United States
7th August 1996
Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change
Day 63 - Faith (Continued)
A particular knowledge brought faith, yet when the knowledge
changed, then the faith also changed. The knowledge and faith of science is from an isolated ‘happening’ instead of from a fully blossomed knowledge of life. In spirituality, faith is first and knowledge comes later.
Just as in Sudarshan Kriya, yoga and meditation, first you have faith and then knowledge follows. If you do pranayama faithfully, then you get the knowledge of the prana, life energy. If you do your meditation faithfully, the knowledge of consciousness follows. Even an illiterate person, through faith, attains deep knowledge.
Science regards life as matter and spirituality regards even matter as life. Science sees even human beings as matter, and spirituality considers even the earth to be a mother, even rivers and mountains become living beings. If you think your faith in God does God a favor, you are mistaken. Your faith in God or your guru does nothing for God or guru. Faith is your wealth.
Faith gives you strength instantly. Faith brings you stability, centredness, calmness and love. Faith is your blessing. But here is a paradox, if you lack faith, you have to pray for faith. Yet to pray, you need faith. People put their faith in the world, but the whole
world is just a soap bubble.
People have faith in themselves, but they do not know who they are. People think they have faith in God, but they do not really know who God is. There are 3 types of faith -
1. Faith in yourself - Without faith in yourself, you think, “I cannot do this. This is not for me. I will never find freedom in this life”.
2. Faith in the world - You must have faith in the world or you cannot move an inch. You deposit money in the bank with the faith that it will be returned. If you doubt everything, nothing will work for you.
3. Faith in the Divine - Have faith in the Divine and you will evolve. All these faiths are connected. You must have all 3 for each to be strong. If you start doubting one, you will begin to doubt everything.
Someone in the audience asked, Atheists have faith in themselves and faith in the world, but not in God. Then they do not have complete faith in themselves. And their faith in the world cannot be constant because the world is always changing. Lack of faith in God, the world or yourself brings fear.
Faith makes you full, faithful. Having faith in the world without having faith in God does not bring complete peace. If you have faith and love, you automatically have peace and freedom. People who are extremely disturbed should only have faith in God.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
Celebrating Silence