Dr. Pranav Pandya
Faith is one of those foundational principles of human life which enable a person to evolve spiritually. Without faith, one cannot attain happiness even though s/he may have succeeded materialistically. Faith is the basis of happiness. Faith makes life joyful. Normally, human beings fear death because it means transition to an unknown realm. Loneliness is the cause of fear. To the extent faith in our true immutable self is strengthened, the fear of death recedes. A person living in an uninhabited, desolate place, with faith and trust in the dwelling divinity, loves the cosmos and interacts with it as manifestation of the all pervading self-spirit of which he himself is a spark. One feels oneself as a part of the infinite cosmos. The happiness one experiences through this faith filled vision flows from deepest recesses of the inner being, which is one with The Cosmic Being. From this happiness emerges the joy of atma jnana - the realisation that man's true identity is the soul that resides within the body and not the body itself. Faith has the power to make any object lovable and a source of joy. Faith makes a sculpture carved in a stone worthy of being worshipped as a living deity. There is a famous story in the epic Mahabharata of a lowcaste boy called Eklavya. He wished to learn the art of archery from Dronacharya. Since Dronacharya accepted only the princes as his disciples, he refused to teach Eklavya. This did not discourage Eklavya. He made an idol of Dronacharya, gained inspiration from it as his guru and learned the art of archery to such perfection that even Guru Dronacharya was amazed by his mastery. In the modern times also, we find examples of people who, on the basis of faith, achieved wondrous success. One of the most notable examples is of Helen Keller, whose legacy inspires people even today. Helen was a deaf-dumb-blind American woman, whose faith in her capability to learn, speak and study was stimulated by her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy. She later went on to earn a university degree and scores of national and international awards.
Ancient seers, gurus, sages and teachers used to first assess the level of faith of their disciples/students before initiating them into the profound teachings of Brahma vidya. If the disciples/students did not meet a certain criteria of faith, secret knowledge was not imparted to them. Incidents relating to this fact are aplenty in scriptures. Faith is also the basis of love towards one's family members, religion, culture, nation and humanity. Students have faith in their teachers. When we go shopping, we have faith in the quality of products we buy. We receive respect when we express our faith in others; this enhances our inner sense of happiness and well-being. In spirituality, faith is considered a fundamental attribute of nobility and occupies a prominent place in every religion. Faith has been the basis of all-round progress of human beings. Therefore, we must cultivate faith in the basic goodness of the Divine Dispensation.
(The writer is head of All World Gayatri Pariwar, Shantikunj Haridwar and Chancellor of Dev Sanskriti University, Haridwar.)
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