Faith is personal
Faith is an individual’s personal matter. It is best if other people don’t poke their heads into it. If there are practices that lead a society astray, one may offer constructive criticism, provided one has given up the attitude of protecting one’s own interests. That is understandable. However, criticism should never ever arise from a lack of discernment or from blind revenge. Unfortunately, most of the criticism seen today is like that.
Faith is the union of attentiveness and love. If these two are missing, life itself will be absent. No matter what we do, we must attend to the work with attentiveness. At the same time, we must have faith in what we do. However, faith in spirituality has a greater depth. It is self-surrender. Usually, when one works with an attitude of surrender, one gains more strength; not only that, there will be a unique beauty to the work one does. Therefore, those who abandon selfish thoughts and work with total surrender definitely gain greater spiritual power and equanimity of mind. Their faith is in the ideal and not in ideas. By worshipping God or the Guru, they do not worship an individual but the ideal pure, divine virtues.
Spiritual beings are those who believe in ‘this moment’. As far as they are concerned, the past and future are unreal—purely figments of the imagination. But most people, including atheists, repose their faith in the future. Who knows what will happen in the future, which is yet to be? What guarantee is there that one who has exhaled will inhale again? The future cannot be foretold. This does not mean that one should not work. Work takes place in the present moment, though the fruits of labour materialise in the future. Therefore, the only thing that is true is ‘now’ or ‘this moment’. When seen this way, atheists who give undue importance to the future and others of this persuasion are the worst cases of blind faith!
Atheists take too much pride in their own abilities and intelligence, whereas spiritual beings believe in the universal power behind their abilities and intelligence. When the tsunami or other natural disasters struck, were human skill and intelligence of any use? Even renowned scientists believe in a power that transcends their intelligence. Many of the political, community and cultural leaders all over the world have also started to believe that only spirituality and the strength one drives from it can save the world. The rishis (seers to whom mantras were revealed in deep meditation) had said as much ages ago. Even so, many here try to darken the world by closing their eyes!
Atheists believe there is no God. However, they waste their lives trying to prove again and again the non-existence of a ‘God that isn’t’. If they are so convinced that there is no God, why this struggle? It shows that they have doubts about whether or not God exists. Nevertheless, they, too, have their Gurus and individuals they revere. This is also found in politics.
The writer is a world-renowned spiritual leader