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"Faith,
in true sense is a lively link connecting
the mortal with the immortal"
(Basic Writings of Sri
Ramchandra, Reality at Dawn, Page 250)
Dr. K. Madhava
My dear brothers and sisters,
Pranams.
On this auspicious occasion
of the function of the birthday of Rev
Lalaji Maharaj I feel blessed to be given
the opportunity to present my paper.
Sri Ramchandra’s
consciousness is the eternal divine force,
which is pervading the entire universe and
is holding the universe together. We the so
called individual selves have taken birth
from this force and are a part of this
force. That is the truth whether we agree or
not. Truth or Reality does not change as per
our changing opinions.
So Sri Ramchandra’s
consciousness is the immortal and our little
individual selves are the mortal beings
because in addition to the spirit of Sri
Ramchandra’s consciousness indwelling within
us( i.e. the immortal)the mortal beings are
composed of five sheaths of physical, vital,
mental, higher mental, and bliss bodies
which by definition are things or matter
which disintegrate over time.
Now faith is the link, a
lively link between the eternal and infinite
Sri Ramchandra’s consciousness and our
mortal self.
Now what is faith? To put it
simply faith is the belief in the truth
about an idea or person. This feeling,
attitude or conviction if we observe
carefully seems to have different degrees of
density. It can be weak or strong and
various shades or grades between them.
All of us know what this
faith is; we all have it in various degrees
for various ideas or persons. We have faith
or belief in our teachers, parents, friends,
our leaders, our defence forces etc. A
scientist has faith that his experiment will
confirm the hypothesis to be the truth. When
we go to hotel and order for a cup of coffee
we have faith that there will be sugar added
to it and not salt. There is no doubt about
it.
So the opposite of faith is
doubt. As our faith becomes stronger our
doubts vanish altogether (this is an
yardstick which I will elaborate again at a
later stage of my article)
Another important point about
faith is it is always in relation to a thing
or object. Rev Babuji Maharaj said we should
have faith in the Reality or the Goal, in
the Master who guides us, and in our
capacity to reach the goal.
There has always been a fight
between rationalists and religious people.
Rationalists give more importance to
evidence and proof, and claim that since the
existence of God cannot be proved He does
not exist and people of various religions
who have faith in various interpretations of
God are wrong. They point out the utter
stupidity and the barbarious behavior, and
acts of war and terror in the name of faith.
Religious people who have
faith in God say that faith is beyond reason
and though they cannot show evidence in
favor of the existence of God their
experience in life gives them an inner
conviction and a certainty in the existence
of God. They feel that life without faith is
meaningless and sterile.
We who are practicing the
natural path know that both the points of
view are true. Rev Babuji maharaj asks us to
think deeply, weigh the pro and con before
arriving at the suitability of accepting
somebody as a guide. So we have to use our
intellect or reason to select a proper path
and proper guide to reach our goal. But as
we become convinced about the efficacy of
the system, as we perceive beneficial
changes in our inner psyche, as we sense the
love of the guide towards the disciple, the
trust and belief gets strengthened gradually
and turns into faith or shraddha, where you
donot question or do not even know why you
are attached to the Master. We have
transcended rationality here.
So far it has been a sorry
and sad plight of humanity. People who have
faith in religions or God actually do not
understand the essence of the teaching of
the religion or are not conscious about the
presence of God. They simply have faith in
the faith of the teachers or prophets. They
do not know or understand what that faith
is. That sort of a faith is useless that is
why they suffer from anxiety, stress, fears
and tensions and that is why nations and
religions are at war with one another.
Since God or Divine force is
very subtle and beyond the range of sensory
knowledge, rationality cannot help us much,
and faith invariably depends on what you
have been told or what you have inherited as
a meme (a certain patterns of thoughts and
behavior which seem to be passed on from
generation to generation)
This problem is solved for
the first time with the introduction of
pranahuti. The seeds or beginning of faith
is sown in a fertile ground of evidence and
rationality. You taste the thing first and
are asked then to believe it.
In our system because of the
influx of pranahuti you already have an
imperience of the quietness, silence, a
peace which passeth understanding, a sense
of wonder, a reverential and sacred feeling
towards the awareness of a Divine presence.
You know that is the Reality and not the
gross consciousness we are in. we have to
develop love towards that reality and
develop faith in it.
For example somebody says
that such and such an object is sweet. You
are asked to believe that it is sweet. But
when you taste it it is possible that it can
be saltish, bitter, pungent or tasteless or
not so sweet in reality. But that person has
defined that state as sweet and you are
supposed to have faith in what that person
says. That is the position of the majority
of the religious people. It is a mental
concept. Mental concept is not the truth or
reality. Mental concepts can vary from
person to person, region to region, various
conditioning influences etc.
This is the first time in
human history a new scientific paradigm has
been ushered in the domain of spirituality.
You are not being asked to have faith in God
by your Guru or master but the condition of
Reality is infused into you and your
consciousness recognizes it with an inner
certainity that yes THIS IS IT! You are
asked to develop love and faith towards that
Reality.
To get further idea about
this new method I quote Rev Dr. KCV from
Vol. 1 from the Allahabad lecture
“That is the reason why this
Raja yoga was propounded by Shri Babuji. For
him, as I said, the easiest thing is to get
the highest consciousness into you. I almost
venture to think that that is the bringing
of God to his home in the heart of man! And
this is done in a simple way taking the old
system of trying to bring the ultimate
manas, the first thing that is brought out
in creation in its nascent form, and
introducing it into the heart of the little,
blindfolded and severely ensheathed mind of
man, and it can do the job well. And when
that Supreme Mind, the mind of God - of
course God Himself might have no mind, but
He uses the mind in his creation, and that
mind finds its affinity with the mind within
us, of which it is a product-when that
Supreme mind is introduced into the heart,
this little mind joining with it enjoys a
peculiar sense of release of tensions; a
kind of unsheathing of the sheaths seems to
happen; a penetrating beyond the walls that
have been raised by you, so that it can flow
out and flow within. So tensions are removed
at once. And man has a gaze of the Infinite,
which he pursues afterwards with tremendous
devotion. The bringing of the Highest
consciousness or mind into the heart of
every individual is done by a special
process which was, at one stage, common
knowledge to all the great men, but which
has since been forgotten. It had to be
brought back. And now it had to be brought
back under circumstances which are quite
different from those ages; and for this
purpose Babuji has devised or invented a
method by which it could be introduced with
the least amount of sophistication; the
least amount of knowledge on your part or
even faith, as he puts it, or any duty or
work that you have to do, in the sense of a
ritual or rite. It is done simply, by
merely sitting before the Master. And the
process by which it is done by him is called
transmission. Once this transmission takes
place, the mind within opens up towards this
new frontier. Calmness settles on it.
Harmony seems to develop between himself and
his members. And afterwards he finds it
developing in a larger sphere. Even natural
events and oppositions yield to this new
force introduced into the heart. This is the
power of transmission which Shri Ram
Chandraji-Babuji-has perfected, and has been
using on all types and grades of
people-intellectuals, non-intellectuals,
learned men, ignorant men, the rich and the
poor, without any difference whatsoever. And
the results have been, from my own
experience for the last twelve years,
uniformly of the same order-the
de-tensioning of man.”1
Faith in my view is a saga in
the unfoldment of courage and confidence in
the Master. As we get rid of grossness,
selfishness.and ego, our faith grows
stronger and stronger till finally it ends
in self surrender and the establishment of
an unbreakable link with Master
I quote Rev Babuji Maharaj
from Silence speaks
“ In the spiritual phase,
faith in the guru or the Master starts when
the sadhaka begins to feel that whatever the
teacher gives out is correct and to his
advantage. When it is so he accepts it with
submission. By and by when he begins to feel
more and more convinced and satisfied by
experience and association, his reliance on
the Master grows stronger and his submission
increases. Faith thus begins to develop in a
way and he begins to assume an unquestioning
attitude. This usual routine is applicable
to those who aspire for the realisation of
God and proceed on the path with their eyes
wide open.”2
Rev Babuji Maharaj also
mentions in Dawn of Reality about how Faith
evolves. To quote
“Gurumata disciples are those
who obey the commands of the master in all
matters and try to submit to his will in all
possible ways. Submission begins with
obedience. When we are deeply impressed by
the great powers of a master of higher
attainments in spirituality, we feel
inwardly inclined to follow his biddings.
But often the effect remains upon us only
when we are in his presence, and when we are
away we become unmindful of him. Repeated
association with him for some time brings us
in close touch with the great soul and his
supremacy begins to be established in our
heart. We accept him as our guide in all
matters pertaining to our spiritual
advancement. The result is that we remember
him frequently. When we are perfectly
convinced of his superior capabilities, only
then our submission in true sense begins. We
go on with it and practise as we are
directed. We think of pleasing him by our
actions. The idea of right or wrong, too,
begins to assume prominence in our heart and
we feel inclined to refrain from evil. We
consequently adopt the line of virtue so
that we might be able to please our great
Master. It is our primary motive for we wish
to be saved from the miseries of the next
life.
But, so far, we reserve to
ourselves the right of discretion and are,
therefore, responsible for all our actions
whether good or bad. At a higher stage of
self-surrender such a discretionary power
becomes almost extinct and a man does
everything thinking it to be his master's
will. The question of right or wrong does
not at all arise in his mind, or it becomes
absolutely certain that by following his
master's will, he is doing the only right
thing and he does nothing but the right,
feeling it to be his master's will.”3
Once we understand that
development of faith is an evolving process
there are some important aspects of
spiritual training we have to focus on
without which success in yoga becomes
difficult.
Yoga means complete harmony
with the Divine Consciousness. Without
following the Ten Commandments in letter and
spirit we will be not in tune with Sri
Ramchandra’s consciousness and our goal of
reaching the Homeland will remain a
pipedream. We mortals cannot develop a firm
link with the immortal Sri Ram Chandra’s
consciousness by not imbibing the attitudes
required to follow the Commandments.
For example if Rev Master
says be not revengeful, we need to have
faith in that idea and make that idea our
own. That idea has to become a part of the
structure of our inner psyche. So in
generating ideas or indulging in talk or
exhibiting external behavior we have to
think and do good towards others who may be
inimical or critical of us.
Similarily we should have
faith in the reality of oneness of God. The
divine Master who is seated in our heart is
the same Master who is seated in the hearts
of our brethren and in fact all existence.
If we are condescending in our behavior,
keep on pointing and finding faults in
others and are for most of the time
conscious of other person’s defects rather
than the indwelling divinity, it means we
have no faith in the oneness of Master. We
unwittingly aid the satan by promoting ego,
disharmony and strife.
Similarily we should have
faith in the idea that by practicing
meditation sincerely we are taking part in
the transformation of human consciousness.
Once we understand that we are disciples of
the great Master whose main mission is to
overhaul the human consciousness by getting
it rid of fear, insecurity, greed etc, we
will participate in our duty of praying with
more zeal and enthusiasm. This is an
important faith. During the Basanth
celebrations of 2005 Rev KCN gave a talk on
proper motivation which basically deals with
this idea. We are doing meditation not to
gain personal peace but to take part in this
grand experiment of human transformation.
That is also the reason why ISRC lays so
much of stress on the 9 P.M prayer.
To understand faith we have
to know it develops into self surrender. The
state of mind of a person who has
surrendered is brought out by Rev Babuji
Maharaj in SDG article on Method of
Training. To quote “actually it is a sort of
state when one feels like a child going to
the lap of his mother even if a tiger
attacks him. He does not know whether his
mother can save him from the tiger”4
If we contemplate on this
state of mind deeply we have understood what
faith is and if we sincerely practice the
method trying to please the Master at every
opportunity He bestows the gift on you.
I will quote Rev Dr KCV from
his commentary on the third commandment from
volume 1 wherein he talks about how Master
teaches or guides one in acquiring faith
also.
“Therefore, if one wishes to
attain the highest stage in Yoga or union,
then it is necessary to seek oneness with
it. Our will must, therefore, never be for
lesser levels of existence but the Highest.
For this an unwavering faith is necessary.
Earnestness is necessary and such
earnestness is something that requires one's
seeking the Infinite Being within oneself
and get absorbed in Him. It is, of course,
difficult to get staunch determination, but
it is nonetheless necessary, and God Himself
in several subtle way helps even in the
formation of such a determination and faith.
However, the soul knowing its weakness at
first should dedicate all its being to God
and accept all as the gift of God and this
leads to development of faith in a subtle
manner. As Sri Krishna has stated, if one
but surrenders to Him, that is, chooses Him
as his goal and all, he very soon begins to
change and attains the stage of inward
determination and becomes a good man
(Ksipram Bhavati Dharmatma). The power and
primal force begins to flow steadily into
oneself and helps the ascent to it. As
already stated, God is not only the goal but
also the means to Himself, and indeed no one
can be the means and the instrument of our
ascent other than God alone.”5
Rev Babuji Maharaj has
famously remarked that “I am a deadly enemy
of doubt”6. He also said “if you
want to poison your will have doubt”7.
When he asked us to meditate
on the divine light in the heart, he asked
us to think once only and later whatever
thoughts arise he asked us to treat them
like unwelcome guests. Instead of having
faith in the Master we commonly entertain
doubts in the beginning of practice and get
perturbed by thoughts and repeat the
process of thinking about the presence of
divine light in the heart. In this way our
doubts interfere with the efficacy of
sadhana.
In the same way cleaning
process, 9 pm prayer also depend upon the
faith in the Master, faith in the process,
faith and confidence in one’s own thought.
Purity of thought and purity of intention
make the methods effective. Again they are
interlinked to the practice of Ten
Commandments.
Nowadays there is a lot of
talk about neuroplasticity. Due to the
technological and scientific advancements
man is able to have a peep into behind the
scene happenings and man is becoming
wonderstruck with amazement at the beautiful
and intricate intercommunication between the
nervous system, hormonal system, and the
immunological system. There is very good
harmony and a three way communication and
interdependence between them. Our
consciousness which is the base of all these
things (actually the nervous system and the
entire human organism is an epiphenomenon to
the background consciousness) can script its
own destiny and the entire brain will dance
to the tune which we compose. If we have
faith in the Master and choose His way of
life as our destiny the entire structure of
the human brain will consequently get
moulded in that shape and it will function
as per that dictate. Man understands that
nerve cells are not like solid inflexible
tiny sticks that are assembled together to
make up brain’s grey matter but are dancing
patterns of delicate electric fibres in an
animated web connecting and disconnecting
all the time.
Repeated thoughts and actions
based on autopilot have hardwired our brain
and we feel imprisoned. We become
prejudiced, negative and thought becomes
gross.
Each time we are praying and
thinking about Master we are changing our
connections and establishing new patterns
which cause joy and happiness and the more
we remain in those thoughts the more such
connections get strengthened and finally
become deeply entrenched and etched and
then negative thoughts cannot penetrate such
a strongly connected network. Then such a
network expresses only divine thoughts or
vibrations.
Neuroplasticity is proving
that we are the master of our own destiny
and if we continually dwell in the thought
of the Master and get absorbed in Him our
link with Him becomes very strong and that
is faith in my opinion.
Master in the Raichur message
SDG page 25 spoke about thoughts having
life. To quote “thoughts have life and they
also work on the lives of others but the
tragedy is that we produce scorpions and
snakes by our thoughts and tease others”.8
After being fed on a diet of
materialism neuroscience and biology is just
about discovering the spiritual reality that
our thoughts can change the brain as well as
the genes.
And finally I will close my
article with a quote from an unknown source
“faith is dead to doubts, dumb to
discouragements and blind to
impossibilities”
Thanking you all
Pranams
Madhava
References
1.
Complete Works of Dr.
K.C.Varadachari Volume 1, pages 447-448
2.
Silence Speaks, pg 251
3.
Basic Writings of
SriRamchandra, pages 261-262
4.
Showers of Divine Grace – pg
49
5.
Complete Works of Dr.
K.C.Varadachari Volume 1, First Edition,
April 2002, pages 66-67
6.
Voice Real, CD Accompaniment,
pg 47
7.
Voice Real, CD Accompaniment,
pg 46
8.
Showers of Divine Grace – pg
25
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