All can be done if the God-touch is there.
SRI AUROBINDO (Savitri, Book 1, Canto 1, p. 3)
Much though we would like reason and indisputable knowledge to rule the world, in the real world Faith seems to be inescapable. If we go about verifying everything before believing in it, each one of us would be reinventing the wheel. Progress depends on accepting on faith what appeals to us as plausible, and verifying only that which is feasible. We believe that the earth is round although it looks flat because we have faith in those who say so. We trust the doctor because we have faith in the science of medicine. We engage a lawyer because we have faith in the judicial system. In general, we trust experts because we have faith in their knowledge. But paradoxically, we have difficulty in trusting the greatest expert of all who created the world, and is running it. We want definite knowledge or reasoned proof of His existence. Such certainty the intellect is not privileged to have, and that is why we need faith. If the highest knowledge were accessible to the intellect, faith would not be necessary. As the Mother has said, faith should be “not merely a force of mental thought or will, but something more and deeper”.
The Divine is essentially unknown, but is not unknowable. According to the Gita, the Divine can be grasped by reason, but cannot be perceived by the senses (The Gita, 6:21). Spiritual philosophers try to prove the existence of the Divine by logic. Therefore they can, at best, convince us at the mental level. But that is not enough to inculcate true faith. That is why, with mental knowledge, we are convinced and in doubt at the same time. Spiritual seers – the rishis and mystics – have perceived Him with the inner eye, the divine eyes (The Gita, 11:8) that they have been granted by His Grace (The Gita, 10:11). They have experienced Him. Just as we trust other experts, we have to trust the seers to believe in the Divine. Unless I see, how can I believe, says the rational mind. Unless you believe, how can you see, replies the mystic who has ‘seen’ the Divine. Faith precedes knowledge and experience. With faith, we can trust the Divine and surrender to His will and wisdom. With faith, we can wait patiently through the night in the belief that the sun will rise, and dispel the darkness. With faith, we can wait indefinitely for the clouds of gloom to lift. With faith, we know that all our prayers are heard and answered. With faith, we accept that the prayers will be answered in His way and His time, not ours. With faith, we trust that whichever way the prayers are answered is the best way they could have been answered. The Divine knows best what is good for us much better than we do. And finally, with faith, we can use the methods of the rishi to verify the rishi’s experience. The method the rishis and mystics have used has two basic elements: intense concentration and extreme self-purification. If we are not willing to put in that effort, we have the choice of either having faith based on the rishi’s experience, or rejecting the rishi’s experience. Neither accepting even the possibility of an experience nor trying to verify it is unscientific. Staying open at least to the possibility of the experience is what the scientific attitude demands.
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