Belief and faith!

Hello all,

Namaste! I want to let my blog readers know about my new website-swaroopa.net. Very simple id, not the complicated blog id address. Now to the post.

Last week we discussed how we have to break the box of our own ancestral, social, cultural and familial conditioning to become truly who we are. No, it is not easy. These patterns we carry through life times or if it is in the family through centuries. Many times we don't even know whether a thought process is our own which we acquired through our experiences or whether it is coming from an ancestor who lived a few centuries ago. 

Subconscious mind: Many of these are subconscious in nature. The only way as a person we can access the subconscious mind is through feelings, meditation, dream or sleep. In that dream and sleep are out. Yes, we can dream. But we cannot choose what to dream, when to dream or how to dream. We cannot control it. Now, sleep. We can sleep and lie down. But we have no control over, when we sleep whether we can get ideas, can we understand our own subconscious or whether we would dream during a particular day. All these are not in our hands.

So, the remaining two becomes meditation and feelings. Many do meditations. But to go to inside the meditating mind, access the subconscious and change a pattern may be next to impossible. The ascended Masters like Ramana Maharshi or Ramakrishna Paramahansa may be able to do it. Not a normal being like you or me. It is a wonder if we can even go into meditation and sustain ourselves in that state for a few hours. That is also is out.

The only remaining thing is to use our feelings to tap into our subconscious mind. That is the only tool left with us. But here another important factor comes into the picture. To know what we are feeling, we need to be deeply aware about ourselves. Yes, I know, I have been railing at the same point again and again and it has become a scratched record (the musical records we used to play in the 1960s and 70s). We need to know ourselves, truly who we are.

The subconscious mind where ancestral and familial patterns reside!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

That is why it was the one phrase that was said to have been inscribed in bold letters at the forecourt of Temple of Apollo at Delphi as 'Gnothi seauton'- Know thyself. This is very important to do anything with our conscious or subconscious mind. If we don't know who we are and what do we want, how do we know whether a behavior is coming from our own mind or from an ancestral or familial pattern? We would absolutely have no idea. We will live a life of victim of our life circumstances.

Our life would be a boat without a helmsman and it would go anywhere the winds of life takes us. Is there any use in crying and worry that our life is not at all what we envisioned? First we need to know ourselves who we are. Then we should capture an empowered state of ourselves and start to live our life exactly as we want it to be. Here there is a deep spiritual law we need to be aware of.

To get what we want, we should never apply selfish means. We should not topple another from their own Dharma or purpose while we try to capture ours. Many times we forget this as humans. Either we become the boat without the driver or we become a driver who topples every boat that is around us who are trying to capture their own life for themselves. Our life is not small enough to not do anything about it or our life is not also not so arrogant that nobody can do anything they want to do around us. Both are not okay.

True Dharma or purpose won't stop anybody from doing anything that is good for them. True purpose also won't allow other to stop what we want to do. So, the assumption that being Dharmic is to be weak and very nice is an illusion. Look at any of the Masters who lived their life truly and authentically. They had the might to use their will power. They were nice, gentle and kind. But they also had a will power to do what they felt they wanted to do.

With Ramakrishna Paramahansa or Yukteswar Giri, they didn't have to even open their mouth. They just had to look or more stare with a question in their eyes, for people to realize what they were doing was wrong. That was their yogic or will power. Just a look in their eyes. They were not weak, but very strong individuals with a powerful mind who knew deeply themselves. So, 'Know thyself' takes even more importance to take actions from our mind using our will power.

The Roman mosaic of 'Know Thyself'!
Image credits - Wikimedia commons. The artist is unknown. [Public domain]

Conditioning: We have been discussing the conditioning all through many of the blogposts. There can be other types of conditioning as well. For example, I grew up as a Hindu all through my young age. I was taught about the trinity of Gods- Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. Their consorts are Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Parvathy. There are many Gods and Goddesses like this in Hinduism. This was taught to me by my parents and grand parents.

Do I really know whether these Gods and Goddesses exist? Actually no. I feel they exist as I was taught at a very young age. But my feeling can be wrong. This can be just a subconscious knowledge I was given which I assimilated into my subconscious. This is many times the case with the religion. We are taught many things at a very young age. The same way Christians are taught their holy trinity- Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Same way Islam teaches Muslims their stories and the Sikh teach their kids those stories.

So, here the kids grow up hearing those stories, relating to it and imagining the mythological aspects. This give them a deep foundation to relate to something, being in a group. Belonging to something. That feeling is very important when we are growing up. In that nurturing group environment of religion, mythology and culture kids grow up. As many times these stories and culture are given at a very young age of 4-10 years, kids don't question whether all these are truths or are they ancient myths being passed down generation after generation.

For example if you ask me whether I have seen Saraswathi or Lakshmi, I have to say No. Yes, I have seen the pictures, idols and have gone to the temples. But I have not seen them in a human or even an energy form. But the thought that they are the Hindu Goddesses and I pray to them is very deep, etched or strongly wired in my subconscious mind. This is the process of believing in something.

Belief: Belief is something we have not seen, or heard or touched with our sense organs. But we have been taught from a very young age, such religion exists. Such Gods and Goddesses exist in the mythological stories, and we pray to them for our wellness and prosperity in our life. Yes, I pray a lot. I also love to go to temple and visit temples. I actually enjoy them a lot.

Nothing wrong with that. But many times in our adult life, we may find ourselves in tough circumstances. The circumstances can be so dire we may not have any help available to us. Let us take an example. Many people come to the USA from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras. They come by hopping onto trains, or buses and even trekking in between miles and miles.

Many of the regions are laden with drug cartels and gangs. It is not a given that people should even reach the Mexican borders. There are people who help in this human trafficking across the borders called Coyotes. They know shortcut routes, has network of people who can help and can provide illegal passports. This whole scenario is illegal. But people in these countries are bogged down with civil wars, gang wars and persecution. They want to escape that reality of violence, poverty and murders. They would give anything to escape that.

Central American countries!
Image credits - Wikimedia Commons [Public domain]

Many of them are deeply religious people who may go to church every Sunday and keep all the religious rituals. But they are going to undertake  a journey that can lead to a life or death situation. They can be killed en route. There was a story of a father and a young baby girl toddler who drowned in the river Rio Grande while trying to cross from Mexico to the USA. Many of the people's beliefs are going to be tested, big time.

Here the belief is going to be on an entity who is out of this world residing somewhere. Many times, situation can be so dire, they get mutilated, killed or in eternal hiding. Even pregnant ladies who are seven to eight months into their term try to cross the border in search of a better future. Also, when they are walking on foot, there can be danger of wolves, the real coyotes or even mountain lions. Think of a pregnant lady. She may not be able to fight off an animal attack.

So, in such dire circumstances many times the spiritual beliefs get tested. People may realize that many times another divine entity is not helping them. The spiritual viewpoints deep-rooted in them may not come to help. Praying may not make any difference. This is because here the person is keeping trust in an outside source. This many times won't succeed.

Faith: When things totally fall apart, they may not know where to turn. Even in our own life such occasions many times arise. Nothing would be working. No amount of praying would produce results. Meditation or bargain with the Divine won't work. These many times may be to bring the attention to one thing we are missing in the whole equation- ourselves. 

That is the difference between belief and faith. In belief, we are giving our power to an outside God or Divine who would fix the things for us. But in that scenario, where is us, the being? If we are given a brilliant mind, brain, intellect and intelligence, is it just pray to an outside God and do nothing by ourselves. Who said the Divine has no faith in us?

The Divine never said that. Instead, we many times remove ourselves from the picture. We keep our own part in the equation nil and bargain with the divine for a great outcome. That is not how really things work. We need to have deep faith first in ourselves. In such dire circumstances when beliefs that was given to us from our family, church, temple or an outer source cease to work, we with no other way to move forward turn towards ourselves.

At that time we are met with an unending spring of hope, encouragement and support from within. This fountain of inspiration is unending. But many times even when things outside are not working humans don't turn inside. Such humans lose the biggest gift a being can get. Inner trust or faith. First faith in oneself that one would figure out a way. Then faith in a Divine who helps from within to remove all obstacles in one's path, so that one find that way.

This is the difference between faith and belief. In belief we just believe in a God who is outside always helping us. We have absolutley no part in that equation. The Divine may help or not. But faith is not so. It is different. In that we, the being is very much involved. We are not just expecting things from an outer source. Instead, before anything starts appearing in our life we have already started our work and have a deep belief or faith in ourselves and later in a higher source that things would work out.

Having an inner trust to co-create with the Divine!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

This is the co-creation, we talked about before in one of the blog posts. Each of us, the being should partner with an inner divine, our own personal Divinity that we have developed through our own beliefs, culture, religion and rituals. This faith or inner divinity is very personal. Here there is no restrictions. We can practice as we want-our culture. We can call upon any God or any deity so that we have deep trust in ourselves to finish our project, task or endeavor.

In 2015-2016, I came across this concept where my belief in God was tested when my career after umpteen attempts was not working. I had to go within and find answers to my own problems with career. How much ever I prayed nothing worked. Because, I had negated and made valueless a major part of the equation-myself. After hundred attempts to revive my career, I was again and again finding myself at square one-applying to a new job.

The outer reality had become a huge mirror of my own inner reality. No trust in myself, I can find a career or job. It totally reflected that reality back to me as zero job and zero career. So, from this standpoint of nil career, I had to go deep within myself to find the 'I am' essence, my desires, my aptitudes and what I wanted to be in life. Today, I know deeply the difference between belief and faith.

In faith, we the being is solidly there in the picture. For example, I get flash of insights, concepts and ideas. If I, the being doesn't talk, write or blog about it, it just stays within me. I am very much part of the equation. This blog I started with trust on myself that I could write and a trust on the inner divinity that was asking me to take that step. The Quora answers were the next step. Now my brand new entrepreneurship is another step with a trust on myself and the higher guidance that sits within.

So, belief and faith are entirely different. Belief is more on a religion, institution or a group viewpoint. But faith is very individual, very personal. We can always stay within a religion and practice a very personalized spirituality. This is a very powerful technique. Our own confidence in ourselves increases tremendously. We are not asking an outer God to fix our problems. Instead we are asking our inner God to be there as a guide, light, support while we figure out our way through our own life.

This is the deep difference between faith and belief. One has no part for us. In the other, we are the central part and everything else grows out of our own inner trust in divine. So, isn't it better to have faith in ourselves and our inner guide than at an outer Divinity who is sitting and watching us from somewhere? But the path to choose is always our choice and free will!

I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Gaia- The Earth mother!
Credits: Wikimedia Commons and  Pixabay.com