Faith

The phrase «Blind faith» has no real meaning. I suppose they mean they will not believe without proof — but the conclusion formed after proof is not faith, it is knowledge or it is a mental opinion. Faith is something which one has before proof or knowledge and it helps you to arrive at knowledge or experience. There is no proof that God exists but if I have faith in God, then I can arrive at the experience of the Divine.

There are four kinds of faith: Mental faith combats doubts and helps to open to the true knowledge; vital faith prevents the attacks of the hostile forces or defeats them and helps to open to the true spiritual will and action; physical faith keeps one firm through all physical obscurity, inertia or suffering and helps to open to the foundation of the true consciousness; psychic faith opens to the direct touch of the Divine and helps to bring union and surrender.

Faith can be tamasic and ineffective, i. e., «I believe the Mother will do everything, so I will do nothing. When she wants, she will transform me.» That is not a dynamic but a static and inert faith.

The faith in spiritual things that is asked of the sadhak is not an ignorant but a luminous faith, a faith in light and not in darkness. It is called blind by the sceptical intellect because it refuses to be guided by outer appearances or seeming facts.

Faith does not depend upon experience; it is something that is there before experience. When one starts the Yoga, it is not usually on the strength of experience, but on the strength of faith. It is so not only in Yoga and the spiritual life, but in ordinary life also. All men of action, discoverers, inventors, creators of knowledge proceed by faith and, until the proof is made or the thing done, they go on in spite of disappointment, failure, disproof, denial because of something in them that tells them that this is the truth, the thing that must be followed and done

Faith is a certitude in the soul which does not depend on reasoning, on this or that mental idea, on circumstances, on this or that passing condition of the mind or the vital or the body.

The Mother:

No attachments, no desires, no impulses, no preferences; perfect equanimity, unchanging peace and. absolute faith in the Divine protection, with that you are safe, without it you are in peril. And as long as you are not safe, it is better to do like little chickens that take shelter under the Mother’s wings.

It is in proportion to our trust in the Divine that the Divine Grace can act for us and help.

If you keep your faith unshaken and your heart always open to me then all difficulties, however great, will contribute to the greater perfection of your being.

For nobody sadhana would be possible without the Divine’s help. The Grace is always there ready to act but you must let it work and not resist its action. The one condition required is faith. When you feel attacked call for help to Sri Aurobindo and myself. If your call is sincere it will be answered and the Grace will cure you.

Never forget that you are not alone. The Divine is with you helping and guiding you. He is the companion who never fails, the friend whose love comforts and strengthens. Have faith and He will do everything for you.