Chapter 3 - Faith and Knowledge

Faith in God is the corner-stone of all the great mansions of the religions of the world. It is the life and soul of all scriptures among all nations, ancient or modern, and it is the foundation of all creeds of the various sects and denominations. The Hindus, the Zoroastrians, the Christians, and the Mohammedans have been preaching for centuries that faith in God can achieve wonders, and that it is the only means of attaining salvation. A Hindu sage of this age said: ‘He who has faith has all and he who lacks in faith lacks in all.’ Spiritual life begins with faith, while doubt is the sign of spiritual death. In the teachings of Jesus the Christ we find similar expression. After destroying the fig tree, Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Verily I say unto you. If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain. Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.’^[1]

Faith-healers of today know what tremendous power faith has. The faith-healers in India have understood this power of faith from very ancient times, and they have cured many diseases in the same way as in America the Mental Scientists, Divine Healers, Christians Scientists, New Thoughtists do today. So, there is no question about the fact that faith can do wonders. Human mind possesses that wonderful power which we call faith. It may be directed towards different objects of the world or towards God. History tells us that one may have faith in a particular name and form of God, and through that faith one can achieve wonders, while another may attain similar results through his faith in a prophet, or a spiritual master or saint or an imaginary mahatman or an image of a certain personified ideal or any idol or one’s own self. It does not make any difference, by what name we may call the object of faith; thus far it is true that faith is a great power. We are all familiar with this truth.

Now let us pause for a moment and ask ourselves what is the nature of this faith which has so much power. Is it a kind of dogmatic assertion of one idea in one’s own mind? Is it a kind of belief which is not based upon reason or experience? Is it a kind of trust or confidence in a particular person or object? Or, does it mean a kind of mental conviction which proceeds from right reasoning, knowledge, and experience? Ordinarily, we understand or rather use reason and knowledge. It is generally accepted, the words ‘faith’ and ‘belief’, as opposed to that faith, lead one to a realm, where reason and knowledge cannot reach. It is used in the sense of a belief in something supernatural, super-sensuous, and super-rational, as contradistinguished from reason or knowledge, which depends upon observation, inference or upon the sensations, perceptions, and impressions received through the senses. It means a firm conviction of the truth of what is declared by another simply on the ground of his truthfulness, or faithfulness, or intellectual conviction. This kind of faith is never backed by reason or knowledge. It is that which is commonly known as blind faith. For instance, if we take for granted as truth any story or tradition, because it has been handed down to us through generations, or because it is written in a certain book without asking any further question, but which is supported neither by reason, nor by experience, nor by evidence of any kind, then that belief will be blind faith.

Suppose we blindly believe in the story of Jonah and the Whale.^[2] Do you think that it will reveal any truth or being any good to us or make us better than what we are now? Certainly not. It is nothing but a superstitious belief, or a blind faith. We may believe in such stories for years, we may blindly accept them as true, but by that we shall not gain anything nor come nearer to truth; on the other hand, we shall remain deluded and ignorant all the time. Suppose, if we say to ourselves that body does not exist, will that make body non-existent? No; it is a false belief, a blind faith. Blind faith proceeds from ignorance which is the mother of superstition and delusion; consequently, it ultimately leads to ignorance. We should learn to distinguish this blind faith from true faith. There is no other word in the English language more abused than this word ‘faith'. Ordinary people use this term with so many different meanings. What the orthodox Christian Churches ordinarily call faith is nothing but sheer credulity. It means the same thing as was meant by the old Church Father Tertullian, when he said: ‘Credo quia impossibile est; that is, ‘I believe, because it is impossible.’ It reminds me of the answer which a Sunday-school girl gave, when she was asked what faith was. She replied that it was believing something that one knew, was not true.

We often hear people say: ‘We have faith in the life of such and such a great man, who was born in Nazareth nearly two thousand years ago, who lived in a certain way or did or said certain things.’ Faith has nothing to do with the biography of that great man. The facts about the life of a man, however great he might be, are matters of history; they are not to be accepted in a lump by anybody as an object of faith, but they are for critical scientific examinaion just as much as the life of Socrates, Plato, or Shakespeare. If we do blindly accept it upon the authority of some writer, it will not be faith, but sheer credulity, and it will do no special benefit to us. Blind faith is considered by orthodox churches as a virtue. It takes the name of religious faith, when it means a belief in absurd dogmas and doctrines, in miracles and supernatural agencies, which are hopelessly contradictory to reason as well as to the facts of science and the laws of nature. It is the same as what we call superstition. Superstition always contradicts the well-known laws of nature and is therefore irrational. Credulous people do accept any absurd thing or statement as truth, without making proper investigation, and waste a great deal of their time and energy in supporting it.

Let me remind you of the story of Golden Tooth mentioned by Fontenelle^[3] in his Histoire des Oracles. In 1595 a child of seven was found in Silesia to have one of its first double teeth, a gold tooth instead of an ordinary tooth. The rumour spread rapidly like wild fire. The Professor of Medicine in the University of Helmstadt, whose name was Horotius, wrote the history of this tooth declaring that it was miraculous and that it was done by God to console the Christians for the ravages of the Turks. The explanation was accepted seriously by those who heard the rumour. A second account of the tooth was written in the same year by Rullandus and after two years another scholar, Ingolsterus by name, wrote a third account, contradicting some minor particulars given in the first two treatises. A little later another great savant named Libabius collected all that had been said and written about the tooth and published a volume describing how wonderful and miraculous this tooth of gold was. Those learned works brought the child with its gold tooth before the public with great prominence. At last a goldsmith who was of a sceptical nature came to see the child, and, after close examination, discovered that a cap of gold-leaf was very skilfully placed upon the natural tooth of the poor child. But treatises and books had been written and theories and explanations had been given by great scholars, before any one thought of consulting a goldsmith or a dentist.

We find many similar instances in these days. Credulous people still believe that Tibetan mahatmas send letters by occult powers to American Theosophists living in New York. This kind of credulity may be called blind faith. At one time, a priest who was administering the sacrament, held up before the communicants a piece of old bread which was tinged with reddish mould and declared: ‘You can see for yourselves that the emblems have verily been turned into the real flesh and blood of the crucified Lord.’ The credulous people believed it. But the microbe that caused the red tinge on the bread must have laughed in its sleeve and felt highly honoured! We must first of all make our mind free from such credulity and blind faith, by bringing the light of reason and knowledge. In India, about five hundred years before the Christian era, when Buddha lived, the masses of people had this kind of blind faith. In order to make their minds free from all sorts of superstitious beliefs, which got firm hold on them, Buddha said to Arara Kalama: (I) do not believe in what ye have heard; (2) do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations; (3) do not believe in anything. because it is rumoured and spoken of by many; (4) do not believe merely because the written statement of some old sage is produced; (5) do not believe in conjectures; (6) do not believe in that as Truth to which you have become attached by habit; (7) do not believe merely on the authority of your teachers and elders; after observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.’^[4]

That faith is beneficial which is founded upon right knowledge, right reason and is supported by proper evidence. Is true faith, then, the same as scientific faith? The study of science reveals to us that, all hypothesis and theories of modem science are based upon what is called scientific faith. All scientific generalizations and explanations of the phenomena depend upon this scientific faith or intellectual conviction, without which our knowledge will keep us within the limits of sense perceptions, and the discovery of any truth that lies beyond those limits will be absolutely impossible. In physics the theory of the vibratory movement of ether, in chemistry the hypothesis of atoms and their affinity, in biology the theory of the molecular structure of living protoplasm—in all these and similar other theories and hypothesis, we exercise our imagination which fills up the gaps left by the intelligence in our knowledge of the connection of things. Although they are approximations to truth, still they are indispensable for all true science. Astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and other branches of science cannot go very far without depending upon some theories, nor can they explain the world of phenomena without assuming a common cause which may remain obscure in character.

We do not know the nature of the force of gravity, still we believe in the law of gravitation. And that belief is so strong that it cannot be shaken by any theory of the Bible or any other revealed scripture. Similarly, the ether of the physicists, the atom of the chemists, the heredity of the evolutionists—all these are nothing but conceptions of some great theories, which are the outcome of the scientific faith. That faith is indispensable for all scientific discoveries. But scientific faith always stands upon observation and experiment and never contradicts any of the truths or laws discovered by science. It is that power of the mind by which we receive and hold the truth until some other higher truth is discovered. In science we accept that theory or concept as true which for the time being explains most of the facts leaving the mind open to higher truths and better explanations. Consequently, the faith in such a theory is relatively true, but not absolutely. In. short, when faith is joined with the knowledge of science, and, when reason approves of what faith accepts as true, it is rational and not blind faith.

Thus we see scientific faith, which helps us in discovering the higher truths of nature, must start from reason, must be based on the solid foundation of reason, observation, and knowledge, and not on tradition or heresy. Otherwise, it will become blind faith and superstition. Scientific faith is relatively true, but true faith is that which never changes, but is always the same. As the Absolute Truth is unchangeable, so true faith is absolutely unchangeable.

It is that kind of faith which establishes some truth contradictory to that which appears to our senses to be true. For instance, we see the sun rises in the east and sets in the west; this apparent knowledge, which we gather through sense perception, is to be corrected by a belief in the rotation of the earth upon its axis, which we can never perceive by senses, but still it is a rational faith. As long as it is supported by right reasoning, it has more power than our belief in our sense perceptions. Senses often delude us because they are imperfect. They prevent us, many a time, from knowing the real nature of things. Optical delusions, like the blue colouring of the sky and so forth, produce a kind of false belief in our mind. It should be corrected by right reasoning and right knowledge. And faith which rests upon right knowledge is much more powerful than that which proceeds from wrong perception, just as the Copernican theory and conception of the universe is stronger than the Ptolemaic conception.

True faith is the unerring handmaid of right knowledge. Therefore, as right knowledge is a great power, so true faith is a tremendous power. True faith and true knowledge come simultaneously. Wherever there is true faith, there is also right knowledge, and vice versa. Blind faith being opposed to right knowledge is also opposed to true faith. By right knowledge we mean the realization of the true nature of a thing. If we want to have true faith in a thing, we must have to realize or know exactly the absolute and unchangeable nature of that thing. There is only one unchangeable Reality of the universe which is called God. Therefore, true faith in God involves right knowledge or realization of God and, conversely, knowledge of Self produces true faith in one’s real nature or Self or Atman. As long as we do not realize what God is, we imagine that God must be like this or that, which is nothing but projection of our ideas, or we take for granted without questioning certain statements either from a scripture or from some other authority; and, if instead of going further we delude ourselves by imagining that we have true faith in God, the result will be that we shall not be able to realize God, so long as we are thus deluded. All progress will be stopped. Consequently, true faith will never come. True faith does not come in confinement, but it appears in the mind which is unbiased and always open to Truth and which is able to transcend all the limitations of time, space, and causation.

The first sign of true faith is shraddha, i.e. that frame of mind which is to be found in a true enquirer or an earnest seeker after truth; that shraddha is the first stage of faith, which leads to the realization of truth. It is that earnest and unbiased attitude of mind which is receptive of truth and which leads the searching mind step by step into the realm of the Unknown and ultimately ends in the realization of the Unknown. First of all, there must be a firm conviction regarding the existence of truth. Otherwise, the search after truth will be of no avail. God is at first unknown to us. We first believe in His existence, then we approach that unknown Being at first by guesses, by imaginations, and by projecting our thoughts and ideas and personifying them; we think that He is outside of us; then we search here and there; in this search after that Unknown, weak intellects, having failed to find any reality, become atheistic and agnostic; and those who have blind faith not guided by proper reason and knowledge stop somewhere and mistake the guesses for truth.

But a true seeker does not stop until he has realized it. He suddenly turns the course of his search from outside to inside; he dives deep into his heart and there he discovers the Reality, and then he realizes God who is enthroned within his heart. Then God and his real Self are no longer separate, but are one. Then he says: ‘I am He’ (so’ham). Then and then alone comes true faith in God. If the whole world stands against him and denies what he says, he cannot think or say in any other way. Therefore, true faith in God and realization of God as the soul of our souls within us are simultaneous. True faith in God is impossible without the realization of God within us or without the knowledge of our real Self. This realization again comes through ordinary faith or conviction that there is a God; because it is more perfect to know an object in itself by means of its immediate presence than to arrive at its knowledge by hearing the teachings of others or by reading books. It is a state in which one begins to taste inwardly what has been embraced and held in faith so long. When we know our true Self we know God. Again knowing and being are the same. Bacon said: ‘The truth of being and the truth of knowing is all the same.’ ‘A man is but what he knoweth.’

Therefore, it is said in Vedanta that the knower of God is God Himself. When we realize our true divine nature, all the powers that are in God gradually begin to flow through our soul. Such a man, who has realized the oneness between God and soul, is a God-man on earth. He is free. He cannot do anything wrong. At every step he realizes that God’s will is working through his mind and body. He feels it, he is conscious of it. He has lost his idea of separateness; he has bathed in the ocean of Unity; his ego has become transformed into divine Spirit. He has crossed the ocean of death by the bark of the knowledge of his supreme Self. Such men are worshipped as living God on earth. They are the embodiment of Truth, Reality, and Divinity. All the great founders of religions first attained to this realization and then they appeared before the public. Therefore, it is said in Vedanta that nothing can be higher than the right knowledge or realization of Divinity in man, or one’s divine Self. Its another name is true faith.

A man who has not reached this highest realization may believe in this or that, or assert or deny this or that, or have faith in God whom he does not know; but it cannot be called true faith; there is no life or strength in such a faith; he will not manifest divine powers through his actions; and his ego will not be transformed into divine ego. He may cure certain diseases, such as, headache or nervousness and so forth, but he will not be able to know the Reality of the universe, or God or his own nature. But the more we realize our Self or true nature, the higher we rise above the physical plane where pain, disease, sorrow, or suffering cannot reach. If simple assertion and denial can produce such results as we often hear, how much more can be achieved, when the true knowledge of our own perfect nature and true faith in ourselves will come to us.

All the dualistic religions, which believe in an extra-cosmic personal God, say that, if you do not believe in such and such a name and form of God, you are an atheist; they do not say anything about the knowledge of Self. But Vedanta says, if you do not have faith in yourself, you are an atheist. This Self we must at first learn to understand as one which is the knower of body, senses, mind, intellect, feelings, sensations, and so forth. Self-analysis is necessary to come to the door of Self-realization. But self-analysis of an impure mind will not reveal the true Self or Spirit. Mind must be properly trained in order to come straight to truth without going astray. Untrained minds generally fail to understand the true nature of Self. Some look upon the Soul or Self as a wonder; others speak of it with great astonishment; others again hear of it as wonderful. Few can comprehend it after hearing it described over and over again.^[5] Such subtle and inscrutable being the nature of our Soul or Self or Atman, we ought not to neglect it nor deny its existence. Our first duty ought to be to find out who we are, and what the nature of our soul is. Vedanta has preached this unique method of realization of God for centuries. I do not find this method in any of the dualistic systems of religions. The method is this: ‘First realize your higher Self or true nature. Do not bother your head about the attributes of God, whether He is personal or impersonal and so forth. All these questions will be answered, when you know or realize your Atman or true Self.’

The result of such a method is that it denies the special necessity of all the rituals, ceremonies, forms, symbols, mythology, scripture, imagery, and a host of other things, which a dualist believes as absolutely necessary for realizing God. It has simplified theology into philosophy, faith and its results into knowledge or realization, salvation into freedom of the soul from the bondages of ignorance, superstition, and so forth, and Truth or God into the Self or Reality in us. It is a great relief for the mind which is overloaded with all the paraphernalia of a dualistic creed. They have their use at a certain -stage of religious development. But they are not necessary in every stage.

Faith in the dualistic conception of the extra-cosmic God does not help us to know our true selves, nor the true selves of others, nor the Reality of the universe; while the knowledge of our Self or Atman brings us the knowledge of not only our immortal nature, but of every individual, and of all living creatures, and of the Reality of the universe. Therefore, knowledge of Self is more potent than the blind faith in an extra-cosmic God whose existence is neither supported by science nor reason.

Faith in God as separate from the universe makes us separate from Him, from one another, and also from the universe; while knowledge of Self brings and shows us the harmony and oneness of Spirit in the variety of the phenomena. Such a faith makes us always afraid of punishment and does not bring love in our soul, because love means, expression of the realization of oneness; it does not make us unselfish, because the hope of reward is always predominant in the mind of a worshipper. But the realization of our divine nature makes us love all human beings, irrespective of their caste, creed, or nationality, nay, all living creatures with equal kindness. Therefore, it is more useful and uplifting. Such a faith forces us to disregard all knowledge which we gather from science or philosophy and to throw it aside as useless, while knowledge of our true Self makes the best use of everything and accepts every truth discovered by every branch of science and philosophy. It does not fear anything; therefore it is stronger.

Knowledge or realization of our Self or Atman makes us come direct to the intra-cosmic God, immanent and resident in nature. It is infinitely more powerful than ordinary faith which is not attended with such a realization. A sinner may have faith in God and may continue to be a sinner. But, if he knows what his Self is, he is instantly transformed into a great sage. Knowledge of Self (atmajnana) brings strength in one’s self and that strength can overcome everything which stands in its way. The great Hindu sage^[6] of the nineteenth century, whose life and sayings have been published by Prof. Max Müller, said: ‘As a man, who is desirous of fishing in a lake or pond, first goes to those persons who have fished in it, and eagerly asks them, whether there are big fishes in the pond or not, what kind of bait is necessary and so on; and having collected all informations and believing in the instructions of his friends, he resorts to the pond with his rod, waits there throwing his line and allures the fish with patience and dexterity until he has succeeded in hooking a large and beautiful dweller of the deep: so a sincere and earnest seeker after truth putting implicit faith in the instructions of holy saints who have realized divinity must try to catch and confine God in his bosom, with the bait of devotion, and the rod of the mind, and hook of concentration. He must wait with patience until the divine fish is caught and the eternal truth is realized. Blessed is he who has attained such knowledge and realization of the divine Being; he is free, happy, and divine even in this life.’

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Matt. XXI. 21-22.

[2]:

Jonah, I, 17 and II, 1-10.

[3]:

A celebrated French writer, born at Rouen, in 1657 and died in Paris, in 1757.

[4]:

Anguttara Nikaya, Kalama Sutta, III. 653.

[5]:

āścaryavat paśyati kaścidenamāścaryavadvadati tathaiva cānyaḥ |
     —Bhagavad Gita, II, 29.

[6]:

Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Deva.