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Re: Discussion please
>From: pratipn@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Pratip Kumar Nag.)
>Subject: Discussion please
>Date: 13 Jul 1994 00:21:48 GMT
>Is it enough to follow what the prophets or relevant authority of that
>particular religion has told us, to reach the Ultimate?
My humble opinion is:
Answers to questions like the above one, cannot be definitive.
It is each person to himself, in a sense. I elaborate below...
Blind faith is really not as "blind" as it may sound. Take
Sri Nisargadatta, for example. He is a man (or saint) living
currently in India. He's among the few "Jivanmuktas" (those
liberated while still living), so it is believed. When asked
of what rigorous spritual exercises he had to perform to achieve
emancipation, he simply says, "My Guru told me that I was not this
body, not this mind, not the intellect, not the senses, but
something beyond all these. I BELIEVED HIM FULLY. I DID
NOTHING ELSE."
Then someone asked him about the role of discrimination,
figuring out right vs. wrong etc. Do we just abandon our intellect?
Sri Nisargadatta simply said that those who do not have 100%
faith are compelled to adopt the more roundabout route of "analyze,
then realize".
The crux of religion seems to be
to develop 100% faith in whatever we are doing. In short, it
is not WHAT we're doing, but WITH WHAT FAITH we're doing it, that
seems to count. To quote a parable by Sri Sivananda (of Divine Life
Society): A man put his head underwater and held his breath
indefinitely because he was told that doing so would make him
get the vision of God. Obviously, the person who told him this
was not a genuine Guru. But the man implicitly followed those
instructions, and God, pleased by his faith, DID appear to him.
That simple (and meaningless?) act of holding breath underwater
did HIM more good than decades of yoga could have!
But realistically, for people like us it is very difficult to
develop 100% faith in ANYTHING. Even if we say that we do have
it, we may be fooling ourselves.
So, about us "mortals", then, Swami Vivekananda has said that
EVERYTHING in the world is repeatable. So all the prophets'
experiences are repeatable BY ANYONE, ANYTIME. People who say
that there's no way besides following a prophet, are wrong.
So if you don't have implicit faith in someone's words, you have
the option of trying out whatever he advises, and observing if
the "promised" results are achieved.
So it seems that analysis and total faith are really identical.
So, analyze yourself and worry about yourself - is my motto.
Someone in a temple may be breaking dozens of coconuts and believing
that is the road to Realization. His faith is his - if he sincerely
believes in whatever he's doing, I daresay he may achieve whatever
he wants VERY soon. So leave him to his path.
As far as you (not YOU, but anyone in general) are concerned, if
you're having trouble believing something, do what you feel is
right, using your sad-buddhi (good intellect).
In summary, if we don't have total belief, we cannot escape from the
rough terrain of analysis. Both will ultimately succeed, only the
ride will be more "bumpy" with analysis. :)
.../Srikrishna
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SriKrishna Darbha
4th year Electrical Engg.
U. of Waterloo, ON, CANADA
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