The Great Power of Faith
To be hypercritical is a sign of common human body-based approach. When a customer starts being critical and idly curious, the shopkeeper concludes that the customer is not at all a serious purchaser. This also applies to an aspirant in the spiritual quest. Arjuna fell into doubt and wordy, bookish discussion, regarding whether it would be proper to assail with arrows his seniors and teachers who confronted him on the battleground. When he saw the vision of the cosmic manifestation of the shape of things to come, he got out of the delusion, and realized the proper nature and assessment of life, and got the proper valuation of things.
Maya primarily creates the delusion of one's own doership. 'How, without some sense of doership, can there be any urge to action?' we reason; and then, sometimes, we do not hesitate to do what is clearly immoral. We should remember that even 'religious' acts do not help one to be absolved of sin; even 'meritorious' acts lead to rebirth. We continue to remember that we have surrendered everything to God. When suffering from misery, we attribute it to our previous acts, or the horoscopic position of planets, or the 'destiny'; but we forget that everything is directed, controlled, by God. Can a man say why and how he has lived till today? Is it not merely because God has willed it so? So, understand that it is God who is directing all affairs; it is He that has the last word in everything.
God made this universe, and He is immanent in everything. He is all bliss. He is in us, too. Why is it, then, that we at all experience misery? The simple answer is that we do not maintain awareness of Him, do not look for Him in everything, do not seek Him with a faithful, doubtfree mind. Faith is the very foundation of all mystical search; it is a force incomparable in its potency. What faith can achieve, action may not. Scholarship, intelligence, art, are like rat burrows in a house; faith usually trickles and gets lost through them. The learned seldom agree with each other, so their thoughts only unsettle our faith. So we should inculcate patience resulting from firm faith. The royal road is to believe that nama is God, and to remain in constant nama-smarana.
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