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Trust and Faith · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We frequently remark on how young people act with a
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  seemingly carefree attitude and take risks that older people
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  would not take. This is due to the inherent
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  trust they have in their bodies, vital and physical resilience,
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  and powers of prevailing even in difficult or dangerous
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  circumstances. As they age, they tend in most
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  cases to gain more caution as they come to realize that their
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  bodies are not immortal and they experience the pains and
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  setbacks that tend to accompany the initial surge of trust in
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  the life of the body. Faith may involve a recognition
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  of one's own limitations and the need to rely on a power or
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  powers greater than oneself. When we reach the end of our
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  effort, the path forward is through faith in the divine
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  grace. The disciple asks, quote, a
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  dynamic faith and a great trust, aren't they the same thing?
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  The mother notes quote, not necessarily.
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  One should know of what stuff the faith and the trust are
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  made. Because, for instance, if you
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  live normally under quaint, normal circumstances, without
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  having extravagant ideas and a depressing education, well,
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  through all your youth and usually till you are about 30,
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  you have an absolute trust in life.
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  If, for example, you are not surrounded by people who as soon
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  as you have a cold in the head, get into a flurry and rush to
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  the doctor and give you medicines, if you're in a normal
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  surroundings and happen to have something, an accident or a
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  slight illness, there is this certainty in the body, this
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  absolute trust that it will be all right.
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  It is nothing. It will pass off.
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  It is sure to go. I shall be quite well to Morrow,
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  or in a few days it will surely be cured.
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  Whatever you may have caught, that is indeed the normal
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  condition of the body, an absolute trust that all life
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  lies before it and that all will be well.
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  And this helps enormously. 1 gets cured 9 times out of 10/1
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  gets cured very quickly with this confidence.
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  It is nothing. What is it after all?
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  Just an accident. It will pass off.
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  It is nothing. And there are people who keep it
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  for a very long time, a very long time, a kind of confidence.
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  Nothing can happen to them. Their life is all before them
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  fully and nothing can happen to them.
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  And what will happen to them is of no importance at all.
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  All will be well perforce. They have the whole of life
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  before them. Naturally.
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  If you live in surroundings where there are morbid ideas and
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  people pass their time recounting disastrous and
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  catastrophic things, then you may think wrongly.
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  And if you think wrongly, this reacts on your body.
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  Otherwise, the body as it is can keep this confidence till the
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  age of 40 or 50. It depends upon people.
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  Some know how to live a normal balanced life, but the body is
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  quite confident about its life. It is only if thought comes in
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  and brings all kinds of morbid and unhealthy imaginations.
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  As I said that it changes everything.
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  I have seen instances like that, children who had these little
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  accidents one has when running and playing about.
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  They did not even think about it and it disappeared immediately.
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  I've seen others whose family has drummed into them since the
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  time they could understand that everything is dangerous, that
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  there are microbes everywhere, that one must be very careful,
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  that the least wound may provide disastrous, that one must be all
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  together on one's guard and take great care that nothing serious
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  happens. So they must have their wounds
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  dressed, must be washed with disinfectants, and there they
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  sit wondering what is going to happen to me.
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  Oh, I may get tetanus, a septic fever.
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  Naturally, in such cases one loses confidence in life and the
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  body feels the effects keenly. 3/4 of its resistance
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  disappears. But normally, naturally, it is
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  the body which knows that it must remain healthy, and it
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  knows it has the power to react. And if something happens, it
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  tells this something, it is nothing, it will go away.
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  Don't think about it. It's over and it does go.
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  That, of course, is absolute trust.
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  Now you are Speaking of dynamic faith.
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  Dynamic faith is something different.
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  If one has within him faith in the Divine Grace, that the
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  Divine Grace is watching over him, and that no matter what
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  happens, the Divine Grace is there watching over him, this
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  one may keep all one's life and always, and with this one can
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  pass through all dangers, face all difficulties, and nothing
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  stirs. For you have the faith, and the
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  Divine Grace is with you. It is an infinitely stronger,
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  more conscious, more lasting force which does not depend upon
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  the conditions of your physical build, does not depend upon
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  anything except the Divine Grace alone, and hence it leans on the
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  Truth and nothing can shake it. It is very different.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother Powers Within, Chapter 6, Faith, pages 59 to 61.