Sharanagati

Faith, what is faith? This is the most powerful force that a human being has. Shrila Shridhara Maharaj says that this is the only power that can bridge the gap between our present position and perfection. So he says that this is your greatest power, faith. And even those who say: “I don’t believe”, they also have some faith. But if we focus our attention more on the spiritual path, yes, in the beginning our faith is very hazy and very weak. And we try to find some topics that are easily accessible to us. But we can say that faith in the beginning is focused on beliefs or superstitions. And sometimes we make mistake, we identify the methods or the instruments with the goal. This is a kanishtha stage. You have some search, some urge, a driving force, but you cannot focus it properly. And as this world is full of cheaters and cheated, you are very fortunate if you can avoid traps on the spiritual path.

But how to avoid these traps? A little initial faith, pure faith we must have. Therefore at the beginning we have to dedicate our life to the Supreme, we have to express our desire – I want to come to You! And if this is a sincere enough desire, then it will stay with you for a lifetime.

And then, later on, you start to develop your faith. You start to believe in certain formalities, then you start to believe in certain people, you are ready to give your life to others, you follow certain rules and practices, you give your faith to these practices. And sometimes you make mistakes also, include mistakes in your practices. But if this initial faith is pure, if this was sincere offering to the Supreme, then He will help you by removing your false “spiritual” illusions.

Because our mind is so much engaged with so many different activities and topics. Sometimes even in the spiritual sphere. But Krishna likes you to focus completely. Therefore He removes any other objects – even of your faith or your attention, so that you finally could concentrate fully on Him.

The mind is compared to the swan. The swans have very nice nature, they have long neck and they are ready to put their heads under the water. And very nice movements they have and when they swim in a lotus pond, they are ready to dive their heads to the stems of the lotuses. So this is the best environment to your mind. Let the swan of your mind dedicate its head to the stem of the lotus of Krishna’s pond. This is perfection. “Always think of Me.”

So, from the initial stage of faith, we have to come to dedicated, full, complete stage of faith. So, we can say that to think always of Krishna is possible in this way – that we teach the swan of our mind how to put its head to the stems of these lotus flowers.

There is a beautiful prayer: “I don’t know what is the last moment of my life, when I will not be able to control my activities and my thoughts. So better my mind starts to put its head to the stem of Your lotus.” “Always think of Me” – it is possible like this. And we can be sure that all the false conceptions will be removed if this original, initial faith or dedication was pure and honest.