What does having faith amidst problems mean practically?

Podcast

Transcript

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So does having faith means that even when the problem comes we maintain our faith and then by that we get calmness and then we are able to take mature decisions yes that’s the process but in many ways faith does not follow such a linear step by step process when the actual problem comes it’s not that we can have a flow chart or we can have a program set this happens now I’ll pray I’ll chant one mantra I’m feeling calm now now I’ll deal with the problem it doesn’t work like that it’s a relationship we have to take shelter of Krishna and taking shelter yes there can be certain actions which we can do now we may go into the temple and take darshan of Krishna we can study the Bhagavad Gita we may pray to Krishna there will be certain actions we do but the connection is through our emotion the connection is through our intention so in that sense we can’t we shouldn’t reduce faith to any mechanical routine and it’s not just I have to have faith it’s not that we shouldn’t see doubts as a defect it’s natural when there are problems come why is this happening you may get doubts so doubts are not necessarily a defect the problem comes when we act on those doubts say faith at one level we could say is an asset some people have faith some people don’t have faith I don’t have faith what can I do faith is an asset but another level faith is also a choice so rather than saying I should not let my faith be disturbed why is my faith getting disturbed I lost faith faith is a choice means we can choose to put ourselves in those situations in that association where our faith will get boosted now if we face some problem and we associate with faithless people they’ll say just see you’re doing so much and still you got this problem at first God doesn’t exist so what has happened our faith was weak but then we chose an association which further wounded our faith so rather we come in some spiritual association yes difficulties everyone goes through great devotees went through difficulties just be patient be patient Krishna will make things out to be right and he may make things better better than what they are so we can choose to put ourselves in those situations which will strengthen our faith so that means rather than just feeling oh I’m meant to be faithful but I don’t have faith I’m meant to be faithful but I’ve got doubts it’s not so we shouldn’t just think of faith as something about which we are just passive I have faith or I don’t have faith we can see faith also as something which is a matter of our choice I would put it something like muscles some of us may have stronger muscles than others but based on how we exercise our muscles our muscles can also become further stronger so our faith muscles also we can strengthen them so when we study the philosophy that requires some intellectual exertion to understand the philosophy but that’s like weight lifting that’s strengthening our muscles when we face adversities and still we try to connect with God we try to place ourselves in situations which help us to get a better understanding of things that is also your exert faith muscles are becoming stronger so rather than saying that we should not have doubts we can put it in such a way that we put ourselves in a situation that helps us to address the doubts that helps us to gain our faith back so when I say be faithful that doesn’t mean that I am saying that I don’t have faith how can I become faithful be faithful means having faith is a matter of choice so when I have a problem then I go to some devotees and ask a question go to some senior devotees go to some devotees whose judgment I have some trust in and ask a question if I don’t ask the question and I just arrive at my own understanding this all doesn’t work then I am choosing to be faithless so what happens is all of us within us there is a side which has faith there is a side which has doubts everyone has that but our choice is what do we give more weight to rather than doubting our faith when we doubt our faith we are believing our doubts when we are doubting our faith what are we doing we are believing our doubts so instead of doubting our faith and believing our doubts we can use to doubt our doubts and yeah believe in our beliefs and that means go and associate with those who have strong beliefs and by them we can also strengthen our faith any other questions