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The Meaning of Faith · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The mind is not an instrument of knowledge.
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  It is an analytical and organizing tool, but is unable
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  on its own to establish truth or certainty.
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  It also maintains a certain arrogance of in its own powers
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  and thus, when confronted with something Beyond its own
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  capabilities, it doubts the veracity and asks for proof,
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  some things, however, cannot be proven.
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  To the satisfaction of the intellect, however, that does
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  not disprove those things. The Canaan who punish odd tells
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  the tale of how the powers of the body, the Life Energy, and
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  the mind thought, they were each powerful and masters of the
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  existence of the Earth. But at some point their powers
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  were nullified by something, which they could not understand
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  or Define. The mental power, exceeded
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  itself, and came to know that there was a greater power, the
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  Eternal, which created and maintained all the Lesser powers
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  of the creation. This does not imply that there
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  cannot be some instrument of knowledge but it is not
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  contained within the powers of body life and mind.
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  Rather it is the psychic being the sole, which is a spark of
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  the Divine in the individual being and thus through its
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  Oneness, is able to know what these other powers cannot the
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  knowledge of the Soul cannot be proven with the tools of the
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  intellect but are expressed through the inner certainty that
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  we call Faith. SRI aurobindo observes, quote,
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  faith in the spiritual sense is not a mental belief, which can
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  waver and change, it can wear that form in the mind, but that
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  belief is not the faith itself. It is only its external form.
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  Just as the body, the external form can change, but the spirit
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  Remains the Same. So it is, here, faith is a
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  certitude in the soul, which does not depend on reasoning on
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  this, or that mental idea on circumstances on this, or that
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  passing condition of the mind, or the vital or the body.
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  It may be hidden. Eclipsed may even seem to be
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  quenched, but it reappears again after the storm or the eclipse,
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  it is seen burning. Still in the soul.
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  When one has thought that it was extinguished forever.
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  The Mind may be a shifting see of doubts and yet that Faith may
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  be there within. And if so, it will keep even the
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  Dow tracked mind in the way. So that it goes on in spite of
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  itself towards its destined goal, faith is a spiritual
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  certitude of the spiritual, the Divine, the souls ideal.
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  Something that clings to that, even when it is not fulfilled.
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  And in life, even when the immediate facts or the
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  persistent circumstances seem to deny it, this is a common
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  experience in the life of the human being.
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  If it were not. So man would be the plaything of
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  a changing mind or a sport of circumstances.
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  And quote, reference SRI aurobindo in the mother growing
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  with him, the psychology of inner development.
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  Chapter 3 growth of Consciousness, basic requisites
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  Pages, 42 to 43.