June 11, 2002
Whether Faith Can Be Created
or Increased?
by Mother’s Service Society
v
One has the
faith he is born with, as his intelligence is known to be native intelligence.
v
Faith is one
of those things, in human belief, that cannot be raised.
v
The determinism
of Force cannot, of course, be changed.
v
The Being does
not suffer from any such external determinism. It enjoys Self-determinism. For
one centred in the Being, it is not true that Faith
cannot be raised.
v
A devotee is
neither centred in the Force of Becoming nor in the
Peace of Being. He acts from the Force of the Being of Becoming.
v
Can this be
explained in terms of our limited faith in action when that faith reaches its
limits?/
v
Mother's answer
is it can rise by perseverance as perseverance is the unconscious energy –
awareness – of the physical. Perseverance acquires emotions as well as
knowledge before it reaches its goal of faith which is the knowledge of the
soul.
v
For one who
acts, the point of beginning is the perseverance of the physical. For one who
thinks he can begin from knowledge, the further knowledge the greater faith he
will have.
v
For those
who are capable of greater action through greater concentration, the higher
faith yields directly without having to commence at the physical, mental levels
of perseverance or knowledge.
v
The thought can
be presented for better appreciation through common comprehension. It has
differing expressions.
—
Coming closer
to Mother or letting Her take greater possession of our being.
—
Acquiring
spiritual mastery over matter in a greater measure, however small the increment
is.
—
To enjoy inner
calm better.
—
Like this the
idea can be expressed in every field where spirit expresses which means all
fields.
v
One who pushes
the frontiers of his faith must do so on the very frontier, not earlier.
v
Man comes
there either in JOY
or in distress.
v
In the days of Mahabharatha or Shakespeare or even up to the world
wars, the world could reach its intensity of consciousness negatively.
—
—
Shakespeare
excelled himself in tragedies.
—
Earth enjoyed
her intensity of Spirit in exploding as world wars.
—
The Cold War
that followed it for forty years was a greater horror than the actual war, as
war on the field expresses the emotion of patriotism or idealism.
—
So far such
intensities were not seen in JOY
except when Tom Peters and Harry Potter came on the scene.
v
Great is the
soul of the individual who brings himself there in Joy or creation.
v
Maybe the
greatest soul can convert despair into the joy of hope.
v
Ordinary men
come there in sorrow and disappointment or are brought there by external
events. Thus it is outer, not even inner.
v
He who has come
there to the frontiers of his being or personality or is brought there by
external events, will be face to face with the limitation of his faith.
v
For him is the
opportunity to raise it, because he sees his faith getting exhausted and the
lack of faith or faith in other things such as law, life response, social
relationship or material security, etc. reviving. Not to let that faith
revive or exert is the first condition. He will find himself helpless.
v
As long as his
faith keeps company, he will be Spirit centred. The
moment he moves to law, he will be in mind. He will centre himself in his vital
emotions if he relies on blood relations or friends.
v
To move further
away to material property is to move to the physical.
v
This
definition of the centre of personality is a knowledge that has power to move
him back to the Spiritual centre, however feeble it is.
v
To believe in a
law of correspondences or life response or an idea of goodness or even a law of
contradiction is ONLY a
mental existence different from communion with The Mother.
v
To trust Her is
to trust Her directly, not through any medium.
v
This perception
can move one back, raising his faith for the moment.
v
In the given SITUATION which is the problem, there
will be many elements present that offer support to a sinking soul.
v
As and when
they rear their heads severally or together, one must face them and tell
himself squarely,
—
NOT this, but Mother.
—
The will of
faith thus exercised, perseveres.
—
It may be
understood as rising faith, will in the knowledge, knowledge in the will,
opening, alertness, receptivity or the grace of Spirit, etc.
v
When the
devotees prefer to rely on The Mother behind the problem and not succumb to the
problem, they do this. It will solve the problem and may indirectly give
knowledge too.
v
If one has a
problem on hand that has brought him to the brink, it will be easy for him to
experiment in this way.
v
My illustrating
it here will be of secondary importance, thought it will make comprehension
defined enough to let perception emerge out of conception.
v
For one who
aspires to enter the Supermind, logic requires him to be in Overmind which
means to see one's act as unique in itself. It is in uniqueness one finds
the play of Overmind.
v
One knows he is
in the Time of surface mind when he wants to know the result or evaluates
oneself in terms of the past. Presence of the past is cancellation of the
future. Absence of the past is to render the present ever-present.
v
The
ever-present moves to the Higher mind through Silence.
v
Silence understands
without thinking and it is a movement upwards.
v
Instead of the
selfish emotion, one moves to appreciate the other man emotionally, thus moving
from the emergence of the psychic in the mind to the touch of the vital
psychic.
v
When the
understanding reveals as a vision one finds himself receiving a ray of the
illumined mind which, in moments of action by the grace, can be accompanied by
the psychic of the emotion in action which is sympathy.
v
His own
persistence that is perseverance dispenses with the need of understanding,
Silence, light and vision to reveal the needed knowledge directly. Now it is
the intuitive mind that acts.
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Ideas or
emotions of gratitude arise announcing the emergence of the psychic in the
physical substance of the vital emotion.
v
Moving to the
Overmind, he finds the uniqueness of the act well revealed. Uniqueness of
his swabhaba – nature – can be seen while on the path
of yoga, not when an isolated problem is solved.
v
This will
change the idea of gratitude into an emotion of gratitude or the emotion into
sensation in the plane of physical consciousness of his body.
v
One can choose
to move into Nirvana before entering the Supermind or directly enter. He had
the option to do so even when he was in the intuitive mind. He always has the
choice of escaping Overmind and the Nirvana in reaching Supermind.
v
As these things
are attempted by the intensity of the occasion, not the general preparedness of
the whole personality, a vertical growth is always possible escaping several
their necessities. That is why HE always speaks of the greatest moment Now.
v
The UNIQUENESS of Sri Aravindam – the
wholeness of integral unity – is any single point permits the explanation of ALL the other points of the
entire whole.
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It may be my
own peculiarity to explain it through JOY.
v
Happiness is
the JOY of success, the success of
ego while JOY is the sensation of Sat. Delight
is the sensation of Ananda in Matter and Life.
v
Faith gives
security, which serves as the foundation of joy.
v
Raising faith
is to raise Joy.
v
One can place
himself in a scale of Joy which starts from success and happiness that travels
up to the cosmic joy Ishwara and ends in the Ananda of Sat and Brahman. The
scale also can be constructed down until it reaches the ecstasy prior to
surrender in the physical substance.
v
Again, the
question is how to raise JOY.
The answers are,
—
Greater
comprehension is greater joy.
—
Reaction is irritation;
equality is joy.
—
When Silence at
any level loses itself in the Peace of that level, it matures as JOY of that level.
—
As
Spirituality, at one level, is exactly like the any other subject, what pays
dividends are
·
information,
ideas, knowledge.
·
energy, skill,
force, power, results.
·
strategies,
devices, innovations, adaptation of
means to ends.
—
JOY in the spiritual field is as
much an end result or a product in any other field. One can try anything as
long as he is successful.
v
Silent will can
be effectively used to raise JOY or
FAITH.
v
The secret of
creation for any of us who are in the field of Force, i.e. Becoming is to move
to Being or further still.
v
The strategy
of creation for Brahman is self-conception followed by self-absorption aided by
self-limitation.
v
HE spoke of the first step of
Yoga in several ways.
—
Thinking from
above the head.
—
Concentrating
on the centre behind the heart.
—
Silence.
—
Entering into
the subliminal through the inner mind.
—
All-inclusive
concentration.
—
Moving away
from ego, Time, Mind, Surface.
—
Dissolution of
desire.
—
Surrender of
all the four parts of being.
—
Mind ruling
over Matter.
—
Harmony between
the inner and outer, between the parts of being.
—
Equality.
—
Self-Perfection.
—
To realise not
mind, but Supermind is our ultimate reality.
—
Not the part,
but the integral whole.
—
Faith of the
evolving soul in Brahman.
—
Discovering the
psychic being.
v
We see nothing
here can be attained without all the other items entering into play fully.
v
To review the
present faith we have in this light and see the faith we want to reach in the
same light will explain the role of perseverance as Mother explained and the
call Sri Aurobindo speaks of as one of the two powers that can victoriously
handle the difficulties of physical Nature.
v
Call from
inside; call so that JOY issues,
faith will grow.
v
Have faith,
have JOY in faith; feel the JOY of Not knowing, not even
trying to know and it is the integral JOY of the unorganised or unconditioned personality of
ours and
therefore more powerful than any JOY we have consciously formed which can raise one's
faith. As it is of the unorganised part, it can be ever-growing in increasing
measure.
v
The success of the
experiments will show itself momentarily as increasing faith as a result of
receding thoughts, shifting reliance to a higher element, growing inner
steadiness, etc. We also see that the
reverse is the path of our degenerating into faithlessness.
v
To know this
path, shall we say, of ascent and descent, is itself a shade of higher
knowledge that can steady one from degeneration.
v
Mother's method
to raise faith when subdivided to precisely suit the various steps of rising
will more effectively or more keenly serve our purpose.
v
For that
purpose, the capacity to subdivide the path of ascent and define as precisely
as possible the strategy will be of use.
v
The capacity to
subdivide the path is different from the capacity to define the strategy
precisely, as each commands an area of existence that is infinite.
v
Acquiring any
little of any of them is an asset that can express itself as the satisfaction
of victory.
v
Note very
seriously that one who can persevere with a little event has the potential
to persevere to the end.
v
In that sense, HUMAN CHOICE is decisive in Spiritual
evolution.
v
We have the
phenomenon of faith enjoying what is has and refusing to move an inch ahead
through a determination that is obsessive. In this too aspiration is born. It
shows itself as a negative self-awareness of "I do NOT have faith". In the vital it expresses as
frustration. Such people grow subconsciously over a long period and burst into
the greatest of faith known as sudden conversion, as in the tallest Bengali
personality of the nineteenth century Keshav Chander Sen.
v
No moment or
movement is ever wasted for anyone.
v
To create in
excess what we want is a way of life.
v
On many occasions,
that excess cannot be utilised for other purposes.
v
One mark of
progress is the ability to convert excess in place for the production of other
parts.
v
Sri Aurobindo
says Nature is that way most efficient and most perfect without wasting a drop
of energy. To man, it is the highest known waste.
v
This excess in
our way of life can be used as a means of increasing one's faith.
v
In times of
wars, nations throw up their reserves, turn their essential energies to war
effort often resulting in an efficiency which is two-fold or twenty-fold.
v
One who is
not petulant or organised in the reverse can raise his faith ten fold this way.
v
The method is
to exhaust excess faith everywhere in our life.
v
When we want a
book from upstairs, we go and get it. It is the most appropriate social
behaviour though it is a physical method.
v
Just at that
moment someone bringing that book to your table for some other reason is a life
response, an exercise of silent will of the external atmosphere of your
personality or an expression of the grace around you. A method of faith can
work through a person, an event or for no reason.
v
The policy of
exhausting one's faith before resorting to methods physical, organisational, mental whether is silent will or orders
given, when exhausted fully has the virtue of raising one's existing faith
anywhere from two fold to twenty fold.
v
To raise faith
through FAITH is a superior method.
v
To surrender
that method too is what HE
would appreciate in us.
What is Faith?
v
Faith is the
knowledge of the soul. That is why mind does not know of its existence.
v
When you know
the snake thrown at you is a rubber snake, the fear is removed, if not the
shock of the startle. That knowledge keeps you calm, while those who do not
have that knowledge panic.
v
A boy who
usually expects 100% in the exam is not really shattered when told of his
failure. He KNOWS it is an error, a removable one too.
v
When a solid
fact is there, the surface ripple cannot break things.
v
Knowledge of
the SOUL is solid, true of the
Reality. Doings of men, legal actions, loyalty of others, even life response
all belong to the surface. A ball of metal will not dissolve in an ocean of
water.
v
If faith is the
knowledge of the soul, can it not become the knowledge of mind. It is the most
desirable spiritual growth. Should it happen, it will be like a Parliament
where all members are Nehrus, Gandhijis,
Sri Aurobindos, Tagores, Churchills, Einsteins, etc.
Presently the distant touch of the soul enables Mind to rely on it. In case of
the Spirit emerging in the mind, Mind itself will have the knowledge of the
Soul. As it is a higher knowledge in possession of a lower member, it will be
formidable.
v
What is Spirit
in transcendence is soul in cosmos. Man relying on the Soul's knowledge is of
the lower hemisphere as he lives there. His knowing the Soul can upgrade
itself so that he may know the Soul in the cosmos. An advocate is free to practise in a country town or in the supreme court. It is
his choice.
v
Man given to
social values, lost in physical work, relying on mental knowledge, can reach
the human soul.
v
It is up to the
man to raise the values of his life. Along with that, his Soul too will travel
through the range of spiritual mind and can reach its origin in cosmos where it
will be cosmic SOUL.
v
In the cosmos
Spirit is soul. When the soul moves into transcendence, it becomes Spirit. Here
is a choice given to man. Maybe it can start at the start. Instead of the soul
moving the Spirit in transcendence, the Spirit can be born in the SOUL. It is the ultimate power.
v
The Spirit is
the experience of Sat.
v
One can go to
Sat from Spirit and can go further to Brahman.
v
Can a humble
devotee go up to the Absolute? Is it realisable?
v
500 years ago,
no king in
v
One who is
informed about every plane from Mind to Brahman can certainly know whether he
reached there or not however momentarily the experience is.
v
One ray of that
Supreme can pervade millions of Universes, He says.
v
Those who have
known what Mother did or those who have seen in their own lives what Mother's
Force has accomplished for the world, will certainly know the Force at work
when it is at work.
v
Faith of one's
Soul when it is raised to that of Brahman can certainly move mountains and the
devotee is free to raise the human soul to its supreme height.
v
To bring down
that achievement to mind or vital, to possess it for some duration is yoga, not
to raise it ONCE.
v
Raising it once
raises the Faith.
v
To go to a
Chief Minister and have a legitimate problem redressed is possible by dozens of
circumstances, by the legitimacy of the problem, by representing an
organisation, by knowing him personally, by having a contact to his attention,
etc. is always possible. As it is a problem that can be solved by a Deputy
Collector, at the level of the Chief Minister it can certainly be solved. It
is not to become the Chief Minister yourself. Yoga can be likened to the
latter.
v
Should that
Spirit descend into one's mind, the problem will be transformed, the out flow
of money will change into inflow.
v
Only when the
person concerned takes it up, it can be transformation.
Is it rational?
v
How do we
arrive at any decision?
v
We learn out of
experience.
v
We learn out of
thinking.
v
We also have
the capacity to imagine non-existent things.
v
Sometimes it is
pleasing or convenient to believe those non-existent things. They survive until
experience finds the contrary. Mankind knows them to be superstition. It is
irrational.
v
One thing that
happens to us all the time is we are learning all the time. Our body grows, our
emotions steady at a higher level, our knowledge never ceases to grow. This
is a simple unarguable fact of life. We cannot shut our eyes to this
phenomenon.
v
Then faith is a
knowledge of the soul. It too must grow. How can we deny faith growth, while
every other thing in life grows.
v
It needs no
illustration to say that society has grown in the last 100 years.
v
It certainly
does not entertain the beliefs of a hundred years ago.
v
Also it
believes today in newer things in which a hundred years ago there was no
belief.
v
If it is true
that the society grows and man grows then it is rational to expect that faith
too can grow.
v
Mankind has
always opposed anything new.
v
Mankind has
always accepted things that are new.
v
Growth and
resistance to growth are patterns of human behaviour.
v
Growth,
change, progress, aspiration have always won at the end.
v
Long ago man
longed to reach God by himself. It was called tapas.
v
The Gita showed
such a man the shorter route of surrender.
v
No longer does
man think on his own. All progress is for the collective. In the last hundred
years, no MAN has worked for anything
individual. Sri Aurobindo calls it the last act of selfishness. Moksha is a
selfish goal as it is for oneself.
v
Over the
centuries, the spiritual goal itself has moved from the individual salvation to
collective salvation.
v
Today it is
hardly possible to work for any technology that can benefit only a single
individual. All new technologies are for the collective.
v
Sri Aurobindo
uses this argument to explain HIS own spiritual goal.
v
From every new
phenomenon, it is self-evident.
v
We see the
family vanishing and the individual standing on his own.
v
We also see
the organisation he works for playing a greater role in his life.
v
The society,
the government, the community, his organisation have been assuming greater and
greater responsibilities of his life. Beaverbrook's plan of welfare was called
"from cradle to grave".
v
All over the
world people are growing taller.
v
If we concede
that Faith too can grow, then the only thing we have to hunt for is for a
method.
v
There was a
time when man considered that the throne was not for him, the masses took for
granted that education was not for them. Now things have changed. The writing
on the wall is plain. Change is the order of the day and there is no exception.
v
It is rational
to conclude that Faith can grow, can be created. It is equally rational to
assume there are methods to grow faith.
v
Mother says
when one is in contact with his psychic,
—
his karma
ceases to operate.
—
his native
intelligence begins to grow.
—
his faith too
begins to grow.
—
all that the
world believed impossible becomes possible.
—
Faith is to
be in TOUCH with the Psychic.
v
Mother says
death itself is a habit.
v
Superstition is
the habit of habits and to believe that faith cannot increase is spiritual
superstition.
v
Religious instruction is to organise superstition.
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