"The ability to believe in the possible is belief.
The ability to believe in the impossible is faith."

Will, faith and confidence are the elementary factors which contribute to an easy success on the path of realisation. Strong will to achieve reality means that we are inwardly awakened to the thought of recognizing the Self. We proceed on with the idea and select a path. The very first thing to be looked to, seriously, is that the path we select is the right one, leading directly to our goal. It is, therefore, quite essential to have in our mind a clear and definite conception of the final goal.
When we are finally convinced of the merits of the thing, we may stick to it with faith and constancy. Faith thus reposed shall be genuine and lasting, while faith promoted by inducement offered by outwardly attractive features and display of pretty materialistic achievements is no faith at all but may rightly be termed as persuasion. It has no stable foundation to rest upon and disappears under ordinary adverse circumstances.

Gross type of worships of idols in the solid material shapes and rigid adherence to forms, symbols and rituals do not actuate real faith. It is pure and simple materialism which promotes prejudice and not the true faith in the heart of those who pursue it. They believe blindly in what they are induced to, without applying their reason or judgement and are not in the least inclined even to consider any other course. I find people acknowledging the efficacy of certain other means of direct approach to reality but still they are not prepared to follow them because, as they say, they cannot get away from the path they have already adopted. They have in fact, no faith in reality but only faith in forms and symbols which may rightly be termed as prejudice. It means that their vision has become limited and they do not want to rise high to seek reality. Their fate is sealed and they remain in the same confined sphere for ever. In fact, what keeps us down, checking us from rising higher cannot be termed as faith. It is consequently very essential for every one to fix his eyes on Absolute Reality with faith and confidence and to adopt ways, helpful and conducive to Self-realization.

How is faith built?
Faith is something extremely important if one is a spiritual aspirant and no less important if one is not a spiritual aspirant but seeks progress in this world, because without faith nothing is possible. This is the message of my Master that without faith one can do nothing. Now how to develop it? [An abhyasi puts this question during conversation] That is of course a big question and based on the experience of our own abhyasis. My Master was able to explain it in a simple way. For instance take the questioner himself. His friend tells him "Here is a man, Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur, who is able to do this, that and the other in spirituality and can make you grow to your highest potential, take you up to the level of divinisation. Why don't you try it?" If the questioner has the necessary belief in his friend, that the friend is talking with his interest in heart, and his past performance makes it possible for him to believe in his friend's advice/ well, the questioner comes to one of us, starts the practice, which means the belief in his friend brings him here.
Now comes the second stage that as he practises the meditation or the sadhana system that is offered under Shri Ram Chandra Mission's banner, he finds that he has his own personal experiences arising out of the practice which serves to strengthen the belief which brought him here and we find that slowly the belief grows into a state of overall belief which we call trust. So belief leads to trust, provided one is following the Marg and trying to see where it leads. Now as we go on with trust in the system, the very fact that we trust something seems to deepen our perceptive abilities, our practical ability to do something with ourselves and we find ourselves the recipients of more and more important and all-pervasive experiences of a nature which we could never have anticipated without this trust. Trust deepens our own ability to perform on ourselves and deepens the experiences, so that every moment of a trustful performance seems to deepen the performance itself and leads to deeper results, ultimately culminating in what we call faith. So belief leads to trust which leads to faith.

Faith moves mountains
I have often wondered - Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa of course was the master of Swami Vivekananda, but it required a Vivekananda to expose Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Perhaps without Swami Vivekananda - I beg your pardon in making this assumption, you see, I am not stating a fact, it is an assumption that I think it is possible - that without a Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa would not have shone to that extent to which he has shone today. It was Vivekananda who exposed his master. The master created the mirror which reflected the master. Therefore Vivekananda had to have faith in his master. The master had to have faith in his disciple, that here is one whom I can send out into the world, who may not be intellectually prepared for the enormous task, who may not be physically capable, but who has the faith, who has that shraddha in his heart, that lion quality of, what shall we say, perseverance in performing the duties that his master has entrusted to him. On that the master depends; on that I dare say Ramakrishna Paramahamsa depended.

What did Vivekananda depend upon? He had no money, as we all know. He went around India as a Parivrajaka (mendicant). Some maharajas of those days supported him. At one stage he was sitting forlorn, penniless, food-less, hungry, desolate, dispirited on the doorstep of a house - I mean, all this is common knowledge. But it was his enormous faith, and facing a Western audience, the parliament of religions, standing up, saying nothing much of great intellectual merit - if you read his speech today, it is still very impressive, but not all that impressive. But when they heard him they went into ecstasy, because Vivekananda was not speaking: his love was speaking, his faith was speaking, his courage was speaking, his absolute enthusiasm for that task which he had taken upon himself from his master, that was speaking.

Now I used to wonder when I studied in school - they used to say, "Faith moves mountains." Now, how is this possible? And we have been told so many stories. Lord Krishna lifting up the Govardhan parvat (mountain) on a single finger. I have always wondered, I could never understand how faith could move something. We all pretend we have faith - I have faith in my father, I have faith in my mother, I have faith in my son, I have faith in my country. "Have you faith?" "Yes, of course, I have faith." I have never seen anybody who has said no to that question. Then what is this and how does it work?

I will give you two examples. One story, relates to a man in South India. An illiterate fellow who was living in one of those desert districts of South India called Ramanathpuram district - no body of water large enough to be ever known. But he had this craving to reach the Ultimate and he asked a saint, 'Lord, how can I achieve this?" He said, "Go north. You will find a river. Bathe in it. It is the Ganga. It will purify you and give you redemption." He walked and he came to a small nali (canal). Now for a man from a desert who has never seen water that was a big enough body of water. He started bathing in it. He had been bathing ten years when another saint came from north. He said, "My son, what are you doing here, bathing in this?" He said, "No, the saint told me to bathe in the Ganga. I am bathing. I hope to be purified." He said, "Stupid fellow, this is not the Ganga, this is only a gutter. Go further north. It is much bigger than this." He went further, then he came to a little bigger canal perhaps. He started bathing there. Ten years passed. Another saint came. He said, "What are you doing here?" He said, "I am bathing in the Ganga. It is the most pavitra (pure) body of water. I am going to be liberated." He said, "No, no, this is not the Ganga, go further." Like this he spent fifty years bathing in different canals, streams, rivers, and ultimately he died. And when he went up There, he found these five saints who had guided him, or misguided him, as the case may be, coming for judgement to the Lord. To his amazement, all of those five saints were sent to hell and he was sent to heaven!

The saints protested, "Lord, we only gave him good advice. We told him go and bathe in the Ganga. But it's not our fault he did not bathe in that. For that you are sending us to hell?" God said, "My sons, he had faith. You destroyed his faith. You tried to destroy his faith. You deserve hell." You see, his faith brought him to where he was. It is not necessary to go to the Ganges. So it is my mind, it is my faith, which makes even a bucket of water the pavitra Ganga. What is there in the Ganga? Yes, of course, the Puranas tell us that it is flowing from the right big toenail of Lord Vishnu. Yes, if I can do it I will go there, but does it mean that those who cannot go to the Ganga are denied, or will be denied mukti (liberation)? Is every Muslim who does not go to Mecca denied his liberation? It cannot be. Therefore Sanathana Dharma says, spiritual science says, sitting where you are, if you are able to invoke that divinity within yourself, link yourself to that with which you are eternally connected but which link you have forgotten - you can never break it. Have faith in yourself.

So this is the great lesson of spirituality: don't wander hither and thither. Don't look to religions and gods. They are creations of human beings. There does not exist a temple on Earth which was built by a god. There does not exist a murti (idol) on Earth which was built by a god, whatever tradition may say. Swayambhu (born of itself)? Yes, perhaps, but somebody made it before it became swayambhu. So the message of spirituality is: Look within. This is the message of the Gita, this is the message of the Upanishads: I am in the heart of every creative being. Look for me there. I am you. You foolishly think you are you, but it is I who am you. With this faith develops.

You know, I had a long experience with my Guruji Maharaj. Now he was always the most generous, spiritually generous person and he was always blessing people. Now this is the second aspect of faith. I used to wonder why in some cases his blessings worked, and in other cases it did not work - that it is the samskara of an abhyasi or the devotee, is too facile an explanation, which I am not willing to accept. If my samskara is still to determine what I have to be, even when I have reached the feet of my guru, he is no guru. So there must be another factor, you see. My samskara is there, the guru has the power to do it, then what is it that makes his blessing inoperable or inoperative? Suddenly one day it dawned on me, when I was sitting in meditation: It is faith which lacks. You tell this man, "Yes, so it shall be, tathastu" and he goes around scratching his head and saying, "Will this work?" It shall not work, it will not work.

How many have the guts after bathing in the Ganga to say, "Yes, I am pure. Come on, I will lift you up." They have no faith in the Ganga. So if you have no faith and you bathe in the Ganga, you shall surely come out perhaps a bigger sinner than you went in. If you have faith that a bath in this river will purify me, it may be any stupid nali of this world, you will surely come out cleaner, though outside you may have lots of filth on you. So even when a guru blesses - every day we find people falling at the feet of gurus, "Lord bless me," and blessings don't work. It is not the guru's fault; it is not the destiny's fault; it is your lack of faith which is blocking the operation of its power upon you, which is blocking Divine Grace itself.

So this is something you know, I have come to the conclusion that if a devotee has no faith, it is good enough to be a sinner and enjoy life. Let us see in the next life perhaps we may be better endowed with faith. There is no point in going to gurus; there is no point in going to great people. I was ashamed when people came to my Master, falling at his feet - "Babuji, hame ashirvad dijiye (please bless us)" - as if a guru can give you anything but his ashirvad (blessing). It is like going to a rose and saying, "Put on your best smells for me." Can a rose give anything but its sweetness and its fragrance? Can water give you anything but its thirst-quenching qualities? Can a guru give you anything but blessing? People are afraid, you see - they do something wrong, they feel guilty, they are afraid to go to the Master. "Why are you afraid?" "No, no I am really not afraid." I mean, is there an 'unreal afraid' too? It is our guilt which makes us shy away from the great personality. We shut ourselves up.

So eventually it is faith that moves mountains and when Lord Krishna could lift it up, it was because He had faith in Himself. He was the divinity itself and for Him there could never have been a moment of self doubt. If you examine your own actions and your failures in life, each failure was preceded by a moment of doubt; it could not have been otherwise. In spirituality, doubt is the biggest poison because it poisons the will. I sit in meditation. "Will this meditation work?" I cannot meditate anymore. This is the great story of Prahlad that every time he was put to test by his father - "Yes please, you want me to be trampled by an elephant?" He lay down - "Narayana," "You are going to throw me into the ocean. Yes, Narayana," and Narayana's hands came and upheld him. He could not be destroyed.

To have faith when nothing is going wrong is very easy. It is like the businessman who makes ten lakhs profit every year. He says, "I have faith in Lord Venkateshwara." The first year he has a loss, he says, "What is this? I was trusting Lord Venkateswara but I have lost this year!" So faith means having faith when faith is impossible itself. Any fool can have faith when everything is running well. But it is the wise man, it is the Dheera (courageous), who has faith when everything is going wrong!

Here we have the example of the Master who was living with us, who was existing with us, who was teaching us by his own personal example and we have no faith! So please remember, whenever you believe that the opposition is going to win, you are showing lack of faith in your Master! Things may appear to be very bad, but there is a saying in English, "The sky is darkest before dawn" or "Darkest at dawn" - something like that. Just before the suryodaya (sunrise) it is very dark. At that time, if you have no faith in the Sun, you may not see the Sun rise at all! So the ability to have faith, the ability to have patience, they are really linked together. You see, one can have patience, only when he has faith.

A man who can wait is the man who has Faith
For us in the East, every time you get into a plane it's an act of faith. I mean it literally. Who knows what's going to happen, especially on these long flights - ten hours, eleven hours? In the old days, we took a thirty minute flight, held on tight to the hand-rest, and prayed. Now how long can we pray? Eight hours can we pray? Eleven hours can we pray? So we pray in the beginning, and then try to enjoy the flight. Every time there's a bump, every time there's a course change… most people do it. Only, those who are ashamed to tell the truth, tell lies. So waiting can become a torture if you have no faith - that my Master has begun something, he will surely end it to my benefit, to my ultimate benefit. Therefore one who can wait, is really a man who has faith in the process, in the guru, and therefore that faith yields us the ability to wait, which is nothing but what you call patience. So if there is something which is, shall we say the symbol of a spiritual person - what symbolizes a spiritual person, what characterizes a spiritual person - it is his ability to wait.

A perfect example of that was my Master. He could wait eternally. And that's another thing. You cannot say, "Oh, I have waited five minutes, how long do you expect me to wait?" Waiting cannot have a limit. It's like when you train a dog, "Wait," it has to stay there till you come and release it. What goes for the dog goes for the trainer too. Because when you ask it to wait, and you go and sit down, and surreptitiously look at it, you are also waiting for him to make a move, as a sign of obedience or disobedience. So waiting cannot have a limit. "Oh I have waited twenty minutes, I have waited forty minutes, I have waited three days." We have a limit. Waiting has no limit. Therefore waiting takes on, or partakes of, the character of Infinity. Whereas doing consumes moments of time in small bits, discrete bits, which we call seconds, minutes, hours. So one who waits is able to be in Infinity to that extent. Therefore the Master is one who can eternally wait.

I once asked Babuji, "Several people come to you, take a sitting or two, and walk away. What will happen?" He said, "Oh, I can wait. They have to come back." I said, "When?" He said, "Maybe not in this life, but in their next life they have to come to me. Maybe after four lives, but they have still to come to me." You see, that is the sort of faith that we deal with here.

I think I told you the episode, when once He was doing some work on a plane, and He was very preoccupied. I asked Master, "What are you doing?" He said, "You read what I was doing and tell me." I tried a little. He was working in the future. Then He explained to me that he was working to lay the foundation for the Personality who will appear at the time of Mahapralaya - that is the dissolution of the Universe which, according to calculations in the Indian philosophy is, four million, three hundred and twenty thousand years in the future. And that man you know, had the patience to start the work today! I said, "How do you know it will succeed?" He said, "Only a fool can ask such a question." (laughter) I said, "Well, maybe I am a fool, but please explain how you know that this will happen?" He said, "When I will it, it cannot but happen. Nothing on earth, nothing in heaven can stop that." So that is faith - in himself, born out of faith in his Master. He taught him. In Him he has total faith. Therefore he could have faith in himself. So the ability to wait shows patience and faith. Ability to wait for long periods shows greater and greater faith. Ability to wait infinitely shows infinite faith. So this is the capacity we must develop.

So this is the secret of spirituality. He can wait infinitely. Why should I wait? It is like a man who says, "Oh, there's a bus every ten minutes, you know. I will take the next one, the next one, the next one, the next one, and he is sitting here smoking or drinking, and bus after bus is going by. And ultimately he catches a bus at midnight, gets into Seattle at two o'clock in the morning, gets mugged on the street, and ends up in hospital. So while we should have the capacity to wait for a result, in the faith that it cannot elude us or evade us or escape us, we can hardly afford to wait to begin that process. It is like cooking. Unless you start to cook at a moment in time, you are not going to finish it, "Oh, you know, potatoes take only twenty minutes." "Yes, but darling, when are you going to put the damn thing on the fire?" (laughter) "Oh, it takes only a second to light the fire." "Yes, but when is that second coming?" Isn't it? So instead of a midday meal, you get a midnight meal. Often!

So, faith is what is behind the ability to wait. Faith is that which, according to the proverb, or according to the saying in the English language, moves mountains. I have often felt that the Guru really does nothing in the sense of doing something. And this conviction is growing in me more and more, that He really does nothing. I mean, I don't imply any discourtesy towards my Master. Then what is it that moves His work, His power, to be activated in my favour? My faith. When I have faith in Him, His power has to flow. It is as if there is a vacuum, and His power is pulled towards me. And if I have no faith, and I am only going to His door like a beggar, "Babuji, please give me this, Babuji, please do that, Babuji, make it possible for me to come to the South of France," He throws pieces of bread, like we throw to the beggars, you see. He does not want it.

So this is the secret of spirituality, that without faith in the Master, I think the Master's hands are tied. "How can the Master help one who has no faith in Him?" Even in medicine, it is said, that unless you have the will to live, no doctor can help you to exist. It is your will to live that makes it possible for the doctor to help you. If you have given up the fight for life, that's the end. That is why despair, suicidal tendencies, they are so bad limitations. And now when we have faith because we love the Master, we have faith in Him, like a child has faith in you, your baby has faith in you, why don't you stow it away in the bedroom upstairs, and say, let the bears take care of it? It is your baby! You love the baby and every time he comes and says, "Dad, I want a lollipop," you are waiting - even though you don't have money for it. It is his love, it is his trust, it is his faith in you that you can provide him with his… whatever he eats - that makes you release your love for him, open up your purse strings. So if that is happening between you and your children, what about Him and His children?

Aspects of faith
Now this is one way of looking at faith, that faith is something which we apply to our work. That is, after all when we do some work we are bothered about the result. So we have faith not in the work per se but in the result that we anticipate out of that work. But here comes a new interpretation of Sahaj Marg given by my Master that faith - is it in the work that I am doing, is it in myself that I am doing this work therefore it will succeed or is it in Him on whom I depend for the success of this work? So there are three aspects to faith. In the work itself or in my capacity to do the work or in that which governs the ultimate result of all activities of this Earth.

So the faith first is in the process. Like we have it in Western technology, Western science, Western industry, that we believe in machines, which is exemplified, shall we say, to its ultimate limit in the faith in a computer that it can never perform wrong. If the programme is right, it must perform right. So every answer that is spewed out of a computer on its endless ribbons of tape, we believe wholeheartedly. Now this word 'wholeheartedly' has a relationship with faith, because if you believe in something with a partial heart or with a part of the heart, it cannot be faith. So in that sense, faith involves the whole human heart, the whole power of the human heart put into the expectation of the result that I am waiting for, put into that which governs, that which is going to happen eventually.

Faith in the System: You know the ancient proverb in English - you can take a horse to the pond but cannot make it drink. So it is easy to bring people into the Sahaj Marg system. But can you make them sincerely accept with their heart, the practice, the possibility that it offers and most important, do the minimum that is necessary to achieve this? At some places we are told we have to meditate four hours - there are other systems which specify four hours every morning and they do it religiously. When something is made very difficult we like to try it. When it is made very easy, they don't want to do it. They say, it is too easy, it is for children. So this is the sad conclusion that it is all too easy a system, with all too kind and loving a Master and too little that we have to do; and I think, more or less you can say it is a natural thing that because we are to give so little of our time to it, the rest of the time is given to other pursuits, other distractions and therefore this sad fact that we don't progress as fast as we should, as high as we should.

Master says that it is possible to move up to the Central region, in the time that it takes to move your head from the left to the right. It does not need even the seven months that Lalaji took. Then what is the problem? We are unable to believe, we are unwilling to believe that it is so easy. And we say how is it possible? You see, it is really a distrust, a disbelief in what the Master says. It is not a conscious disbelief. I would not say that we are here with a conscious disbelief that our Master is telling us a lie; no! But it is something that inside us, most of us, are not able to accept.

We are willing to believe that we are able to buy a lottery ticket for ten rupees and get three crores. That is how lottery tickets sell, obviously. We are willing to believe that we can write four words or five words for a slogan for Lipton's tea or Lux toilet soap and we can get tickets for two people from here to Sydney and back, with a week in a hotel! But we are not willing to believe that half an hour of meditation, twenty minutes of cleaning, and ten minutes of bed time prayer will give us that which even the greatest persons on earth have not got.

It is my utter conviction that we have first of all to make ourselves believe in the possibilities that Sahaj Marg offers. Let us, each one of us, examine our hearts. Do I really believe that this system is efficacious? Do I really believe this is possible that a mere human being steeped in ignorance, steeped in corruption, steeped in vice, nevertheless can achieve this in six years, seven years, ten years, two days, if Master wishes? If the answer is yes, you will find that there is a fantastic change in your attitude to Sahaj Marg, in your application to the system and in your aspiration to reach the goal.

I therefore think that unless there is the foundation of truth, the foundation of belief in what the Master has said, the system is not going to work. If you don't believe, then it cannot. This is the reason why I think there is the famous statement that the mountain cannot move by itself, nor can you move it with a crane or any other earth moving system, while faith can move it. I am examining this more and more these days. Sometimes I wonder when a faithful abhyasi does something, whether it is sadhana or prayer or anything and if it works, whether it is the Master who is working or it is this faith in the Master which is working? Please don't imagine that I am casting any doubt on the Master's powers. The Master's powers are total. They are invincible. But they can work for us only if you have faith in those powers. It seems in some way that when we have no faith, there is some sort of a lock that is put on that power. It refuses to flow out of the Master.

Faith in yourself: Master has said time and again that when you do something right, you cannot have a wrong result. That is against the Laws of Nature. So right action must be followed by right results: right action must be preceded by right thought: right thought must result in right endeavours to the proper orientation of the Goal and in such a person, with such powers, with a marga (way) like this, which our Master has given us tailor-made - everything has been made for us - He has left the way for us. He has tailor-made the system for us, the literature exists for us, the preceptors are there for our service. Therefore the word failure should be erased from the dictionary of spirituality, at least as far as Sahaj Marg goes. The very idea of failure is repugnant. It cannot be, because it casts aspersions for the effectiveness of the way, the abilities of the Master and the effectiveness of the powers that He has used in creating these things for us.

So, any lack of faith is only a lack of faith in ourselves. We cannot by any means, by any stretch of imagination, have lack of faith in the Master. It only means we have no faith in ourselves; and essentially it is also the same spiritually, because when you say 'He is in my heart' and I don't believe in myself, I don't believe in Him too. So this is another aspect of the situation and that I would like to place before you all, that whenever we doubt somebody else, we are really doubting ourselves. So let us make up our minds that, this way shall exist for ever. It is for the Master to promise: it is for us to make that promise come true. As every seed has within it the promise of life, of unfoldment of that life, of fruition of the possibilities contained in that seed, but yet if that seed is not planted, well watered and looked after until it is a tree and it can give fruit, the promise remains a mere promise. So I don't believe in some of the sententious statements that Master has said so and therefore it will be. Master has said so… therefore it can be. The realisation of these possibilities, the actualisation of Master's promise to us, the achievement of the goals, of the levels of 'being' that He has outlined for us, is very much in our hands. Please don't misunderstand me as saying that there is something lacking in the Master's efforts.

Faith in the Master: The important factor of a spiritual life is faith in the Master, for the help of a capable master is indispensable for higher spiritual attainments. He is the only medium through whom the divine impulse comes to an aspirant. It is, therefore, but essential that the guide we select should be one of highest capability and practical attainments. To judge the real worth of the guide we must associate with him for some time trying and testing him by all means in our power. When we are thus convinced of his capabilities through reason and experience we may accept him as our Master and submit to his guidance. If we disregard this principle we are likely to be deceived in our judgement. We must never follow any one blindly having been attracted towards him by his outward imposition and display of knowledge. For proper judgement of the true merits of a man we must take into account his practical attainments in the spiritual field. We must seek in him the real thing, we crave for.

When we are thus convinced, we naturally begin to feel an inward attraction for him and think him to be the very person who can shape our destiny. The feeling gradually develops into faith and we begin to love him. We submit to his views with due regard to his personality and proceed along the path under his guidance. The experience of achievements gained during the course convinces us further of the extra-ordinary capacities of the master and we begin to look upon him as a superhuman being. Our faith now is greatly helpful to us in our spiritual progress. It dispels clouds of doubt and uncertainty and removes difficulties and obstructions from our path.

Faith is really the foundation of the entire structure of spirituality. Faith in reality, faith in the right course you have adopted for realization, faith in the worthy Master whom you have submitted to, this is the rock upon which you must build your edifice of spirituality if you really aim at success. You will thereby be possessed of an internal force, strong enough to shatter all the forces of evil that might be surrounding you. It will help you to draw fresh divine impulse whenever you require it.

It is a well known theory in Homoeopathy, that the deeper the penetration of a remedy, the longer it takes to manifest in action. Actually, when you have a fever or something, it's easy to give a medicine and cure the person immediately. Acute diseases are easily cured and you see the cure in front of your eyes. But when you have a patient with a chronic disease, like a chronic skin problem, chronic lung problem, things like that, the remedy has to sometimes take years to take effect. And only the surest knowledge that this must work, will work, will give us the patience to wait for the result. In homoeopathy that faith comes from the knowledge of the medicine that we are giving and the disease that we are treating. In spirituality that faith comes because of the faith in the Master.

There is a story about a girl, the milkmaid, who used to walk across the river every morning after taking the name of her Guru. It seems she was able to do it. The Guru himself could not do it because he forgot he had a Master. He thought he was his own Master. So he was drowned.

I am reminded of a story about my Grand Master Lalaji Maharaj. One of his advanced pupils, very advanced pupil, senior, got into bad company and started drinking. For three months he was away. He could not face his Master. One day Lalaji Saheb asked his other disciples. "Where is this fellow? Why doesn't he come to see me?" He knew - obviously - great people know everything! They were afraid to tell him. How to tell stories about another co-brother, gurubhai (disciple of the same guru)? So they all looked here, looked there, scratched their heads and said, "Nahi, nahi, kuchh bath hogi." (No, no, there must be something). He said, "Go and bring that fellow to me." They brought him. He fell at his feet and started weeping. "What is wrong that you are weeping?" He said, "Saheb, Guruji, I have fallen into bad ways, I have started drinking." He said, "For this small thing, you have been away from me for three months." Now, the disciple was astonished. He thought he had done a big crime. So Lalaji told him, "Doesn't matter, you can go on drinking but only on one condition: Every time you drink, think I am drinking."

Now here also there are two aspects. This man went - he thought, "What a wonderful guru I have got!" - went into the pub, ordered a glass of beer, I suppose, started drinking. Suddenly he remembered he has to think of his Master. He said, "This is Lalaji drinking." He could not retain what he drank, it was thrown out. He tried the second time, it was thrown off. He stopped. He could not drink after that. He had faith. The rest of us, we say, "Very good, I have got permission to drink, my Master has said I have to think that he is drinking. Well, here you are, old fellow, you are drinking," and you drink. Nothing happens. You become more and more drunkard. In everything we have to have this faith. If He says, "Think I am drinking," you must be really able to think with your heart that He is drinking. Then it works. If you use it as an excuse to continue drinking, it shall also work. With the guru's blessings you will become a drunkard very soon. You will destroy yourself very soon. That is perhaps Nature's way of giving quickly a second opportunity to redeem yourself in the shape of another life. It cannot be escaped, this law, that if you have no faith nothing shall work for you.

Therefore Faith in true sense, is a lively link connecting the mortal with the immortal. The link when once connected cannot be broken under any condition and subsists all along during the course of our march up to final point. At this stage, faith is real and genuine and is so firmly established that a man cannot even for a moment get away from it. The reasons for this are, however, beyond his understanding. Before this stage, faith is really artificial and is formed, lost or regained many a time for a variety of reasons. A worthy master shall never rely upon it and shall put up with all the emotional outbursts of love and devotion of a disciple, looking forward patiently for the time when he comes up to the final stage of Shraddha (faith) as depicted in the four Sadhanas of yoga when the real faith begins to assume the form of self-surrender. True faith is really an unspeakable virtue which is beyond the scope of religion, it is the dauntless courage which leads us on to success, it is that ubiquitous force which makes our path smooth, it is in fact the only thing that solves our problem of life.

Now our preceptors are working all over the world. They are doing the cleaning, they are giving transmission; on what basis of faith do they work? Not on the knowledge of cleaning, because you don't know how you are cleaning, or what you are cleaning. You don't see the rubbish that you take out and put in your garbage vessel; nor do they work because of the faith in transmission, because that is another thing we never see. So, what is the faith with which they work? The faith in the Master, supported by the faith that they are able to get additionally by seeing the result of their own work. The result of their work only strengthens their faith in the Master. And this is a very important point to remember, because they cannot see the instruments with which they are working. They cannot study the process, even at the highest level; therefore, if there is a result it is still the Master's.

Then comes the faith in the Master that if He wills only, the result will come because my efforts are always limited to my capacities, my intelligence, such as they are, such as I have inherited, such as I have developed through education, through self-culture, but then the ultimate performance, even good performance depends upon Him. We come to this fact, let us say, while driving on the roads. I have faith in my ability to drive my car, I have faith in my car, I have faith in the Indian road system, but there comes a drunkard driver from the other side and smashes me to bits. I am nothing but pieces of flesh sprayed out on the wind-screen of my car, if it still exists! Then we have to have faith in the other. And how many others can we have faith in? So we are, per se compelled to have faith in Him, whom we call God, Master, whatever it is.

Therefore the faith is not a dual faith, that 80% is in the Master, 20% is in myself. The faith in the Master goes on increasing day by day, and as our faith increases, our will-power in our work increases, because there is no doubt now, and therefore our results are more and more fantastic, I should say, until you come to a level where there is no difference between your work and the Master's work.

Another important point comes here. Even then it is the Master who is working, not you. So then comes this great humility that whatever help has to be given, the Master gives, may be through me, may be through somebody else, you see. So we surrender this very human idea of 'wanting to help others' to the Master, for two or three very very important reasons. I can do nothing compared to what He can do. Even if I can help, I may help one or two, He can help the whole world, the whole universe. I can help only a living person today, He can help even a dead person.
Now comes a very interesting speculation that I had to once indulge in. I have faith in my Master, let us say, total faith, yet many things go wrong with my existence. A child who is very sick, I pray for - the child dies. A business which is well thought out, well planned, with good capital investment, every parameter of success assured - yet success eludes. One begins to judge faith by the results. Now I have come to the conclusion that: Belief is the ability to believe in that which is possible. Faith is the ability to believe in that which is impossible. So according to my understanding of Sahaj Marg, my understanding of faith, faith is essentially the ability to believe in the impossible.

Faith compels Master to respond: What is it that we are giving Him which releases such powers, the release of which even He is not aware? I would suggest it is faith. Faith is the coin (if you will excuse that word), it is our currency, you know. Every act of faith in some mysterious way releases His powers, with or without His consciousness. It is not necessary that the Master should be conscious of what is going on. So, it is a faith in Faith itself I should say. Because when we have no faith in Faith, we cannot have Faith! "No, no Sir, this is a situation which has gone beyond faith." How can any situation go beyond faith? For instance, "Faith can move mountains." 'Mountains' is a non-living material; conglomerate of matter. If you can move a mountain by faith, can't you move a human heart by faith - whether it is awake or sleeping? Heart never sleeps. If your heart is going to sleep when you sleep, you won't wake up! Isn't it?

Therefore, it is to that heart that we address our faith; not to His mind. In some way, the heart receives that message, and heart being the heart, is to our advantage, because momentarily it is not under the control of the consciousness which may otherwise say, "No, this fellow is undeserving." The heart is supreme when the Master is sleeping. This is a truth which we should understand, that the Master is more a Master, more generous, more kind when asleep. However infinitely kind He may have been in the waking hours, yet there is an element of the conscious judgement of situations and men and matters, which is held in abeyance when He goes to sleep! It is to that, that the faith appeals.

Now, if the heart must respond, the call must come from another heart. You cannot go and tap and say, "Open!" Therefore, faith must be in the heart. We are all intellectually faithful. We all believe in faith: "Yes Sir, I am very faithful to my wife. But this is the first act of infidelity!" So, when there is no faith in That, on what else are you going to have faith? So, we have been taught to believe with the mind. True faith must emanate from the heart. When my stupid human heart, cluttered up with all the things that are hidden in dungeons and caves, can respond to the call of another heart, will my Master's heart not respond?

Now it is to the goodness in our nature that we appeal, when we have an act of Faith - which hits the Master's heart. Because if you remember reading in the Master's literature, He says, "If you are able to knock in such a way that the Master's heart opens, your job is over.

So, that brings us to the next question: "How often have we to have faith?" This is stupid. There can be only one act of faith. Now, we are used to perennial acts of faith. Like our recurring monsoons and monsoon failures, we have recurring acts of faith and faith-failures. Why? Because they are not acts of faith at all! They are intellectual indulgences: "No, no, Sir, I am having faith. But my headache is preventing my doing it." Or, "I am having faith in Babuji, but you know He does not even look at me when I sit before Him!"

What I am suggesting is, faith is like love; only once it is necessary. We love a person and that is that. You don't have to love again and again and again. It cannot be possible to love again and again. Similarly, if you have ever been capable of faith, it could have been only one act of faith; once and that is it. There is nothing more in it to say, "I have faith." What is there? Because in that act of faith I have laid my heart at His feet: "Take it. You say it is yours: well, I give it to you. Now, administer it." So, if anybody says, "Sir, yesterday I had faith. Today I am having faith. Tomorrow too: no, no; I shall have to have faith! After all, without faith how can we exist?" It does not work.

I would like to suggest that every time you are anxious of what the Master is going to do for you or has done for you or will do for you, it is an act of mistrust, lack of faith in the Master. It is a direct hit at his capacity to know what we need and when we need it, and to fulfill that need. In a sense it is a disgraceful act of total lack of faith. One who has faith in the ultimacy of the Master, the supremacy of the Master, the Divinity of the Master, can never ask. What is there to ask for? Do we know even what to ask for? Suppose Babuji says, "Ask and I shall give you." What are you going to ask for? And in all our traditions, whether it be of Christ on the Mount or Nachiketa before Yama, whenever they have been asked to ask, it was temptation.

So let us remember that the Master never says, "My son, ask me what you want," because he can give without my asking. He knows my needs better than myself. He knows when that need has to be fulfilled, better than myself. He knows how much he has to do, before I know it. Then what is the tamasha (joke) in going to such a person and saying, "Babuji you know, my wife is saying that, "You have been here for six months in Sahaj Marg, are you liberated?" Or, My wife says, "The brother-in-law is liberated, why are you not liberated?" Even worse, it's a competition between human beings you see. So we are playing like children with spirituality.

When we have faith, miracles are possible; when we believe, only mundane things are possible; when we trust, human relations are possible. This elevates the concept of faith to, shall we say, a divine level where by having faith, the very act of having faith seems to mobilize the resources of the Universe, what you can call the resources of God Himself; Deity Itself, in some way to achieve that miracle which is exemplified in the English Proverb, "Faith moves mountains."

Faith leads to . . .
Faith does not mean that there is any binding on the Master to give it to you now. That is an important thing to realise, you see. Faith means an acceptance of His wisdom on my behalf, His judgement on my behalf, His love for me, when it should be operative - this means surrendering the very thing I am asking for! That is the final conclusion, that if you are a real devotee of the Master (please don't misunderstand, you have to think over this very carefully and perhaps listen to this whole talk again very carefully) - even faith is unnecessary. Faith for what? I have nothing to ask Him. I don't need anything from Him. In His infinite mercy, whatever He chooses or whatever He thinks I should have, He will give. Have I to remind Him that I have to get my food? Do you go to your mother and remind her everyday: "Mummy, mummy, will you forget to give me my dinner at 8 o'clock tonight?" She will say, "What a foolish question, my son! What am I here for? Have I ever denied you your food in the right time?"

Therefore the culminating understanding seems to be that love, faith, surrender - they are all only one thing. He has faith who loves; even if it is only love for himself; because he knows the power of love. Only one who loves himself can love others. When they say "Charity begins at home." It means, who hates himself cannot love anything in this world, anything in this universe.

So, my submission is that if we are lovers of the Master, if we really love our Master and if we believe with our hearts that He loves us, there is no need to trust, there is no need for faith, there is no need for anything. He has to give as much as I have to receive, but in the right time, in the right way, in the only way which He knows is right for us! Therefore that is the ultimate faith. If at all there is any faith, it is faith that He knows what to do and when to do it.

So what is essential is belief in the system, faith in the Master and third one you all know - dedicated practice of what we have to do everyday. And the combination of these three, must without doubt give us THAT for which we are here. And I pray to the Master to grant us all THAT.

"When we have no faith in Faith,
we cannot have Faith!"