DIVING INTO FAITH

 

DIVING INTO FAITH

 

The world today witnesses the extermination dance by nature as humanity braces yet another wave of the Novel Corona virus. Nations and individuals have to necessarily develop unflinching faith in order to survive and not capitulate.

 

 This faith could be  in  path breaking developments in  the field of science, age old  religiosity, new fangled  spirituality or merely dive deep within ourselves  and the robustness  of our  minds  for we have no other recourse to seek redemption from this virulent  microorganism.

 

The word faith finds its etymological origin in the Latin fides and in Old French feid.  It is essentially the element or degree of confidence or trust in an individual, persons, things or concepts.

 

Aeons ago Buddha the enlightened one proceeded to Nalanda along with monks where he stayed in a mango grove. Meanwhile his disciple Sariputta came to the place where the Blessed One was meditating and offered his salutations and uttered, “Lord! I have unflinching faith in your pristine wisdom.” Buddha smiled and asked Sariputta why he thought so.

 

“Lord! I do not have the knowledge of Buddha but only know the lineage of the faith. It is akin to a powerful King   who develops a border city, strong in its foundations, strong in its ramparts with only a single gate where a skilful watchman is deployed which permits only friends and no strangers or foes.

The essence of the narrative is that human mind can filter and sift antipathetic and efficacious thoughts through the screen of faith.

 

 A child who is in the womb of his or her mother finds itself in a safe sanctuary. As stock individuals we are absolutely unaware as to what the     baby referred to as an embryo from conception until the eighth week of its development is thinking.

After the eighth week, this baby is termed as foetus until it arrives on planet earth. Once the umbilical cord is snapped and the baby arrives in the world it caterwauls looking perilously for the mother. In a period of nine months the child develops extraordinary faith in its benefactor.

Those who are endowed with a religious bent of mind are people who often construct faith as a confidence building measure on a perceived degree of warrant or scaffolding to which they are attached.

There are others who are atheists or agnostics who tend to debunk the concept of faith as voodoo or irrational and believe in the tenets of science and rationality. However their logical mind too needs to dive deep into the faith of logic or scientific galley.

Humans can be broadly classified as believers, non believers or agnostics. But they all have to necessarily trust in some kind of philosophy which acts as a lighthouse to chaperone their lives.  

 

Faith of Hanuman in Lord Rama

Sundara Kanda by Maharishi Valmiki extols the virtues of faith with tenacity.  It is the indisputable faith of wind God Hanuman in Lord Rama to upend the pyramid by scaling the summit. 

Hanuman assumes a gargantuan form and storms into Lanka where he discovers Goddess Sita and upon displaying the signet ring given by Lord Rama to a distraught Sita he plants the seed of faith in the desolate woman.

 He thereafter vanquishes a platoon of the ten headed hydra monster in Ravana and chars the kingdom. This singular moment of triumph was not laced with arrogance but of his commitment and faith towards Lord Ram and signaling that Goddess Sita is returned to the scion of Ayodhya.