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The Conditions of an Effective Faith · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In his book The Mother, Shrioro Bindo defines the conditions and
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  qualities of faith needed to overcome all obstructions or
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  disasters. Quote to walk through life
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  armoured against all fear, peril and disaster.
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  Only two things are needed. Two that go always together.
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  The grace of the Divine Mother and on your side, an inner state
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  made-up of faith, sincerity and surrender.
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  Let your faith be pure, candid and perfect.
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  An egoistic faith in the mental and vital being tainted by
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  ambition, pride, vanity, mental arrogance, vital self will,
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  personal demand, desire for the petty satisfactions of the lower
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  nature is a low and smoke obscured flame that cannot burn
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  upwards to heaven. Regard your life as given you
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  only for the Divine work and to help in the Divine
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  manifestation. Desire nothing but the purity,
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  force, light, wideness, calm, Ananda of the Divine
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  consciousness and its insistence to transform and perfect your
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  mind, life and body. Ask for nothing but the divine,
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  spiritual and supermental truth, its realization on earth and in
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  you and in all who are called and chosen, and the conditions
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  needed for its creation and its victory over all opposing
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  forces. End Quote.
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  The mental consciousness is rooted in division, separation,
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  and fragmentation. It maintains doubts, questions,
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  and contradictions as part of its normal process.
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  Complete faith is based in the psychic being, not the mind.
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  As long as we base our lives in the mental consciousness, we are
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  sure to experience considerable confusion.
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  When we are able to shift our central focus to the psychic
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  being, the faith becomes pure and strong, and we can follow
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  the sunlit path rather than be constantly subject to the dark
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  night of the soul. A disciple inquires, What are
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  the conditions in which there is a descent of faith?
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  The mother writes. Quote.
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  The most important condition is an almost childlike trust, the
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  candid trust of a child who is sure that it will come, who
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  doesn't even ask himself about it.
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  When he needs something, he is sure that it is going to come.
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  Well, it is this, this kind of trust.
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  This indeed is the most important condition.
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  To aspire is indispensable. But some people aspire with such
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  a conflict inside them between faith and absence of faith,
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  trust and distrust, between the optimism which is sure of
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  victory and a pessimism which asks itself when the catastrophe
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  will come. Now if this is in the being, you
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  may aspire, but you don't get anything.
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  And you say I aspired but didn't get anything.
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  It is because you demolish your aspiration all the time by your
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  lack of confidence. But if you truly have trust,
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  children, when left to themselves and not deformed by
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  older people, have such a great trust that all will be well.
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  For example, when they have a small accident, they never think
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  that this is going to be something serious.
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  They are spontaneously convinced that it will soon be over and
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  they'll this helps so powerfully in putting an end to it.
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  Well, when 1 aspires for the force, when one asks the divine
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  for help, if when asked with the unshakable certitude that it
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  will come, that it is impossible, that it won't, then
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  it is sure to come. It is this kind.
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  Yes, this is truly an inner opening, distrustfulness.
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  And some people are constantly in this state.
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  When there is something to be received, they are always there
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  to receive it. There are others.
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  When there's something to have, a force descends.
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  They are always absent, they are always closed at that moment.
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  All those who have this childlike trust are always there
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  at the right time. And it is strange, isn't it?
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  Outwardly there's no difference. They may have exactly the same
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  goodwill, the same aspiration, the same wish to do good, but
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  those who have this smiling confidence within them do not
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  question, do not ask themselves whether they will have it or not
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  have it. Whether the Divine will answer
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  or not. The question does not arise.
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  It is something understood. What I need will be given to me.
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  If I pray, I shall have an answer.
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  If I am in difficulty and ask for help, the help will come,
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  and not only will it come, but it will manage everything.
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  If the trust is there, spontaneous, candid,
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  unquestioning, it works better than anything else, and the
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  results are marvelous. It is with the contradictions
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  and doubts of the mind that one spoils everything.
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  With this kind of notion, which comes when 1 is in difficulties.
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  Oh, it's impossible, I shall never manage it.
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  And if it is going to be aggravated, if this condition I
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  am in, which I don't want, is going to grow still worse if I
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  continue to slide down farther and farther, If, if, if, if like
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  that. And one builds a wall between
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  oneself and the Force One wants to receive.
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  The psychic being has this trust, has it wonderfully
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  without a shadow, without an argument, without a
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  contradiction. And when it is like that, there
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  is not a prayer which does not get an answer, no aspiration
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  which is not realized. End Quote.
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  Reference. Srioro Bindu and the Mother
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  Powers Within, Chapter 6, Faith, pages 61 to 62.