How do I increase my faith in Krsna?
How can our faith grow from initial interest to full conviction
Initial faith (Sraddha),
Association with pure devotees (Sadhu Sanga),
Performance of regulated devotional practices (Bhajana Kriya),
Freedom from material attachment (Anartha Nivritti) ,
Steadiness in self-realization (Nista),
A taste for Krsna Conscious activities (Ruchi),
Deepening attachment to Krsna (asakti),
Spiritual ecstasy (bhava), and
Finally prema (prema),
the highest perfection in love of God.
If, due to some righteous activities (ajata sukriti/unknown devotional service) which provoke devotional service (sraddha or initial faith), one is influenced by the service attitude and takes shelter of the good association of pure devotees, he develops attachment for hearing and chanting. By developing chanting and hearing, one can advance further and further in regulative devotional service to the Supreme Lord. As one so advances, his misgivings about devotional service and his attraction for the material world proportionately diminish. By advancing in hearing and chanting, a devotee becomes more firmly fixed in his faith, and gradually his initial faith develops into a taste for devotional service, and that taste develops into attachment. When attachment becomes pure, it exhibits the two characteristics of bhava and rati. When rati increases, it is called love of Godhead, and love of Godhead is the ultimate goal of human life.
TLC - Ch13
Dealing With Doubts
How to reach such faith? Perhaps we think it's a weakness to be honest about how much faith we may not yet have.
But honesty is the only recourse for those trying to increase their faith.
We have to begin with who we are and what we can accept and work forward from there. If we refuse to be honest, we will develop an official kind of faith, a complacent faith, a thoughtless faith. We won't feel the fervor that will drive us forward in spiritual life, but will simply be going through the motions.
If we have any conscience or self-awareness at all, we should ask, "How am I receiving this knowledge? Is it putting me to sleep? Is it inspiring me? Do I really believe it?" The initial faith that brought us to the practices of Krsna consciousness shouldn't become a memory upon which we live.
To be without faith is a sign of weakness. Prabhupada once went to an ecumenical meeting with a few priests.
One of the priests asked him, "Don't you ever have doubts?"
Prabhupada replied, "Doubts? Of course not. How can I be teaching if I have doubts?"
The priests were disturbed by his reply; they wanted him to admit to doubts because they had doubts. A fixed person will not have doubts. We may have to acknowledge that we are not so fixed.
Different points become items of doubt for different people. Some people left the Hare Krsna movement when Prabhupada said that we did not go to the moon. Others may not have left, but remained unable to accept his statements. Faith is something that must be worked out against integrity. Sometimes, revealing our doubts to someone can help us find that balance.
Doubts are not useful to our Krsna consciousness. Hayagriva Dasa once wrote an essay about doubt that Prabhupada titled "Doubt, Thy Name is Bondage."
Faith is not inferior to cultivating knowledge.
On a morning walk with some devotees, Srila Prabhupada showed this to be true:
Disciple: So knowledge is not necessary for faith, but faith is necessary for knowledge.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Therefore a devotee, without any knowledge he becomes a devotee. That faith, only faith. The devotee advances. Later on, they become automatically full of knowledge because they have strong faith.
Earlier on this walk, a devotee had asked Prabhupada, "How does one particular person come to manifest faith and others do not?" Prabhupada replied that it is because of purity. Another devotee volunteered, "Oh, you mean from past lives and pious activities?" Prabhupada said that if we have purity, we acquire more faith and knowledge. We must begin, however, with faith. "Because he is faithful, therefore I help him to get knowledge. Again you come to that."
Disciple: Blind faith is the belief that...
Srila Prabhupada: Blind faith -- that I have already explained. Why do you forget? He shows me, "Prabhupada, come this way." So, I have no faith. Why shall I go? If I have no faith, then I have to stop here, and my movement is finished. You have to keep faith blindly. The man is giving direction. If he's perfect, your faith will make you advanced. But if you go to a rascal cheater, if you have blind faith then you are lost. The child has no knowledge, but he has faith in his parents, and he believes what his parents say. Then he's making progress.
Just like you go to a barber shop, and you put your neck like this and he is with the razor. So unless you have faith, "No, he's a good man, he will not cut my throat," how can you do so? Faith is the beginning. If you say, "No, I have no faith in you," then you cannot be cleansed.
Disciple: Sometimes a barber looks like he could cut your throat.
Srila Prabhupada: He could do that, but you must have faith. Otherwise, no shaving. Suppose you are going to some unknown place. Now we are purchasing, paying $2,000 for a ticket, but where is the guarantee that you will go there? You are paying money first, but there's no guarantee that you will go there. How do you get the ticket, and how do you get on the plane without faith? Without faith you cannot move an inch. It must be there.
We say, "No, this ticket is issued by Pan American. They are a good company. So many people are going. I will go also." That's all, faith. You never went there, neither you know whether it will be possible to go there. You have to purchase the ticket. If you say, "First of all let me go there, then I shall pay," they will say, "Get out! First of all pay. Then you come on."
Disciple: When I was first coming to this movement, Srila Prabhupada, I opened Bhagavad-gita and I said, "I don't understand this." I began to clean the floor, wash the dishes, cut the vegetables.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, very good. Sevonmukhe hi jihvadau. By service only. You can understand God simply by service. There is no other way, and the faith begins from the tongue.
We needn't be intimidated by someone saying that faith is only for religionists. Everyone lives in this world on faith; it's only a matter of where one's faith is placed.
The difficulty for aspiring devotees is that so much of the depths of spiritual life is beyond any material experience we may have, and usually beyond our spiritual experience. What else can we do but accept the truths on faith? Our lack of faith, however, tends to stem from our lack of experience. For example, we may be willing to say that we have faith in the scriptures, but at the same time we may think that scriptural statements describe extremely ideal conditions we will never attain. That shows a lack of faith in ourselves and in the scriptural statements that declare that we can attain such states.
We may also have a lack of faith in the power of the institution to elevate us, or some other lack of faith. Our faith can usually be measured. It is not unlimited. That measurement becomes most obvious to us whenever our faith is tested in some way. Then we can take personal inventory.
In the Gospel, Jesus says that those who have faith can move mountains. Some people try to prove their faithfulness by pointing to supposed miracles in their lives -- God responding to their prayers. But that's a fruitive approach to God, as if we are asking God to prove His power by something that can be measured in this world. Rather, devotees wish to have a simple faith in Krsna's existence and in His love for us. We want a simple faith that Krsna accepts our service. This faithful dimension should be our reality, regardless of our material prosperity or lack of it. We always trust that Krsna's desires are being carried out in our lives.
Cultivating Knowledge
One obvious way to combat doubt and to strengthen faith is to cultivate knowledge. Faith combined with knowledge can lift us from unsure believer to someone fixed in his convictions. By expressing our doubts and then opening ourselves to scripture and saintly persons, we can often find a satisfying response. We don't have to allow our doubts to intimidate us.
Also, we should not think that our acceptance or rejection of certain points in the scripture either validates them or invalidates them. They are true on their own merit. Prabhupada said, "You may believe or not believe; that is a different thing." Part of faith is recognizing our smallness in the face of truth.
As Prabhupada stated, faith begins with the tongue, with chanting and taking prasadam. Faith does not begin with the mind, as most people may think, or even with the eyes.
By simply engaging the tongue in Krsna's service, we can understand the highest truths, because developing faith is not like developing a muscle. We make our endeavor to attain it, but ultimately faith is a gift of God. When we prove our sincerity, we are given more of it, along with spiritual knowledge.
I once wrote to Prabhupada that I had realized that to understand the Bhagavad-gita I needed more than scholarship. The knowledge would come to me by more mystical transference. Until Krsna blessed me, I would not be able to understand it.
Prabhupada replied, "You are a sincere devotee, so Krsna will give you the intelligence to understand Bhagavad-gita."
Faith comes from sincerity.
But it's not only supramundane. Even psychologically when we act in Krsna consciousness and receive good results from our practices, we feel the blossoming of faith, trust, and loyalty.
Experience in Krsna consciousness includes the testing of faith. Faith, it seems, is usually tested either when we face adverse conditions -- pain, danger, duress, grief -- or we are tempted by maya. At such times a devotee may find himself thinking, "Krsna, why did you do this to me?" To come out with a mood of acceptance -- that Krsna is acting only for our own benefit -- means we have passed the test.
Enthusiasm And Faith
Faith thrives in an environment of enthusiasm. Without enthusiasm we feel dull. Our same of devotion is low. Faith is not simply a belief in God; it is an active interest to hear about Him. A pure devotee will want to hear about and serve Krsna endlessly. The more enthusiasm our faith has, the stronger it will become. We are not interested only in nominal belief, as if our faith were a personal opinion with little relevance to our lives. We want burning conviction.
Therefore, our enthusiasm has to be based on love and not on the results we receive from our service. If we serve and ostensibly fail in some way, our enthusiasm should not become dampened. To build enthusiasm we should associate with devotees who are enthusiastic. We must consciously place ourselves in situations that vitalize our Krsna consciousness. Faith shouldn't be something we once had when we accepted Krsna consciousness but haven't touched since. We need to go to its core.
Again we can turn to Prabhupada as an example: He was such a fighter that when he went out to spread Krsna consciousness but met only resistance, he became more Krsna conscious and more determined. His successes or failures never dampened his faith. He lived always in the reciprocation he received from Krsna, whatever that reciprocation was. We can learn to do the same.
BTG - 2002
The theory of chance can best be explained in the Vedic literature by the words ajnata-sukrti, which refer to pious activities performed without the actor's knowledge. But these are also planned. For example, Krsna comes like an ordinary human being, He comes as a devotee like Lord Caitanya, or He sends His representative, the spiritual master, or pure devotee. This is also the planned activity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They come to canvass and educate (causeless mercy also has a cause. e.g. Krsna actually wanted to enjoy the pleasure what radharani experience in his presence therefore he came as a devotee adapting the mood of Radha Rani this was the cause, that many got the causeless mercy of Mahaprabhu in his cause. Causeless mercy means getting the choicest blessing without being qualified.), and thus a person in the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord gets a chance to mix with them, talk with them, and take lessons from them, and somehow or other if a conditioned soul surrenders to such personalities and by intimate association with them chances to become Krsna conscious, he is saved from the material conditions of life.
[Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.21.27, purport]
Kali-yuga is certainly an age bereft of fortune. But following in the footsteps of Lord Nityananda and of his immediate spiritual predecessors, Srila Prabhupada has carried the torchlight of fortune to this dark place. Srila Prabhupada was not an armchair guru who simply did his bhajana and waited for the few rare, fortunate souls of this world to approach him. Rather, being the embodiment of the verse trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna/ amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih(Siksastaka 3), he compassionately went out to dispense fortune by canvassing the world, allowing unqualified persons to initially mix with him, talk with him, and take lessons from him. This indeed proved to be the formula for actualizing Lord Caitanya's vision that His holy name would be chanted in every town and village on the globe.
Srila Prabhupada requested his followers to similarly go out and make others fortunate.
There are many fortunate persons all over the world, and many unfortunate persons also. So those who are fortunate, they're taking to this Krsna consciousness, this ideal life, hopeful life, pleasant life, blissful life, life of knowledge. They're taking to it. But it is the duty of Vaisnava to go door to door to make them fortunate. Although they are unfortunate, but you have to go door to door to make them fortunate. That is your duty.
[Srimad-Bhagavatam lecture in New York, 21 July 1971]
Suppose a man accidentally comes in contact with our society and gives some service willingly or unwillingly, that is the beginning of his fortunate life. We go from door to door canvassing people to join Krsna Consciousness movement means that we are trying to make them fortunate.
[Letter to Tosana Krsna, 13 November 13, 1968]
Note:
Hearing such pastimes in the mids of pure devotees will increase our faith in Krsna.
Comments