Faith (Continued)

Oslo, Norway

21st October 1996

Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change

Day 64 - Faith (Continued)

Question - What’s the difference between faith and confidence?

Gurudev - Faith is the beginning. Confidence is the result. Faith in yourself brings freedom. Faith in the world brings you peace of mind. Faith God evokes love in you. If you have complete faith, there are no questions. If you have no faith there is no point in asking any questions because how can there be any faith in the answer you receive? 

If you have faith in God when you know someone is taking care of you, what is the need for questions? If you have taken the Karnataka Express to Bangalore, there is no need to ask at every station, “Where is the train going?” When someone is taking care of your desires, why go to an astrologer?

Question - What about blind faith?

Gurudev - Faith is faith, it cannot be blind. What you call blind is not faith at least not yours. Blindness and faith cannot meet. It is when you lose faith that you become blind. Whatever you have faith in, do not make it an object of knowing. 

You do not need to know about that in which you have faith. If you have faith in God, do not try to know God. God and self are not objects of knowing. You cannot have faith in that which you have made into an object of knowing. 

A child has faith in the mother. The child does not try to know the mother, it simply has faith in the mother. You cannot make love an object of knowing. If you try to do so, the love will disappear. 

Curiosity to know obstructs faith by making into an object of knowing that in which you have faith. Often when people fall in love with each other, they don’t let go of curiosity. Curiosity slowly erodes their faith and love. Faith is non-analytical. Knowledge is analytical. 

God, love, Guru, sleep and Self are beyond knowing. If you try to analyse, you get confused. And the moment you make something into an object of knowing, analysis starts. 

Question - Does God have faith in us?

Gurudev - I don’t know. To know whether God has faith or not, you have to analyse. And in asking this question, you give God a mind which is not there.

Question - Can you have faith without being aware of it?

Gurudev - Yes. You have faith. Faith is the nature of a relaxed and undivided consciousness.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Celebrating Silence