Faith: Staircase to God By Soma Chakravarty

"Faith is where body, mind, soul and spirit merge, leading us to an ever-present awareness of the Absolute within."



"Yours faithfully - A letter ends there. However, faith is the beginning of the human quest for self-discovery and the Absolute. Faith can be neither forced nor taught; it is an experience that transcends trust, reason, belief and ideology.

Belief in religious scripture confines the mind; the trust we repose in an individual, too, is a limiting factor. The intellect can only too often weave a cobweb of theories, and reason can cause mistrust, taking us away from discovering the great scope and depth of an infinite power that's faith, that can otherwise serve as an effective spiritual guide.

Zen Master Hakuin said: "Not knowing how near the truth is, people seek it far away. What a pity! This very Earth is the Lotus Land of purity and this body is the body of the Buddha"."

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"Faith is heartfelt rather than knowledge-fed. It is the unquestioned surrender to the will of the Almighty. We have to become aware of the light within to know God, to become God-like.

Yajnavalkya says that the self is its own light when the sun has set, when the moon has set, when the fire is put out - atmaivasya jyotir bhavati . This light is the faith that gives us the vision of the eternal and eternity. Faith becomes reality when the mind concentrates on the Real.

The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad says: "Those who put their trust in the intellect cannot attain to a knowledge of Brahmn, yet there is an apprehension of His being by those who are childlike".

It is faith, rather than intellectual understanding or theoretical knowledge, that is needed for revelation of the Supreme in the individual soul.

One has to rise above religion and rituals, dogmas and doctrines that cloud our vision. "Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking", said Kahlil Gibran.

To discover faith that can lead us to consciousness of the infinite, we have to calm the mind, fill our heart with unconditional love and compassion, and listen to the sound of silence, the eternal song of the Absolute."

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"In the souls and spirits, the minds, hearts and physical bodies of men, the creator has planted seeds (gifts, virtues, magic powers, spiritual splendours) that can be nourished and made to grow only by the light and warmth of the Sun. When we expose ourselves to the rising sun, all these seeds will begin to sprout. The sun will provide light and warmth, but we have to water those little sprouts with love, faith, trust and goodwill. Meditate, contemplate, pray and give thanks to the lord, pronounce some positive, luminous words and in this way we will become a garden full of lovely flowers and delicious fruit."

Also see http://www.suryayog.org/.