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“Faith,
in true sense is a lively link connecting
the mortal with the immortal”
(Basic Writings of Sri Ramchandra, Reality
at Dawn, Page 250)
(Sri. I.Chalapathi Rao)
Dear Brothers and Sisters
1.
On this happy occasion, I seek your
kind permission to present my understanding
about today’s seminar topic, “Faith,
in true sense is a lively link connecting
the mortal with the immortal”.
When I was led into this system through my
revered brother-in-law, Dr A.Subba Rao, I
was very young and not knowing much about
the goal of life. We were constantly and
consistently exposed to the system and the
thoughts of the Revered Master, Pujya Babuji
Maharaj and this led to a natural acceptance
of the system and the Master.
2.
After coming to the Institute in the
year 1991, the understanding of the system
and the practice has taken a definite
methodical shape due to systematic training
under the guidance of Pujya Sir. I vividly
remember that during this time, the talks of
our guide Revered Sri KCN on various
subjects pertaining to sadhana has given lot
of clarity about the system but more
importantly it helped build the faith on the
system and the Master on firmer rational
grounds aided through consistent experience.
3.
It has to be mentioned that single
pointed orientation to the system of
practice of the Revered Master as followed
in our institute is keeping us focused on
sadhana leading to rapid spiritual progress.
At this juncture, I cannot but stop express
my sincere gratitude to the Institute which
is helping all in progressing on the
spiritual path which is so dear to the
heart. It has been my experience that as we
develop more clarity about the goal of life
which happens over a period of time, we
start feeling more convinced of the efficacy
of the methods and this inner conviction of
the heart leads to the formation and
development of the faith.
4.
It may be true that as the path gets
unfolded, we may need to grapple with the
problems of self consciousness like self
effort, sense of achievement, sense of
knowledge, self importance etc but the basic
question pertaining to faith in the system
and faith in the Master is not the subject
matter of discussion or thought. Master
mentions in the chapter Faith that,
development of faith in the master leads to
love and which over a period of time assumes
the form of self surrender or shraddha. To
quote, “Faith, in true sense, is a lively
linkxe "Link" connecting the mortalxe
"Mortal" with the Immortal. It is no doubt
effected through the medium of the masterxe
"Master" who is himself connected with the
Immortal. The link when once connected
cannot be broken under any conditionxe
"Condition" and subsists all along during
the course of our march up to final point.
It is one of the six Sampattis of the third
Sadhanaxe "Sadhana" of Yogaxe "Yoga".
At this stage, faithxe "Faith" is real and
genuine and is so firmly established that a
manxe "Man" cannot even for a moment get
away from it. The reasons for this are,
however, beyond his understanding. Before
this stage, faithxe "Faith" is really
artificial and is formed, lost or regained
many a timexe "Time" for a variety of
reasons. A worthy masterxe "Master" shall
never rely upon it and shall put up with all
the emotional outburstsxe "Emotional
Outbursts" of lovexe "Love" and devotionxe
"Love and devotion"xe "Devotion" of a
disciple, looking forward patiently for the
time when he comes up to the final stage of
Shraddha (faith) as depicted in the four
Sadhanaxe "Sadhana"s of Yogaxe "Yoga"
when the real faith begins to assume the
formxe "Form" of selfxe "Self"xe "The
self"-surrenderxe "Surrender"”1.
5.
Understanding from the sadhaka’s
angle it should be our endeavour to move on
to the stage of self surrender. More often
than not we limit the understanding of the
word sadhana to the daily practices of
meditation. But sadhana means much more than
our practices, it includes a conscious
effort to effect changes in our attitudes,
external behaviour, priorities in life and
more importantly developing or imbibing
Divine qualities. Master refers to faith as
one of the virtues. Virtues, I understand
are the Divine qualities that we need to
express here in this world for larger good
of humanity.
6.
When thinking about the word ‘Faith’
in the 9.00 P.M Universal prayer, it has
always spurred in me a thought that every
body should develop faith in Divinity as it
alone gives them courage and balance to meet
adverse situations in life. It is like an
unsaid, unseen and unheard assurance felt by
all. To the arthi (helpless persons), faith
is an anchor to life but to a contended
person, faith is like a tonic that enlivens
the life with optimism and positive
thinking.
7.
Development of positive thinking is a
result of development faith in the Divine
principle. But positive thinking devoid of
idea of Divinity can at best be only be
superficial. It has been my personal
experience that I have always felt positive,
cheerful and optimistic which is due to the
system and on deduction, I infer that it is
due to the ingrained faith in Divinity that
the practice has helped in developing it
even without conscious knowledge.
8.
Faith in the Divine principle gets
developed due to the experiences of the
heart and Pranahuti is greatly aiding us in
this regard. But we also know that Pranahuti
is got from a fellow brother/sister who has
progressed on the path. The trainer and the
guide play a significant role in our
spiritual upliftment through spiritual
training. In the process of spiritual
training, we undergo several upheavals in
our emotional and psychological planes.
Sometimes we feel elated and may also have
the top of the world type of feelings but
sometimes we exactly feel the opposite and
many times in the sadhana it is devoid of
the both the extremes.
9.
Now this kind of experiences as I
understand are the process of maturation of
emotional and psychological balancedness but
as we undergo them we feel enormous mental
turmoil. This mental turmoil tries to dent
the faith in our ability to carry out
sadhana and sometimes it may dent our faith
in the system. But these are transient
phases in sadhana and if we remember the
truth, ‘This too shall pass away’ then we
are in a better position to cope up the
stressful situation.
10.
In the beginning, we are experiencing
blissfull meditation sessions and we are
upbeat and as we move further and our
guide/trainer starts the higher and tougher
training pertaining to our attitudes for our
faith to be transformed into a condition of
self surrender to the great Master, it
appears that we are being sorely tested in
our faith but in reality we are being tested
on our own commitment to the realization of
our goal. And when we undergo the stress due
to ego shedding process we are caught in
twilight of our accumulated attitudes and
the ushering of new horizon of perception
and here we are guided thoroughly by our
guide who has undergone the similar process
as he has mastered the intricacies of the
path. So Absolute Faith in the guide becomes
a necessity at some point in the sadhana and
we should endeavour to make that jump. For
this it is necessary for regular association
with clarity of spiritual goal.
11.
After the mahaprastana, all the
brothers of Dharmaja including his wife fall
one after the other in their ascent to the
kingdom of God and for a sadhaka, the moot
question is whether others were ineligible
to the kingdom of God. I understand that
this is not true as others were not
ineligible but were ill-equipped and
secondly as Dr Rev KCV would say that God is
a perfect law abiding law giver’. These kind
of thoughts which are basically a demanding
type are usually are impediments in
development of true faith. These thoughts
have their basis due to the feelings of
comparison and greed. One does become a
victim to these tendencies and it is
necessary to root them out totally before
desiring any further progress.
12.
Usually we feel that we have faith
and think that it is sufficient to progress
on the path. But real faith develops once we
develop humility leading to the stage of
self surrender. The difficulties on the path
are very beautifully elucidated by Rev Dr
KCV in the chapter, Difficulties in Yoga. I
would like quote one aspect from the chapter
pertaining to humility, “It is also known
that many seek entrance into new societies
to meet with more opportunities for their
ego. Humility is the essence of spiritual
evolution, and any ambition should be
recognized as a hindrance to the Ultimate
realisation, because these are known by
seers to be obstacles and perversions of the
real aspiration. This is the first
difficulty.”2
13.
So in the Natural path we develop
faith as we progress on the path and in this
development the role of the master is vital
and our role is to practice with dedication
and yield. Secondly, we should associate
with persons who are personifications of
faith as they enable us to resonate with
them thus lifting our level of
consciousness. Thirdly, during satsangs and
birthday celebrations like these gatherings
of the abhaysis, who are singularly oriented
to the Master, help in reinforcing our love,
devotion and faith in the great Master,
Pujya Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of
shahjahanpur U.P India who says, “We should
utilize this occasion for getting into the
Master and Master alone, which will act as a
food and tonic for our spiritual elevation.”3
Pranams
References:
-
Basic Writings of Sri
Ramchandra, Reality at Dawn, Page 250
-
Complete Works of Dr KCV
Vol-1 –Difficulties in Yoga.
-
Showers of Divine Grace -
Master who
leads to Realisation.
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