I could not quite understand the following thought from the Arya: “The faith will be more and more justified as the higher knowledge opens, we shall begin to see the great and small significances that escaped our limited mentality and faith will pass into knowledge.” How does faith turn into knowledge?
Until we know the Truth (not mentally but by experience, by change of consciousness) we need the soul’s faith to sustain us and hold on to the Truth — but when we live in the knowledge, this faith is changed into knowledge.
Of course I am speaking of direct spiritual knowledge. Mental knowledge cannot replace faith, so long as there is only mental knowledge, faith is still needed.
If a sadhak waits a little and watches without giving room to anxiety and impatience most of his troubles will be over soon. Even if it takes a little long what does it matter since he has left his boat entirely in the hands of the Mother?
Those who ask the Mother why the boat is turning downstream, why it does not sail as freely and swiftly as before, what makes the clouds grow blacker, cannot claim a real faith. For there is hardly any spiritual element here. Even an ordinary man takes great risks in life if he is foretold and promised that after passing through the storms he will be highly rewarded.
A true faith is that which never questions or grumbles no matter if the obscurity, ignorance or falsehood is suffocating him or hell is let loose on him. He does not even murmur before the omniscient Mother, since he knows that She is aware of all that is happening in him. So it is not necessary to cry before Her outwardly. Not that he does not suffer. But he bears his burden in silence. He has realised that it is for the sake of the Divine that he is undergoing all such hardships and difficulties. This realisation will rather offer him joy instead of sorrow in enduring whatever is to be endured on the path. He does not allow himself to be deluded by the attacks, failures and griefs. He sees them with a detached eye. He depends on his psychic being and consults it at every turn of the road to make sure that the Mother is not left aside by him. If She is still there, he is worried about nothing else.
A still higher attitude is a very simple one and may be very shortly expressed. The sadhak should not take any attack or difficulty as belonging to his individual self but consider it as moving in the general atmosphere. He should say to himself, “I am progressing as before, The Mother is carrying me on just as ever, whether I am aware or unaware of the fact.”
That is the true faith and its natural attitude.
It is said that, if one loves the Divine, faith ceases to be important.
It is not true except that when the psychic love for the Divine is there, the faith is there also. But so long as knowledge and realisation are not complete, faith is indispensable.
