Faith and Self Confidence

Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao

Prophet Zoratushtra said “The friend who will assist you is God, but to attain his friendship you must walk in his ways and place in him the firmest reliance. The provisions must be faith and hope and the remembrance of your good works”

Lord Jesus said,” Have faith in God. Therefore, I say unto you what things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them”

“For verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed. Ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Ramakrishna said, “He who can resign himself to the will of the Lord with simple faith and guileless devotion, attains unto him without delay. He who has all and he who lacks faith lacks all.”

Lord Krishna in Bhagavad-Gita says,” Man consists of his faith. He is verily what his faith is.”

Faith is thus an awesome force that can give us the power to accomplish the seemingly impossible. There are many well-known examples of the power of faith in action. If you put your hand in fire, do you believe it would burn? Of course you do, and it probably would. Yet if you were to attend a fire-walking event and spend an evening with a group of people convincing yourselves that the fire wouldn't hurt, it probably wouldn't. Many ordinary people have attended such events and successfully walked over impossibly hot coals with little or no blistering. How does this happen (1)?

Our peers have stressed that one must have faith impressing that first it is in God, one must have faith. However in the modern age, there are scores of men who laugh it off and are skeptical brushing it off as blind belief and that this is not for the present times where science dominates the world. But fact is that the greatest men on this earth had unflinching faith in the supernatural force that mankind calls God. Man is fundamentally materialistic and runs after possessions. It is his nature and craves for security for existence. But man can not live without faith. One may say not in God. But he has in many things. When we fall sick we go to a doctor or hospital because we have faith in the hospital that we would be cured or at least taken care of. We have faith in God and are sure that the doctor would carefully examine us and give proper medicines. There are many doctors who practice in the town where one lives. But invariably we go to a particular doctor or Hospital in which we have faith. In India now a day, there are innumerable medical colleges that have come up under private ownership and many are an apology to a medical school (In US parlor). There are no proper professors and teachers and facilities and even corpses to train students in surgery. The guys who can purchase gets seat easily. Some medical schools even projected stray persons such as office boys as teaching faculty (Doctors) during the inspections for granting affiliations and sanctions by the appropriate authority and were caught too. The management members of the college had faith in their ability in hoodwinking the inspecting officers. Merit is down the drain with reservation policy. Government has faith in its policy of reservations that social upliftment is possible through reservations. The fact is that many quacks are surely turned out from these pseudo medical colleges in India with MBBS (Bachelor of medicine and Bachelor of surgery) degree. What faith people will have in these graduates in medicine masquerading as qualified physicians and doctors with stethoscope around their necks and sporting white jacket and imitating broken American accent who are not even confident of administering an intravenous injection to a patient? People hesitate to go to their clinics where they practice as they have no faith in their abilities. Apart from these in India, we have scores of quacks, witch doctors and native medical practitioners of traditional medicine experimenting on people in whom some people have still faith of getting cured. We are surrounded by the word Faith from all directions.

Thus, we also come to the word ability with respect to faith. One develops faith in a person when he has complete trust in his abilities. When some one believes another one without even asking for scientific examination and proofs he is supposed to have faith in him. Muslims have unflinching faith in their prophet and that he could be never being wrong. Any one who questions is a Kafir. The terrorists are ready in suicide missions because they have faith in their scripture that states that a Muslim dying for the cause of religion would directly go to paradise. It is the unflinching faith within them that facilitated Sept 9/11 attack on WTC towers. Similarly in the world there are scores of people of other religions who have unflinching faith in God and they do not care for any scientific exhibition of their abilities. There are many of other religions who do not have faith in their scriptures and God too. As a person has unflinching faith in his doctor who cures him, similarly those who have unflinching faith in God would be looked after by him. Such people even in most difficult situations do not leave faith in God and such men are surely helped. Just having faith in God shall not remove the hardships in this world. One has to withstand these hardships and yet have unflinching faith in the God Those who have unflinching faith in God invariably work for humanity and are not self centered. Most of the people though exhibit faith in God at slightest hardship criticize God and loose balance. They are weak hearted invariably. Prahlada story from Bhagavatham, the holy Hindu book is an outstanding example of the faith narrated in Hindu scripture without a parallel. The child was put to severe pains and threat of killing by his father Hiranyakasipa an arch enemy of Lord Vishnu. Prahlada was an ardent devotee of Vishnu. The unflinching faith of Prahlada saved him every time and finally the Lord manifested as lion man to uphold faith of Prahlada and killed Hiranyakasipa and saved the world and Prahlada. This story was narrated to highlight the aspect of faith in the God. However this may not appeal to those who do not subscribe to existence of God and such stories might appear weird to them. Unflinching faith in God also builds up self confidence in a person (2). Hinduism believes in the aspect of I am Brahman (.Thou art that) that is the faith inward. The man has divinity within him. Jesus exhibited similar faith and Christ said;-

“ "I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.( John 14:6),:

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."(John 8:12)

"I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." (, John 10:9)

Many are of the opinion that those who speak of faith are ignorant and lack scientific disposition. But Faith does not also mean blind belief. It is necessary to have a base of experience. It is opined that realization forms the basis for faith. Religion itself is not faith. Religion is not purely attending temple meets, church congregations or Namaz in a mosque. One has to practice and live out the religion and the path shown in it. One has to find his own way. We find ample number of people in all religions that attend religious congregations, attend prayers and once out of these holy places indulge in all nefarious activities that do not go well with any religion or accepted social conduct.

Unless one has recognized his soul and has faith in his divinity and eternity of soul, death always scares him. One may find people even today who say they are Gods and go around beating their drum, but their actions in no way subscribe to the greatness. Such people have no inward faith. They are mere imposters and cheats to put in proper perspective. They only fool around and exploit people. Inward faith is a must. Often it would be necessary for some who can not look inwards to have faith in some realized soul, god man a real teacher and accomplished soul. Most of us are weak at heart and are easily swayed by the alluring of the world and by the things and attractions around us. The accomplished souls guide us on correct path. This was Visishtadwaita (Special form of Adwaita) preached by Saint Ramanuajacharya in India in 12^th century. Have faith in teacher and his ability. One would be put on right path. Faith inwards for realization is Adwaita preached by Sankaracharya that is possible for only few souls. Such men need no teachers. All Prophets and saints were such gifted personalities and divine men.

In all these activities, the most common thing is Faith. Unless we have faith in ourselves, self confidence will not build up. Unless we have faith in our teacher and guide, we ( Those weak at heart and lured by outside things) can not tread on right path. Unless we have faith in God, realization is not possible. Faith is thus the most important thing in the world for all accomplishments. All of us have some faith in some thing. When we have faith in some materialistic thing, the power achieved is limited. But when the faith is spiritual and object is God, one derives infinite power on all things including spiritual plane (3). Supreme faith in Lord Krishna enabled Arjuna to slay all his enemies on the battle field. The unflinching faith in father enabled Lord Jesus to perform all his miracles. Thus faith is the basis of our existence, self confidence and continued growth on this planet.

Bibliography

1. Lynn Woodland, Faith: The Power to Move Mountains - Faith http//72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:wNFhwBqvwRoJ:www.experiencefestival.com/a/Faith/id/35332

+faith+as+power&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=in

2. Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao, God is omnipresent, omnipotent and merciful. All religions conform, Prahlada Charithra (the story of Prahlada)), www.faithcommons.org, December 12, 2006, 22:18

3. Swami Paramananda, Faith is power, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Madras (Chennai) India, 60004, ISBN 81-7120-234-9

RELATED ARTICLES

On

www.faithcommons.org

By

Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao

1. Faith from the general to the religious? March 04, 2007, 19:46

2. War and religious faith, March 16, 2007, 11; 13

3. Offensive Defense in Religion. June 05, 2007, 9:22

4. Materialism and Spirituality January 09, 2007 10:26

5. It is a must to have a never ending Hope, January 12, 2007, 15:50

6. Purpose of man’s life, January 13, 2007, 15:26

GENERAL REFERENCES

1. New Testament, Contemporary English Version, American Bible Society, New York, USA,

2. Holy Bible, Catholic translation in Telugu, with permission from Gali Bowli,

         Guntur Bishop, Andhra Catholic Bible Society, Edition 1 , 1990, Printers, Rekha

          Printers Private Limited, New Delhi, India, PP 126, 190 3

   3.  Bill, Redefining Faith: A Status, www.faithcommons.org, Wed, 05/09/2007 - 21:42.

  4.  Bill, Redefining Faith: An Introduction, www.faithcommons.org Mon,

      04/23/2007 - 14:38

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