need for faith in spiritual life. In the beginning the child accepts whatever is taught in good faith and starts questioning only when it grows older when ratiocination develops. So also must a beginner embark on the spiritual path with faith in the scriptures, which posit the existence of God, and in the preceptor who guides him.

Perusal of the lives of saints whose spiritual experiences have been documented helps in reinforcing one's belief in God and in the possibility of realising Him if the practices are followed sincerely. As a seeker progresses spiritually he can see for himself that God makes His presence felt through His acts of grace, which will go to strengthen his trust.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has pointed out that a seeker must repose childlike trust in his Guru's teachings for he has utmost concern in the welfare of his disciple. A child never doubts its mother and implicitly believes her. Such unconditional trust is essential for spiritual progress. It is all right to resolve one's doubts about the efficacy of a particular tradition or a preceptor before embarking on a particular path but afterwards one should not continue to doubt as that will only be counterproductive to the goal.

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