CC daily 156 – M 6.232 – Cultivate faith as a choice and await faith as mercy

Thank you. spontaneously without even taking bath or anything like that, that indicates the extent to which he has developed total faith in the potency of prasad and Lord Chaitanya has stated that I feel as if I have conquered, I have conquered the three worlds, I have attained Vaikuntha, all my desires, all my aspirations, abhilash has been fulfilled.

So now he says that why does he feel like this because today without any duplicity, without any hesitation, without any reservation you have taken shelter of Krishna and today without any hesitation Krishna has bestowed mercy upon you. Now we could say that Sarobhoma is Nishkapate Krishna Sharan. He has taken without any duplicity, he has taken shelter of Krishna.

That is true in the sense that as soon as he is waking up he is spontaneously chanting the name of Krishna. As soon as he gets prasad he immediately takes it. So yes his surrender is clear enough.

Now how is it that Lord Krishna has given him mercy? Actually such deep faith at one level it reflects the sincerity of the person but the very presence of such faith also reflects the great mercy of Krishna. Without the mercy of Krishna one cannot have such strong faith in the principles of bhakti. So what Sarobhoma, the faith that Sarobhoma demonstrated in terms of immediately taking prasad that itself indicates that Krishna has been very merciful to him.

We often say that we should have faith in Krishna. Yes, which we should have means whenever it said like that, it said that faith is a matter of our choice. Don't have doubts, have faith.

That means at one level it means that when thoughts about doubt, doubting thoughts come in our mind don't dwell too much on those thoughts. Instead focus on thoughts about faith. Now what are things that induce faith, what are things that give us faith, what are the experiences that have vindicated our faith and by that focus on continuing the process of bhakti with faith.

So here we talk about faith as a matter of choice and that is true. We all have the responsibility of choosing faith and not choosing doubt. Actually even when we choose doubt, we actually choose faith, but faith of a perverse kind.

That is we choose to have faith in our doubts. So that means we choose to believe our doubts. Maybe God doesn't exist, maybe bhakti is not the best process.

So maybe Krishna is not God, whatever. We may have various kinds of doubts and we may because of those doubts decide when those doubts come in our mind what do we do, we believe those doubts. So we cannot avoid faith, we can only choose faith, choose what we put our faith in.

So better to put our faith in Krishna rather than put our faith in our doubts. So this is we are talking about faith as a matter of choice, but along with that faith is also a matter of grace. When Krishna bestows mercy, when certain things become such a deeply experienced confirmed part of our inner being that we no longer have any doubts about them.

We just know this is true. Somebody may ask how do you know this is true? Oh, I know it because it's not that we can't make a logical case for the existence of God or whatever subject there may be of faith or doubt, but it is much beyond that. It's not our capacity, our faith does not come from our capacity to make a logical case nor does our faith become weakened by our inability to make a logical case.

By logic I mean not just logic, it can be scriptural logic also, not just mundane logic. It can be a logic which people understand, a logic which is based on scripture, whichever way it is, the point is rather than logic we could say intellectual here. Logic is one faculty of the intelligence.

So it's not that we can make an intellectual case for the subject of faith, but it is more that the conviction within transcends the intellect. We have experienced Krishna through his various manifestations, the holy name, the prayers, the deity, the pilgrimages, the association, the scriptural study and that has given us such conviction that we no longer doubt it anymore. So that is the kind of faith which is a manifestation of great mercy of Krishna and Sarvabhauma is manifesting that faith in an extraordinary way here when he is immediately taking prasad.

So Krishna is the giver of faith that is indicated in the Bhagavad Gita in 7.21 yo yo yam yam tanum bhakta shraddhaya architam ikshati pasti pasya chalam shraddham tame bhavida dhamyaham So he says that whatever, Bhavida Krishna says that whatever form one wants to worship, Krishna says I make their faith in that form, whichever devata they want to worship, I make the worshippers faith strong in that particular devata and that way that person becomes more devoted to that particular devata. So the point which Krishna is making here is that or which is relevant for us is that it is Krishna who is the giver of faith and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is seeing not just the sincerity of Sarvabhauma, the intensity of his devotion, the spontaneity of his faith but he is seeing beyond that also to the extraordinary magnitude of the mercy of that Lord Krishna which Krishna has bestowed upon him because of which Sarvabhauma has this kind of spontaneous faith and being thus delighted he says oh what mercy Krishna has bestowed upon me and this is very instructive for all of us that sometimes we may be able to manifest something impressive devotional that can at one level be just say some we are able to do a difficult service, we are able to give a wonderful class or lead a ecstatic kirtan and we may be appreciated for that and now it is important for us to ensure that that appreciation doesn't go to our head and we start thinking oh I am so great, I am such a great class giver, I am such a great speaker, I am just great singer, I am such a great person it's important that we recognize that this ability to do great things or ability to have strong faith if somebody falls sick and it's a grievous sickness, a person has got a terminal cancer or something like that and even then the person maintains faith in Krishna yes that person is a special devotee but we also understand that Krishna has bestowed special mercy so we appreciate both that person's sincerity so the point is both that person's sincerity and Krishna's mercy are there and we need a holistic devotional vision means to see both and not in a way that say if a person has done something wonderful we don't minimize that person and say it's only because of Krishna's mercy you have done it remember that, don't think that you are special, we shouldn't say like that our goal is to appreciate that devotee but along with that the whole culture of devotion is that we both we appreciate devotee and appreciate Krishna it is not that the appreciation of the devotee has to be such that we all forget Krishna or that appreciation of Krishna has to be done in such a way that the devotee feels minimized both are symbiotic and we appreciate both and in that way devotees will inspire to do wonderful things.