FAITH AND FANATICISM

Dear Friends, It’s nice to get the feedback through email but I would appreciate if you can leave your comments on the site also, last week I have started a series “Food for Soul”, I was planning to continue with the same but yesterday one very interesting thing happened and I thought better to talk about this first as this is very important in today’s social environment so therefore I would like to discuss this first. Yesterday one of my friend had the birthday celebration for his daughter and for that purpose he had invited Hare Krishna Hare Rama Group for chanting or bhajans. The session was really nice and satisfying as far as the inner satisfaction is concerned after that we had some discussions and preaching session where one of them did through GITA (The Holy Book). During that he told that there is only one way to get rid of all your problems and miseries just to chant Hare Krishna…. Mantra and you can see the difference in your life and there is no other way, if you are following than it means you are wasting your time and except Krishna all other are Demi Gods.

During that I had some serious discussion with that person, as I believe as far as chanting of Hare Krishna mantra is there I have not a single percent doubt about this but if you will say that this is the only way out that I will not agree as one very serious thing is there that there is a very fine line between FAITH AND FANATICISM and you will never know when you cross the line and reached on the other side.

As far as Faith is concerned, as I have touched little bit in my last blog, it is the base of any religious and spiritual journey you undertake, and it is your faith which can change your destiny too, faith is the ultimate when it comes to devotion. For example, like child is always confident that whatever he will do his parents are always there to take care and will save him if any danger is there, it is the faith which gives you courage to accept the happening around you and with you, which may not be the one which you always desire or wanted as the faith is “Ishwar yat Karoti Shobhnam Karoti”, it means whatever God will do it is always good for us as he is the only one who knows what is good for us. Same way when you believe in GOD and have faith in GOD you know he is always there to take care of you, you don’t have to worry about anything.

Now comes the million $$ question what kind of faith, it is the one which we practice most of the time half heartedly where mind overtake the heart we pretend to ourselves and sometime to other also that we believe in GOD but when it comes to test we believe in ourselves and so many time we take wrong decision just to satisfy our materialistic requirements or better to say Greed. That time most of us say yes we believe but it doesn’t mean that we should behave like a fool or irrational after all it is about money or may be something valuable. Therefore take inspiration from Meera, Bhakht Prahalad and there are number of peoples around us you can find, if you get the chance try to read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda which may enlighten you. Like in Ramayana there is one place when sati died and took rebirth as parvati (Tulsi Ramayan Doha 65 to 80) Naradmuni told that Parvatiji will marry Shivji and She has to do Tapa for that, during that tapa time to test Sapt rishi went to Parvatiji and told her that do you believe Narad words he himself never married how come he can guide you for a better match when it comes to marriage you should stop this Tapa and We will try to get you the best possible match. Parvatiji replied that if I disbelieve my Guru (Naradji) than I have no right to live in this world. So please don’t tell me anything I will not do so even God will come and say the same thing than also I will not disbelieve my Guru. That should be the faith. I think I can write and write and it will not finish but important part is faith is ultimate but you should not become fanatic in that process if you do so you loose the beauty and enlightenment of the knowledge you discovered or learned.

Fanaticism is very dangerous thing as it will misguide you in some other direction and you will never realize that you have changed your path from faith to Fanaticism. As when you are in enlighten position hate will disappear from your heart and mind and the only thing which left inside you is LOVE the true love, love for your God, love for your surrounding, love for your universe. And when you cross the fine line you will start feeling that what you doing is right and other person is doing the wrong thing, you try to correct them and try to force them that follow my path which is the only way to get the enlightenment and in that whole course you will loose the real beauty of the God and involve in some other kind of activity which will take your on some other direction. I remember IQBAL lines “Mazhab Nahi Sikhata Aapas mai Bair Karna”, as we don’t have to search the GOD he is always there inside us but irony is we always search for him outside. We all belongs to the same Param-atma and we all have the same ansh Atma so if we hate someone or do bad to someone in-directly we are hurting the GOD.

Therefore have faith, have deep faith which will not be broken by the reasoning of others or by any other means but don’t become Fanatic. Rest next week…till than keep smiling.

updated on 03/02/2013:

After your feedback I would like to add one more thing  that we are not here to talk about any particular religion or way, being a Hindu I have mentioned few examples from my holy books as I have very limited knowledge of other religious text and my believe is whatever way you choose or any religion you follow important is to have faith in that and no religion in this world teach you to hate anyone as once you have the true knowledge you will always love all the creations of GOD.

 

Food for the Soul - Part 1

Even though I am attracted to spirituality and involved in daily prayers but even though I am always confused, daily I ask number of questions to myself and try to find out the answers.

 When it comes to Tulsi Ramayan, there is one thing which talks about Navdha Bhakti while going though all the types I am always attracted to the only one which is simplest form which says you can do in any form important is it is from your heart. like in case of Meera it is from the bottom of her heart, even when her brother in law offered poison by saying it is Prasad (prasadam), there was no second thought and she had that and nothing happened to her as GOD is there to take care, and the second one in Tulsi Ramayan when Bhilni offered the berries to Ram but to avoid the wrong ones she tasted first and than offered to Ram, these are two examples to explain my point.

Second thing which sometimes I feel is that just to lit the lamp in front of GOD and recite the mantras and Aarti is it what we should do to please the GOD or to satisfy our spiritual hunger or need. As I think your full day itself is a place where you should perform prayers, it is not just the morning or evening where you should do like a daily routine and than you forget the values which you should follow in your day to day routine, I feel in our day to day activity also we should implement the prayer concept I mean in our day to day activity when we should take decision either financial or non financial we should think from our Heart not just Mind as mind may be selfish but heart is always guide you to the right direction, in a way that when we finish our day we can say that today I have performed my real prayer for that day, and I feel than definitely GOD will be happy and definitely answer our prayer and we will have peace in our mind which everybody searching in this material world. Try to share joy and happiness with others, make people happy around you, try to understand the sorrow of other and if you can do something for them than do something it will give you great pleasure.

I firmly believe in “Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.” In fact what you get is a RESULT of what you give. Same way if you give worst to other it will come back to you also. But the problem is that we are too busy in our life that we are ready to go through our suffering but we are not ready to understand the simple principles of life. Try to do that and see the difference share joy, love and happiness with others and see the difference around you. I think enough for the day next blog next Saturday till than ….keep smiling.