Kanchi Maha-Swamigal's Discourses on Advaita Saadhanaa (KDAS-5)

[Guest guest]

KDAS – 5

 

8. SHRADDHA (FAITH) NECESSARY

 

Therefore let me warn you rightaway. All this is going to

be a slow process. It will take a long time to see

progress. So let no one despair. The feeling that ‘nothing

is happening’ may always be there. ‘Maybe I am not capable

of achieving anything on the spiritual effort’ – is the

frequent thought that may appear. Don’t despair or give

up.

 

Where there is a will there is a way. Efforts will not go

waste. Keep going with all your efforts, persistently.

Don’t worry about the time it takes. In due time, you will

see the signs of progress and will also reach the

destination. Faith is the fundamental requisite. That is

what they mean by ‘shraddhA’. ‘The Lord will never forsake

us. The path shown by the shAstras and the Guru will never

go unproductive’. It is that strong conviction that goes

by the name of shraddhA.

 

Whenever we say that someone has done this with shraddhA,

we mean it has been done with the whole heart, most

sincerely. In fact the sincerity has come from that faith

which is implied in the shraddhA.

 

Whenever we have a direct proof, there is no question of

‘faith’ coming in. But many of the things which religious

books talk about do not have this kind of ‘direct proof’.

Indeed some of them may be the exact opposite. ‘Punya

(Meritorious action) results in good and sin results in

bad’ is a statement that every religion adheres to.

However, what we see right before us in the world is the

sight of the suffering of people who do good and that of

the happy living of those who do evil actions. To this our

Hindu shastras say: ‘You should not expect the results of

good and bad actions in this one life itself. The

consequences will be had only in the course of several

lives of the individual. If a sinner is happy today and if

a good man suffers today, it only means that the sinner has

done something good in his previous lives and similarly

that good man must have done something evil in his previous

lives’. There is no way to ‘prove’ this. This is where

‘faith’, that is, ‘shraddhA’ becomes necessary. In the

same way several other things have to be agreed to only by

our shraddhA.

 

In ordinary parlance we talk of believers and disbelievers

(aastikas and naastikas). An aastika does not mean simply

that he agrees that God exists. Just by accepting that

there is an ultimate power which is the source for

everything, one does not go very far. ‘Believing’

(aastikyaM) is far more than that. That Ultimate Power is

watching all our thoughts and actions and is meting out

results accordingly; in His compassion He is constantly

directing us, through the various scriptures, to do

good; and, to boot, He is often sending His messiahs

(Acharyas) to show us the right path; and therefore we have

to follow these Acharyas and the Shastras that they

communicate to us; only then we can reach the Absolute. A

faith in all this constitutes aastikyaM or Believing. So

ShraddhA is what makes you a believer. In Chandogya

Upanishad (vii.19) it is said that only he who has shraddhA

will do the enquiry into Atman; and our Acharya in

commenting on this, says ‘ShraddhA is nothing but aastikya

buddhi’. In other words, ShraddhA is the faith in all the

above.

 

Let me dare say here that the westerners have gone one step

ahead of us in this matter. The word for religion in our

language is ‘matam’. It means ‘what is obtained by the

intellect’. When the intellect researches on a maxim and

convinces itself by elaborate inquiry, it arrives at a

‘matam’. Also when we cannot ‘prove’ something, but great

men and shastras have accepted that something and therefore

it must be right – Such a faith is also ‘matam’. But the

real meaning of ‘matam’ is that conviction which arises

from the intellect that is convinced by reason – not by

another’s word. The latter means of conviction is what

ShraddhA means. On the other hand the English people call

‘religion’ itself as ‘faith’. They have given that much

importance to faith, in matters of religion. In later times

of course, they started giving importance to ‘reason’ in

matters of religion also – and also pulled us into the same

pattern of thinking. But in earlier times they thought of

faith in the scriptures as religion, ‘matam’ and must have

used the word ‘Faith’ for ‘religion’ in that manner.

 

ShraddhA is most important. We shall come back to this

topic much later. In the peak stages of advaita saadhanaa,

there will come a stage when shraddhA will have to be

talked about more formally. What we are now talking is only

a simple plant which will grow into a grand tree of

Shraddha with deeper roots, in that peak stage of

discussion. But remember. It is this plant that has to

grow into that big tree. When we learn to dive into the

depths of the ocean, first we have to stay near the shore

and learn to hold our breath under water just for a short

time. But in due time we learn to dive into deeper waters

and also collect gems from the bottom of the sea. The

shraddhA that we are talking now is like learning to swim

in shallow waters near the shore. The ShraddhA that will

come later is like diving deep to gather pearls and gems.

 

I note a coincidence of language here. The word ‘pearl’

(‘muttu’ in Tamil) is of significance. The Sanskrit word

‘mukta’ means ‘the released one’. The Tamil equivalent is

‘muttar’. And that is very near to ‘muttu’. The concept of

‘release’ is there in both the Sanskrit ‘mukta’ and Tamil

‘muttu’. Muttu is what is released by by being pryed out of

the shell of a pearl oyster; and a ‘mukta’ is the one who

gets his release from the cycle of births and deaths.

Well, that was a digression.

 

Just as the collection of a pearl from the deep sea is a

goal, the goal of mukti has ‘ShraddhA’ as one of the

important requisites in the last stages of the ascent to

mukti. But the ShraddhA we are talking about now is what is

required in the very beginning of the ascent.

 

So let us begin the ascent with ShraddhA. Let the start be

made with ShraddhA. The Vedas and Upanishads have

recommended it; Lord Krishna has confirmed it in the Gita

and our own Acharya has elaborated it with all accessories.

Following all these we shall surely aim to reach that stage

of Brahma-anubhava, the being-in-brahman.

 

The start has to be with karma and bhakti; then only jnAna.

Our mind is like a mirror, covered by lot of dirt and at

the same time it is not steady, it is vibrating. So in this

kind of mind, nothing of spiritual value reflects. The dirt

has to be washed off by repeated performances of rightful

karma. The vibration has to be stopped by continuous

observance of bhakti. Only then will the mind be both

steady and pure and that is the mind wherein things of

spiritual wisdom will reflect. [And the Swami says

smiling]:Then we will also be equipped to ‘reflect’ on

them!

 

(To be Continued)

PraNAms to all students of advaita.

PraNAms to the Maha-Swamigal.

profvk

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

Latest on my website: A conversation on the Concept of God in Hinduism.

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/ConceptofGOD.html