Sunday, May 1, 2011

Faith.....a quality lost in the maze of rationale !!!!

"If you believe in three hundred & thirty millions of your mythological Gods, & in all the Gods that the foreigners have introduced into your midst, & still have no Faith in yourself, there is no salvation for you. The history of the world is the history of a few men who had Faith in themselves. That Faith calls for the Divinity within. You can do anything. You can strive sufficiently to manifest infinite powers ".....Swami Vivekananda.

Such profound words of wisdom....such deep knowledge for mankind, by a man who demonstrated what Faith could achieve....what powers it contained within!!!!
In today's context, faith is a much maligned word..... it is misquoted, misused, misjudged, misplaced & probably mistaken for a whole lot of fake, feign & frakas!!!!!

Lets go back in time just 50-60 years back. A child would ask his mother an awkward question, " Where did I come from or How was I born?, & the mother would promptly take the child in her arms & blushingly say" I prayed to God for you & God placed you in my arms & told me & your father to bring you up with all our love......so you should listen to us, have faith in God & behave yourself!!" The child would look at his mother with awe, respect & think of God in wonder......whats important is that he would believe his mother's words & accept the explanation in complete & uncluttered faith!!!....next time he visited a temple, he would in all probability bow his head in pure faith & wonder!!! That faith was naive, but full of wonder, it was pure...it had divinity written all over it!!!!

Today's child would smirk at such a reply....he would need a rationale.....a logical explanation..... today's mother would struggle to explain,.....between biology & science !!!!
In earlier times, one would be told, "God is".......& it would be accepted...believed. Today, one would turn around & ask, "Who is God? How does he look?? What makes him a God???..... What is the proof????.... so many questions........so many doubts.....so much of complications !!!!! Nothing seems to be simple.
We all have heard of Eklavya, in Mahabharat(more about him in a later article). He was & is considered to one of the best pupils of all times. As a child, he wanted to learn archery from Dronacharya, the exclusive Guru / teacher of the Kaurav & Pandav princes, but was denied!! But he was not put off. He went to jungle, created a statue of Dronacharya, whom he worshipped with complete faith & belief, took blessings & practised archery on his own. Legend says, that Eklavya in times became a better archer than Arjun, the favourite student of Dronacharya. Eklavya's faith & focus created blessings from even the inanimate statue of Dronacharya.
This is what uncluttered faith & belief can do...... the power of a blessing is more with the receiver than the giver!!!! The deeper the faith, the clearer the belief, more profound is the blessings !!!!
 I once read, "Truth needs no proof.....truth is...." Very powerful words. But in today's context, Truth needs proof....everything is evaluated with facts & figures....with logic & explanation.
Today faith is at a premium.....its difficult to trust, leave alone have faith. A child is taught not to trust....not to believe. He is taught to question every thing !!!!
From a time when there was abundance & riches & yet doors did not require locks,.....when neighbours would be united & together through thick & thin,....when faith moved mountains......to today, when we spend so much for security & yet live in an insecure environment,.....we don't know our next door neighbour & yet connect geographies over long distance calls !!!
Times have indeed changed...... Faith is indeed a lost quality!!!!!