In youth we are groomed to put our faith in God and country. We are trained to believe in them, told that they are gospel, the word of God, or the law. And we duly comply.
We naively think that the politicians have our best interests at heart and will protect us. We believe in the words of the priests and follow blindly.
Having faith in something helps us feel safe and confident. It inspires us and gives our strangely disturbing world some meaning. We don't know why things happen as they do, but we believe there is order and a purpose.
However, with age comes loss of innocence, maturing out of naivety and a personal experience of how our politicians lie to us. We also see the priests are as fallible as us, and we notice that our faith is built upon layers of cognitive dissonance and suspension of disbelief, what some might call magical thinking.
With loss of faith comes a dark night of the soul. It's good to have our illusions shattered, yet it can leave a vacuum in some, while others may lose their moral compass and sometimes even their minds.
Others become cynical old men or women. Life without meaning can be rather empty and lead to earlier mortality if we're weak hearted.
Yet faith is a powerful tool or state of mind that can heal and inspire nevertheless. But where do we place our faith? Some may suggest the sacred texts of old may be a valid refuge for our faith. Usually this is true, yet much is lost in translation, edited by unscrupulous scholars or bad students.
Much is redacted, like the apochryphal books removed from the Christian Bible by some materially motivated church patriarchs at the Council of Nicea.
Can we really trust any of these ancient texts? If any, then the Sanskrit Veda may still ring true, though translations are all subject to the limited interpretation of the motivated translator.
The fortunate few may find a teacher or coach or mentor who teaches by example in whom we can place our faith once more. It may empower us to bring out the best in ourselves. Those are the lucky few.
My personal faith has shifted over my lifetime, grasping at one ideology for a while, only to abandon it for shelter in some other ideology years later. Then that too is abandoned, retrieved, abandoned, revised, evolved and on it goes, never certain.
When you know that you don't know, then that's a better place than a misplaced faith that is built on illusions or lies.
Yet I still have faith. I have faith in myself, in consciousness. I still believe that, although I don't know how exactly, miracles and magic can happen. I have faith that they are a science which I simply have not deciphered yet.
I have faith in the ancient Sanskrit texts on yoga, despite the fact that they are interpreted by minds subject to faults, like selfishness, illusion and greed at some point along the chain of transmission through the centuries. Yet some keys and codes remain for us to decipher.
And that gives me hope, meaning and confidence to carry on, despite realizing that my mind is flawed and not a good repository of my faith.
Faith in the mystery and in meaning or a reason for our absurd world, allows me to soldier on, despite not comprehending the full meaning just yet. This keeps voidism and nihilism at bay, and allows me to fight another day.
Bhagavad Gita ch4:40
ajñaś cāśraddadhānaś ca
saṁśayātmā vinaśyati
nāyaṁ loko 'sti na paro
na sukhaṁ saṁśayātmanaḥ
SYNONYMS
ajñaḥ—fools who have no knowledge in standard scriptures; ca—and; aśraddadhānaḥ—without faith in revealed scriptures; ca—also; saṁśaya—doubts; ātmā—person; vinaśyati—falls back; na—never; ayam—this; lokaḥ—world; asti—there is; na—neither; paraḥ—next life; na—not; sukham—happiness; saṁśaya—doubtful; ātmanaḥ—of the person.
TRANSLATION
But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.
PURPORT
Out of many standard and authoritative revealed scriptures, the Bhagavad-gītā is the best. Persons who are almost like animals have no faith in, or knowledge of, the standard revealed scriptures; and some, even though they have knowledge of, or can cite passages from, the revealed scriptures, have actually no faith in these words. And even though others may have faith in scriptures like Bhagavad-gītā, they do not believe in or worship the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Such persons cannot have any standing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They fall down. Out of all the abovementioned persons, those who have no faith and are always doubtful make no progress at all. Men without faith in God and His revealed word find no good in this world, nor in the next. For them there is no happiness whatsoever. One should therefore follow the principles of revealed scriptures with faith and thereby be raised to the platform of knowledge. Only this knowledge will help one become promoted to the transcendental platform of spiritual understanding. In other words, doubtful persons have no status whatsoever in spiritual emancipation. One should therefore follow in the footsteps of great ācāryas who are in the disciplic succession and thereby attain success.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A C Bhaktivedanta, original MacMillan 1972 edition.
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