Meenakshi Abbaraju, Thursday, July 30, 2015 8:06 am

shraddhA – Blind faith??? Part 1

We often hear the word shraddhA in the vedAntik texts. An aspirant needs to have this if he wishes to walk the spiritual path. What is shraddhA?

shraddhA cannot be aptly translated into English. Loosely put, it may be be called faith and trust. In the context of Vedanta it is the trust that one has in veda, where the veda is taken to be a valid means of knowledge(pramANa). It is the trust that the veda is a means to knowledge, hence a means for liberation.

Only if an aspirant has such faith in the words of the veda, will he take into account what the upanishad reveals. Lacking faith, the upanishadik statements would be mere words.

What is a pramANa? Any means through which one gains knowledge is called pramANa. The eyes are pramANa to see form- form and color knowledge. Ears are pramANa to hear- sound knowledge. Nose is a pramANa to smell- olfactory knowledge. Spiritual knowledge also has an appropriate means of knowledge. vedik scriptures are a means for self knowledge.

This is the most important part of the spiritual pursuit. Knowledge is gained through words of shAstra and if there is no trust in its validity, one obviously will not have a bent of mind to pay heed to what it says.

Even if one accepts without shraddhA, one will only accept a diluted version of it. We will try to refute it, argue about it, also misinterpret it and worst of all demean it.  Some may say “I trust what the veda declares about the Atma (self), but I do not think I have to do what it lays down. Though what the veda says is the truth and I trust it, I do not think I have to go to a guru to understand  it” etc. Many such arguments and counter arguments may follow.

Mistrust in the veda will be followed by mistrust in the preceptor, whose only work is to unfold and deliver the words of the scriptures. Such a rejecting, narrow mind can never let the magic of the vedik words happen in the mind. 

How can I generally trust the veda? These are the revelations of the Rishis. vedAs are not like some book given out by some publication. Any book we see now will have an author and a date of publication. It will also reach a peak of million sales probably, but sadly one day the sales stop. vedAs are timeless and apauruSheya (not a fabrication of human mind). They are eternal and are revealed to mankind by seers (Rishis). This vedik wisdom has provided many with knowledge. The spiritual stalwarts are living examples for us as a proof for the validity of the vedAs.

We have shraddhA in our transactional lives too. How do we place trust in the daily newspaper that we read, which reports that such and such a place was hit by an earthquake? We trust it and based on it, we make donations to some charitable organizations.

When we set out on a journey, we buy a map. We will never say “Oh, I will not start the journey because I don’t trust the map” or “I will start my journey but will follow the map only till midway, because I don’t trust it”. We start the journey placing trust in the map. Once we reach the goal, our trust is proved valid.

There is no way to prove the revelations of vedAs. How can we prove the theory of karma? How can we prove the existence of different lokAs (heaven etc). On the other hand, if an aspirant moves on considering it as a valid means of knowledge, the liberation is guaranteed. That is enough reason to have this trust.

shraddhA is this prAmANya buddhi – meaning the mindset to hold vedAs as a pramANa – valid means of knowledge in the pursuit of self knowledge. Is it enough if one has shraddhA in shAstra? No. This shraddhA should be placed in the guru also. He is the one who will unfold the meaning of the words, else, the words appear to be mumbo –jumbo. The trust placed in shAstra and guru is indispensable.

Apart from having trust in these two, there are two other factors helping an aspirant.

One should have trust in the goal – self knowledge. One should understand the nature of it. What is its nature? Destruction of ignorance is self knowledge. This liberates the aspirant. Then will the world disappear? No, the world, body-mind-sense complex will not disappear but are all now known to be non substantial, the self is claimed as one’s own nature as sat chit Ananda

One should also have faith in oneself, meaning one should be confident enough to take to this pursuit and should strive with commitment. This will come with faith in guru, shAstra and by prayer.

Recent Blogs