Written Messages

Paris  

20  June 2020

During the weekly International Retreat being held every Sunday through Internet, we had a profound contemplation on the above-stated subject.

There is a Divine Utterance in Bhagawat Gita: - ‘’ Shraddhavan Labhate Gyanam ‘’  implying ‘’Trust enables us to perceive the Divinity - Division-Free-Awareness —- the freedom from Divisive consciousness — the notorious mind and its variety of mischiefs and maneuvers. Shradda (Trust) leads to the holy process of Samarpan (surrender) which melts ‘I’-ness into the most sacred ‘Is’-ness. ‘I’ then functions as a reference point for performing the daily tasks. Surender then happens to Godliness, to Guru-Process.

In English language word "belief" and "trust" are used as synonyms. In Oxford dictionary word "belief" means - an acceptance  that something exists or is true,  especially one without proof  and "trust" means - firm belief  in the reliability, truth or ability of someone or something. However in spiritual context they have different meanings.

You are a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu, your religion is the best, God exists, or God does not exist, there is a heaven in the sky wherein one is rewarded after death for his or her religious deeds, there is hell wherein one is punished for his or her deeds against the religious commandments, your country is the best, your race is the best etc. All these are taught to a child by parents, priests, family and Society from childhood. Due to this heavy conditioning from the very childhood, most of the human beings believe these to be true. Even after growing up, one does not apply his or her intellect to examine the belief systems. One does not question, argue or reason about these beliefs. People just accept them out of fear of society or need for security. 

Belief is product of mind. Mind is actually sum total of borrowed knowledge. Mind never knows but only believes or accepts as per the conditionings during the upbringings. Knowing is sensory perception but classification of sensory perception as pleasant and unpleasant, likes and dislikes as per the cultural conditioning is mind. So belief is acceptance of any borrowed knowledge i.e. without knowing. Belief and blind belief, both are same. An awakened awareness has no belief whatsoever. His/her freedom from the psyche ‘I’ is absolute and unconditional. But beliefs have always an element of disbeliefs or doubts lying underneath surreptitiously. Thus belief and disbelief co-exist as the two sides of the same coin!

However in spiritual parlance, "Trust" implies perception directly by and for oneself. It is beyond all beliefs and disbeliefs of mind. « Shraddha » is the word for ‘’Trust’’ in Sanskrit.

A Devotee listens to the  teachings of swadhyay (knowing the self without the knowership) from a sadguru, spends some time together, touches sadguru while doing pranam and sadguru also touches the devotee to bless. All this is the phenomenon of ‘’Trust-Surrender’’ — ‘’Shraddha - Samarpan’’ (in Sanskrit language).

Jai Trust, Jai Surrender.