Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 10.01.2013, evening, Sofia)

(continued from the previous Friday) 

Shall we discuss faith a little bit? So, what is faith? If faith is a belief – we don’t know, therefore we believe – this is a hope. We hope against hope, in most of the cases we hope for a better turn, but usually we don’t do anything about it.

Yet faith is an active principle. So, if we want to enter deeper – what is faith proper – then we shall understand: all the different theologies will tell you that ”Faith is to accept the will of God”. That sounds more serious, right. This is not only my belief, my hope. This is something coming from above. If we want to specify a little bit more, in our tradition faith is defined in a following way: ”Faith is the firm conviction that by serving Krishna all other services are performed.” That means, by serving God you perform all your duties. Although we have many duties – to our family, to our body, to our tax office, etc. Many different duties we have. How to accomplish all? Plus you are indebted to the ancient sages and the great well-wishers of all times to practically all our teachers who taught us how to write, how to read – unlimited. So, on the practical level and on the mystical level we are indebted much more than if you take a loan from a bank. Because if you have a loan from the bank, probably you can pay it during your lifetime. But this debt cannot be paid in many lifetimes. So, faith means by serving God we pay all our debts, we perform all duties.

Now, please tomorrow don’t tell this to your boss: “My dear boss, I have performed my duty for today, because I served God.” So, don’t misuse this. But try to understand the deeper levels of faith – faith is that by serving God we can practically serve everyone. Because not only the human body is compared to a tree, but God is also compared to a universal tree. And all the leaves and flowers and fruits are us – all the different living entities. And if we water the roots of this tree, all the tree will flourish. So, if we dedicate our service to God, then through His roots, through His system our little insignificant service, these little drops of water that we can give, will be distributed to everyone, to the whole creation proportionately. If you want to water the fruits and the flowers, the tree will die. Therefore it is suggested later on in the Gita that you should search out the roots of existence and give your service there.

So, this is another definition of faith – “By serving the root you can serve all.” Are you satisfied with this definition? Shall we stop enquiries here, without entering deeper and higher recesses of the spiritual science? Or shall we go on? We should not stop in our enquiry. It’s not a joke. Why do I make jokes sometimes? Just to show you that many times we have doubts and we want to stop half way. This is when our shadow tells us: ‘Oh, why do you run so fast?’ When the circumstances or your inner weakness will tell you: ‘Ah, take it easy!’ But don’t stop in your search; go on, because this divine knowledge is endless. We enter one room and there are unlimited rooms waiting for us.

So, the next definition of faith, which is a little more astonishing, is: ”Faith is that happiness that you draw from the ever-increasing spiritual bliss of Krishna and Radha’s meeting”. Sounds different, ah? It’s not a belief. It is not our mental construction, but it’s something very divine. And the basic nature of faith – according to this definition – is bliss. It’s not suffering, it’s not torture – it’s bliss. And what is the feature of this spiritual bliss? That it grows. It’s not a stagnant one. And what is the source of this? Union of the Divine Couple – if Beauty and Love meet, that gives happiness to their followers. Just imagine, if Divine Beauty and Divine Love meet – that’s an eruption. That is the Golden Avatar, like golden volcano. So, this is a very high class definition of faith – spiritual bliss coming from God and His lilas.

But this is a little difficult definition. You will hardly remember it tomorrow. Therefore if I may help you to sum it up, an all-inclusive definition of faith is: ”Faith is a conviction acquired through love.” Do you agree? ”Faith is a deep conviction in our heart achieved through love”. Here everything is described in this one little sentence. Faith according to this definition is not a belief, not something that I don’t know. But this is something that I deeply know, deeply feel in my innermost existence! Therefore om means ‘yes’. If there is any meaning of om, this is ‘yes, what you are searching for it exists.’ In your temples how do they say the om? Amen, but the meaning is the same. ‘Yes, what you are searching for it exists’. So, it’s a deep conviction that ‘my home, my shelter is there’. How can we achieve that firm conviction? The method is also described here – through love. Not material, but divine love.

(to be continued)