Sraddha - Faith Or Belief

Faith or Sraddha is an intense belief in a cause. As Swami Vivekananda had said, first one needs to develop a Sraddha in one self before one has Sraddha in any other matter. He cites the example of Nachiketa from Kathopanishads. On seeing his father performing the Viswajit sacrifice faith entered into the heart of young Nachiketa. He found that in the name of the sacrifice for giving away everything his father was actually committing a major error by giving away the things that he no longer required, like old and decrepit cows who did not yield milk etc. Therefore he went to his father and asked him three times to whom his father would give him (Nachiketa) away? When his father finally, in a fit of irritation, said, to the God of Death Yama himself he would bestow Nachiketa, the latter thought that among many he came first and among many he was in the middle. Sankara and Vivekananda both commented that what Nachiketa meant was that he never considered himself as inferior. This is an example of true sraddha of one in his own abilities. As a result of that sraddha Nachiketa did the impossible. He not only returned from the abode of death from where there is no return, but also got from Yama himself the supreme knowledge of Self or Atman, the essence of immortality.

Thus intense faith is the harbinger of Truth, of Knowledge. But how is intense faith different from blind faith? First of all, blind faith is no faith at all, it is basically the lack of faith, in both oneself as well as on the divine. Blind faith follows one’s own ego. It is not sraddha but an extreme form of asraddha, or intolerance and hatred for anything that is alien to one’s own ego, like another custom or opinion or religious practices or culture. Intense faith in one’s own ability is able to judge between right and wrong, between good and bad, is rational and confident. It is able to discriminate properly and it chooses the right path – the path of sreyas or long term benefit. It is not dazzled by short term temptations and manifold diversions offered by the world. One has to make tremendous sacrifice for that faith. The smaller ego which is the sole possession of the people with blind faith, is sacrificed so that the one with intense faith is merged with the faith in pursue of the higher truth or ideal.

The tremendous faith in oneself or Atma Sraddha is the very basis for doing all great work, all achievements and accomplishments. One devoid of that is never able to succeed in life. With this faith one is able to overcome even the most difficult and trying periods of life with relative ease. One is never overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life. Like cannot conquer one having Atma Sraddha and therefore that person is always cheerful, never despondent or agonized, even when he has suffered major losses. One who has tremendous Atma Sraddha can move mountain by sheer will power as Swami Vivekananda did. He was the Nachiketa of the modern age and he proved that Atma Sraddha can achieve the impossible. Tremendous Atma Sraddha needs tremendous courage and willingness to sacrifice everything for an ideal, whatever that ideal may be, worldly or spiritual. A person of that ideal can do no wrong and therefore societies which cultivate such personalities in large numbers are never besotted by problems. People who commit tremendous crimes like murder, crime against women and children and elderly are actually devoid of all faith. Any crime or terrorist activity is essentially targeting the weak, the vulnerable. A person of sraddha can never ever set himself upon the weak and the vulnerable. Corruption in the society is a result of a major lack of faith and Governance and administration riddled with corruption only shows how deficient the police, politicians, bureaucrats and administrative officials and leaders of the society are of that sraddha. Therefore what is needed for the society is a knowledge of the Upanishads which would cultivate that sraddha and would therefore help prevent many evils which result from the lack of it.