Though faith in God is in decline, faith as an intrinsic human trait remains, only to be directed to an endless array of less worthy subjects.
Faith is not disappearing, just finding new destinations.
Not far from where I live outside London, there’s a strikingly beautiful solid-stone St. John the Baptist church, part of which was built in the thirteenth century, its tall steeple visible for miles around. The entire UK is heavily dotted with similar churches, for in former centuries it was normal for people to invest grand amounts of time, labor, and money in buildings exclusively intended for the worship of God.
In more recent times we generally don’t find resources used in that way, at least in the Western world. In the March 21, 2021, edition of The Atlantic, Shadi Hamid writes, “The United States had long been a holdout among Western democracies, uniquely and perhaps even suspiciously devout. From 1937 to 1998, church membership remained relatively constant, hovering at about 70 percent. Then something happened. Over the past two decades, that number has dropped to less than 50 percent, the sharpest recorded decline in American history. Meanwhile, the ‘nones’ – atheists, agnostics, and those claiming no religion – have grown rapidly and today represent a quarter of the population.”
This phenomenon is not limited to the United States: “Our analysis shows that those claiming religious identity, practising a religion or believing are clearly diminishing, as a proportion of the British population.” (https://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/media/39293/1_bsa36_religion.pdf) “The proportion of Australians who describe themselves as having no religion has risen from 26.0% in 2003 to 45.5% in 2020.” (http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8664-religion-in-australia-march-2020-202103220545)
Although it seems evident that faith in God is weakening in our times, the presence of faith in and of itself is not. Rather, faith – a word derived from Latin fides and Old French feid, meaning confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept – is an inherent quality of the soul. Faith is always present within us individually and in human society generally; what’s changing is where we repose that faith.
From the Bhagavad-gita we learn that each of us – each living entity – is not our body or mind but a spiritual being, an atma, or soul, that has the same qualities as God in minute quantity. God, Krishna, has complete faith in Himself, for He is the Supreme Being, the original, unlimited creator who oversees and maintains His perfect and complete creation. By our nature as spiritual beings who are part of God, we naturally have complete faith in Him and rely fully on Him. Out of His care and love for us, His atmas, Krishna Himself asks us to surrender unto Him utterly (Gita 18.62). How are we to surrender? By thinking of Him, devoting ourselves to His service, worshiping Him, and bowing down to Him (Gita 9.34). This mindset and the activities that accompany it are indigenous to the soul. We are meant to do these things with full faith in Krishna’s protection and with feelings toward Him of gratitude and affection.
Diverted Faith
Each one of us has this faith, but for a multitude of reasons – such as widespread disillusionment with organized religion, the promotion of science, secular education and a secular society, as well as the effects of our own previous acts (karma) on our present consciousness – our innate faith has been channeled away from God to an array of other subjects. Our firm and inherent faith, which in former years was centered on God, has become diverted. Instead, political affiliations, demands for policies and rights, and intense views on justice and what constitutes freedom have taken on the character of theological polemics. Faith is as present and fervent as ever, but it has become enmeshed in subjects other than God; the object of our faith has dramatically shifted.
In Srila Prabhupada’s words, “Faith you must have. Without faith, you cannot go a step forward in your ordinary life. You must have faith. But faith – what faith? Ah, the belief and faith should be in the authorized place. That is the process. Faith we must have. Without faith, we cannot make progress. But not blind faith, but to accept something which is recognized.” (Lecture, Gita 8.21–22, Nov. 4, 1966, New York)
Our collective misplacement of faith has produced unintended consequences. Temples, churches, mosques, synagogues – indeed, all places of expressions of faith in God – are intended as places where we learn virtue and gather the fortitude needed to free ourselves from the grip of passion and ignorance and come to the mode of goodness, characterized by peacefulness, charity, truthfulness, sense control, wisdom, and humility. As the bastions of high principles as well as the people who live by high principles become less prominent and vibrant parts of our lives, our personal principles are easily thwarted. Without thinking about it, we adopt a materialistic mindset and goals.
Formerly, widespread support for the edifices of faith and for faithful people helped plant seeds of faith in God in the hearts and minds of the next generation. As young people saw their parents and elders steadily nurture faith, and as they experienced faith supported by society generally, their own faith in God was fertilized, protected, and cultivated. In that environment, faith in God naturally blossomed strong and healthy and continued to be passed down through the generations.
Challenged by Our Conditioning
We may question, however, that if we and all people naturally have faith in God, why do we have to work so hard to cultivate that faith and fight against human frailties? Krishna explains,
“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” (Gita 15.7)
Due to our conditioned life in this material world, we’re under the influence of a combination of the modes of material nature – goodness, passion, and ignorance. It’s this conditioning that impels us to divert and misplace our faith. Krishna says, “According to the modes of nature acquired by the embodied soul, one’s faith can be of three kinds – in goodness, in passion or in ignorance.” (Gita 17.2)
When society doesn’t tend the seedbeds of unconditioned God-centered faith, we find people (perhaps even ourselves) justifying avarice, unequal opportunities, exploitation, cheating, and the mentality that might makes right. We find a few people hogging a disproportionate amount of resources and wealth. We see a growing fear of “outsiders” – immigrants and others who differ from us. We find people polarized over insignificant topics. In other words, our foundation for discerning what is and is not to be done, who is and who is not to be emulated, begins to crumble. Without the strong support of piety and God consciousness, we begin to flail helplessly in gusts of greed and fear and self-righteousness.
A Place to Reorient Faith
Unadulterated faith in God is natural and, besides being the birthright of each of us, is the path to a robust, joyful life. But to steadily traverse the path toward unadulterated faith takes an enormous amount of work, especially in these times. To give us community and culture where we can reorient our faith and place it firmly in God, Krishna, Srila Prabhupada established the Hare Krishna movement. He explains, “The International Society for Krishna Consciousness is opening many centers just to invite people to live in the company of devotees and practice the regulative principles of spiritual life.” (The Nectar of Instruction 3)
And, “People must be given the chance to associate with the devotees of ISKCON, because simply by reciprocating in the six ways mentioned above* an ordinary man can fully revive his dormant Krishna consciousness. In the Bhagavad-gita (2.62) it is stated, sangat sanjayate kamah: one’s desires and ambitions develop according to the company one keeps. It is often said that a man is known by his company, and if an ordinary man associates with devotees, he will certainly develop his dormant Krishna consciousness.” (The Nectar of Instruction 4)
Unadulterated faith is within us, and we can unearth it through the process and facilities that Srila Prabhupada has offered us in the Hare Krishna movement. The fortunate people who come in contact with this movement and follow the simple process Srila Prabhupada has given – hearing from the scriptures, chanting the names of God, keeping the company of devotees, serving Krishna and His devotees – will uncover their innate faith in Krishna and continue to progress spiritually.
This does take effort, but there is no effort more worthwhile than struggling against the current tide of partisanship and mistaken positions, of materialistic calculations and concoctions, of gross and subtle deceptions and untruths. Struggle is inevitable in this world, as the Gita verse above declares: karshati, “struggling hard.” We struggle personally with our inner demons and collectively with the degradation of society and its leaders.
We follow the immense wisdom of spiritual guides through the ages to the degree that we succeed in extricating our faith from nongodly people and objects and reinstating it fully where it naturally reposes, in Krishna. We commit ourselves to truth and allow ourselves to be molded according to our actual identity, and in so doing we will find ourselves feeling complete and enthused, like a person who’s been wandering in the night, lost and alone, who finally arrives in the bright, warm company of long-lost loving friends and family. It’s a feeling of embracement and enchantment – I’m finally where I belong; I’m home. Here I can express myself and grow.
*“Offering gifts in charity, accepting charitable gifts, revealing one’s mind in confidence, inquiring confidentially, accepting prasada and offering prasada are the six symptoms of love shared by one devotee and another.” (The Nectar of Instruction 4)
Vishakha Devi Dasi has been writing for BTG since 1973. The author of six books, she is the temple president at Bhaktivedanta Manor in the UK. She and her husband, Yadubara Dasa, produce and direct films, most recently the biopic on the life of Srila Prabhupada Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami Who Started It All. Visit her website at OurSpiritualJourney.com.
Source: https://btg.krishna.com/the-morphing-of-faith/
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