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.

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