Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Re: faith in HIM

From the Bhakti List Archives

Mohan Sagar • May 31, 2001 


Sri Bhadri,

I think the question to ask is where this level of faith comes from in the first place?  How is
it possible to place our faith in somone that we have not "seen," or know anything about?
What is it that it is motivating us from within to accept His Presence and seek to adore Him in
the form of the archa.  Our Acharyas teach us that this faith is the product of the Lord
Himself, who solely out of His Compassion and Boundless Desire to help and save us, stays within
as our antaryAmin and leads us in the path that leads us back to Himself.   It is He
who places this faith in us in the hopes that someday He can put it to good use in meeting His
Goal.

The seed level of this faith is present in almost everyone.    But, often times,  because of our
self interested desires, such faith  seems to be vacillating and skeptical.  At one moment, when
things are not going our way, we seek Him out to help us.  If our prayer is answered, we feel
happy and revel at how our Chosen Ideal is connected to us.  When things do not go our way,
however, the very same believer can instantly become the skeptic, doubting Him or His
Capabilities, or sometimes even questioning the meaning behind His creation or even His very
Existence.

Faith, it appears is like an oil lamp that vacillates with the wind.  What is needed then is a
cover, something that turns the lamp into a lantern, so that not only does this faith become
steady, it also burns all the more strongly such that it turns to Love.

Such a level faith is something that none of us can gain by ourselves. The complexities of
spending eons virtually unaware of Him and pursuing selfish desires have made us helpless
victims to the laws of karma.  The only thing that can save us is His Mercy, His Compassion,
which He provides just when we are ready in the form of the AchAryan.

Our AchAryans use the analogy that the Teacher is like a fisherman who is sent to retrieve brass
pots that  fell overboard from the sailing vessel of their Owner.  The fisherman finds the pots
to be at different levels in the water, just as we souls are at different levels of attachment
to our ego based on our prArabdha karmas.  The talented and experienced fisherman has just the
right equipment (the Vedas, itihAsas, and Prabhandam) and just the right method (samAsrAyanam
and/or bharanyAsam) to connect each pot to his fishing line and bring it up from
the water back onto the ship, and back into the hands of the Rightful and True Owner.

I hope this helps as a start.

adiyEn rAmanuja dAsan
Mohan





--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/