A dynamic faith
and a great trust, aren't they the same thing?
Not necessarily. One should know of what stuff the faith
and the trust are made. Because, for instance, if you live normally,Under
quite normal conditions -without having extravagant ideas and
a
depressing education -well, through all your youth and usually
till you are about thirty, you have an absolute trust in life.
If, for example, you are not surrounded by people who, as soon
as you have a cold in the head, get into a flurry and rush to
the doctor and give you medicines, if you are in normal surroundings
and happen to have something - an accident or a slight illness
-there is this certainty in the body, this absolute trust that
it will be all right: "It is nothing, it will pass off.
It is sure to go. I shall be quite well tomorrow or in
a few days. It will surely be cured" -whatever you may have
caught. That is indeed the normal condition of the body. An absolute
trust
that all life lies before it and that all will be well. And this
helps enormously. One gets cured nine times out of ten,
one gets cured very quickly with this confidence: ;'It is nothing;
what is it after all? Just an accident, it will pass off, it
is nothing." And there are people who keep it for a very
long time, a very long time, a kind of confidence - nothing can
happen
to them. Their life is all before them, fully, and nothing can
happen to them. And what will happen to them is of no importance
at all: all will be well, perforce; they have the whole of life
before them. Naturally, if you live in surroundings where there
are morbid ideas and people pass their time recounting disastrous
and catastropic things, then you
may think wrongly. And if you think wrongly, this reacts
on your body. Otherwise, the body as it is can keep this
confidence till the age of forty or fifty -it depends upon people
- some know how to live a normal, balanced life. But the body
is quite confident about its life. It is only if thought comes
in
and brings all kinds of morbid and unhealthy imaginations, as
I said, that it changes everything. I have seen instances like
that:
children who had these little accidents one has when running
and playing about: they did not even think about it. And it disappeared
immediately. I have seen others whose family has drummed into
them
since the time they could understand, that everything is dangerous,
that there are microbes everywhere, that one must be very careful,
that the least wound may prove disastrous, that one must be altogether
on one' s guard and take great care that nothing serious happens
So, they must have their wounds dressed, must be washed with
disinfectants, and there they sit wondering: "What is going to happen to
me? Oh! I may perhaps get tetanus, aseptic fever " Naturally,
in such cases one loses confidence in life and the body feels
the effects keenly. Three fourths of its resistance disappears.
But
normally, naturally, it is the body which knows that it must
remain healthy, and it knows it has the power to react. And if
something happens, it tells this something: "It is nothing,
it will go away, don't think about it, it is over"; and
it does go.
That of course is absolute trust.
Now., you are speaking of "dynamic faith".
Dynamic faith is something different. If one has within him faith in
the divine grace, that the divine grace is watching over him, and that no matter
what happens the divine grace is there, watching over him, this one may keep
all one's life and always; and with this one can pass through all dangers,
face
all difficulties, and nothing stirs, for
you have the faith and the divine grace is with you. It is an infinitely stronger,
more conscious, more lasting force which does not depend upon the conditions
of your physical build, does not depend upon anything except the divine grace
alone, and hence it leans on the Truth and nothing can shake it. It is very
different.
The
Mother |