Faith in God explains

When we understand our existence in relation to that of God’s, we start feeling secure, says AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI

When I speak of faith, I don’t mean a conceptual knowledge of God or cursory acquaintance with Him by doing occasional or even regular rituals. Faith in God means that we believe that God exists and not only that He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Without these three qualities there will be no real understanding of God. A higher knowledge about God will tell us that God is everything; everything is in Him. Don’t we live in His creation, which is God’s universal form.

With this understanding of God, it becomes much easier to comprehend what bemuses us most. Let us begin with taking shelter of God. Our scriptures encourage us to do this. (Gita 18.66) Why do they do so? Before I answer this question, let me go to what we all are, i.e. souls, who are parts of God. Therefore, we are similar to God in many respects. We take material forms or bodies and God takes universal form.

We, souls, are eternal like God, conscious like Him and blissful intrinsically. However, as soon as we take material forms, this blissful part gets covered by material attractions. We choose sense enjoyment over the feeling of being blissful. Our scriptures have warned us about this but ‘maya’ – the illusory energy of God confuses us and we get trapped. Still, we remain eternal taking various material bodies as well as remain conscious.

Returning to the subject of taking shelter of God, it is He alone who can provide us the security we need. No one else or nothing can make us feel secure, as we have all experienced. God is quite pleased to provide us the security if we link with Him in a mood of surrender. The example of a child taking shelter of his parents is quite appropriate.

Faith in God explains the karmaphala principle very succinctly. Whatever ‘karma’ (deed) we do brings ‘phala’ (result). This is overseen by divine authorities under the superintendence of God. Our pleasures and miseries are all results of our past karmas. They remain till exhausted; death is no hindrance; they survive. This karmaphala principle also determines our next birth, the life span, parents, etc.

We can get a proper understanding of dharma also by the same faith. What is dharma? In short, whatever is proper, just, etc. Faith is the guiding force for such actions. As soon as we involve God in our thought process, we will know what dharma is because God is the protector of dharma. Lord Krishna incarnated to uphold dharma besides doing many other activities. A faithful person knows instinctively what his or her duties are. These change with time, place and circumstances. Once we put God in the center of our lives, chances of us going wrong disappear.

Real guidance comes from God only because He is omniscient. It is no wonder that The Gita tells us to always use scriptures as guidelines. These scriptures contain the instructions given by God. Peace, I mean lasting peace, can come from God only. Those who are faithful become progressively peaceful because we must ultimately feel secure to be peaceful and a connection with God can only ensure that. (2.66) Mind control comes by following instructions of God. The faithful do so and make their minds their friends. Lastly, real intelligence is a result of putting faith in God’s words. Therefore, it should have been amply clear by now that faith in God leads to proper understanding of what life is all about.

Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com