Faith and Seeing

 Faith

The ideas found in the stories of Abraham and Parashuram are not meant to promote fanaticism, but to enable us further reflection on faith and sacrifice. The true purport of sacrifice in faith is neither martyrdom nor fanaticism, but enlightened action, realized through surrender. While Abraham's version of sacrifice might be primitive by today's standards, his sincerity was unquestionable. The sacrifices and rituals of faith vary from one generation to the next. And yet, however different they appear on the surface, all religious traditions from the Judaism of Abraham to Mohammed's Islam, to the Christianity of modern theology point towards divine love through surrender and sacrifice and rely on  faith as their guiding principle.

Faith is seen through Surrender and Sacrifice

God cannot be seen through reason. Faith is the instrument by which we can see higher reality. Just as color is seen by the eye or sound is heard by the ear, divinity can be intuited through faith. And faith in God is nurtured and inspired by those seers of the truth who have realized God through faith, the community of saints. In India, those who are absorbed in divine love or bhakti find that faith tempered by fear is not the highest conception of divinity. Rather, they see that the ultimate conception of Godhead must be that of Reality the Beautiful, Sri Krishna, Lord of the dance.

Rupa Goswami

Faith lends itself to community, since those who experience faith want to commune not only with the divine but with others who share their vision. Shared communion creates community. In Sanskrit, this is called sadhu-sanga, or taking part in the community of saintly persons. 

Rupa Goswāmi explains the progressive nature of faith. To make advancement in the spiritual plane, in the beginning there must be a simple kind of faith. As one progresses, one becomes interested in associating with those who are fully absorbed in divinity. Gradually one seeks out a mentor, one who is exclusively dedicated.

Sri Krishna, Reality the Beautiful, Lord of the dance

Thereafter one is initiated by the spiritual master and follows his principles. Giving up unwanted habits he becomes firmly fixed in the ways of dedication and divine love. Thereafter, one develops a taste for bhakti and then attachment, gradually progressing to higher stages. This is the way of sādhana-bhakti, the execution of devotional service according to the regulative principles given by the spiritual mentor. Gradually spiritual emotions manifest and intensify, then finally there is an awakening of divine love. This gradual development of love of Godhead for the devotee interested in Krishna consciousness has been described by Rūpa Goswāmī.

The element that makes us perceive spiritual reality is faith.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj explains, “The sastric or scriptural name for faith is is sraddha. That is the developed state of piety or sukriti, as developed with the help of saints, sadhu-sanga. The saints are those who are in the real plane, the transcendental plane. They are absorbed in the nirguna plane, beyond the creative world or the world of creation. 'The agents of that upper world have come to establish some connection in our soul.

These saints from the higher world have come to establish faith within our deepest element, what we think to be the self: our soul. So the connection with sadhu produces some thing which is faith and that faith can see. That is a world which is only approachable by faith. Just as we see color by eyes, sound by ear, so that world only faith can see, faith can feel it, and no other senses.”

Faith, that is the real function of soul and that is awakened by the agent of Vaikuntha [the spiritual world], the sadhu. Sukrti, jnata-sukrti, sraddha. By sraddha, then sadhu sanga, the association with the sadhu increases. And the transaction of the culture of reality that takes place gradually makes us fully conscious that where we are living, this is all transient, this is of enemy type, and the real element, my home, is elsewhere, is located in the world of pure consciousness, pure place.''

Sridhar Maharaja

ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-

saṅgo’tha bhajana-kriyā

tato’nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt

tato niṣṭhā ruchis tataḥ

athāsaktis tato bhāvas

आदौ श्रद्धा ततः साधु-

सङ्गो’थ भजन-क्रिया

ततो’नर्थ-निवृत्तिः स्यात्

ततो निष्ठा रुछिस् ततः

अथासक्तिस् ततो भावस्