First Faith, then Action, and Lastly Experience
One who has firm faith that the sadguru is backing him, one who implicitly obeys him and ensures his never-failing support, will never find himself in want. One has to walk back to take a start for a long jump; the set-back which a disciple may occasionally find in his life is like that walking back for a start. A father teaching his son to swim occasionally withdraws his support, but the son is confident that his father will never let him sink and get drowned. One should keep the same unshakable faith in the sadguru.
When a man falls ill, he pays the doctor and yet places trust in him, takes the prescribed medicine though he is ignorant about its properties and effects. The obvious reason is that we earnestly wish to live on, and to be well, and trust the doctor to arrange it. Similarly, we shall only place trust in nama and sadguru if we earnestly aspire to meet God. We should adopt the same procedure as in worldly life, namely, first trust, then act, and then expect the result to justify the trust.
We reserve a berth in a railway sleeper coach and travel sleeping, with full trust in the driver and the train, although we know full well that neither is infallible. Why, then, should we hesitate to put at least an equal amount of trust in God? Is He not even as trustworthy? No one expects you to begin with blind trust, but a certain minimum degree of faith is certainly indispensable for paramartha.
Begin with unquestioning faith in a saint and his teaching. To possess such implicit faith is indeed given to a fortunate few, and their progress is really fast. If we are not among those few, let us at least be honest to ourselves, and fix our objective of life and the path with faith and determination.
Pray to the Lord, "Give me full contentment in the situation you choose to place me in. Rid me of my ego. Let me never forget your presence, never desire to ask anything of you; give me love for nama and unswerving faith in You."
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