CC daily 157 – M 6.233 – Faith is not a treasure that we can hide in a locker

And at the same time devotees will also feel more deeply connected with Krishna and he is saying that today you have overcome the bondage of material existence today you have given up your bondage to the body and indeed you have given up your bondage to illusion how is that? Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that in 7.14 that the illusions are created by the illusory energy which comprises of the moulds and these illusions are very difficult to give up but they can be given up by surrender to Krishna ma me va ye prapadyante those who surrender to me maya me tam tarantite they go beyond maya easily tarantite they float over maya it is said the point here is that we need to recognize that it is not for us it is the process of rejecting maya is not the process of liberation the essence of the process of liberation is connecting with Krishna and the connection with Krishna is a matter of largely based on faith if we have strong faith in Krishna then we will maintain a strong connection with him so Sarvabhama he has exhibited here such a strong sense such strong spontaneous faith in Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is saying that this faith is your password out of material existence it is your it is the code that will enable you to get out of all illusion and all bondage and that is why he is saying that now that you have got this faith so you are liberated now all khandan bandhan is gone khandila chinnachitama in strong words destroy, cut apart your bondage to the body and now misidentification of the body and bondage to the body is the fundamental illusion in material existence but along with that there can be many other types of illusions also and all those illusions are gone now Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is saying because you have developed spontaneous faith in Krishna so faith is our password out of material existence and faith comes by our choice as well as by Krishna's mercy and when the faith is there it is such a precious treasure that we need to preserve it now the important thing to recognize is that faith is not something that we can just hold in a bank sometimes a person say gets a somebody gets a million dollar lottery and say that person takes that million dollars and then puts it in a fixed deposit and then the person, say lifelong a millionaire and the person also gets some interest by which if it's a good investment that person might get an interest enough to maintain a basic lifestyle also say if it's not a million, it's a billion dollars then certainly the interest will be enough to live comfortably now faith it's not like that that we get faith and then we can put it in some safe deposit somewhere and then live off the interest of the faith no actually our faith can be there is no fixed deposit in which we can safely put away the faith yes the faith is in our heart but our heart is constantly connected with the world and the world's ups and downs definitely affect our faith so either our choices that we make they will enhance our faith or choices that we make that will weaken our faith of course we may say that actually it's not so much my choices, it is the event that happened in my life, I devoted myself to Krishna and I experienced such ecstasy, I experienced such enlightenment I had such a wonderful devotee friends and my faith seemed so strong that I felt as if I would climb mountains and fly through the sky with the faith but then things went wrong, I saw that there was politics in the institution I saw that when I was in trouble Krishna didn't help me, when devotees didn't come to help me and because of that now I don't have faith, so my faith is gone faith has become weak not because of my choices but because of events in the world yes the events in the world may have been stimulated but actually our faith depends on our choices ultimately even if things go wrong in life at that time it's up to us how we respond to the wrongs that life hands out to us that is up to us and if we respond properly then our faith won't decrease rather our faith will increase because we will find that yes it may happen that whatever events happen in the external world because of which our faith is challenged Krishna is always there in our heart and Krishna Krishna's shelter the shelter, the comfort the warmth, the relief the strength that comes in remembering him is something which is always available to us no matter what happens in life, no matter what happens in the world that inner shelter is a privilege that no one can take away from us and because of that what we need to recognize is that we always have the opportunity to turn towards Krishna and stay connected with him so even when situations come which challenge our faith which threaten our faith if we at that time turn to those activities that strengthen our faith not to those activities that weaken our faith if when we face problems, if we do the activities that give us experience of Krishna then our faith will become again rejuvenated but if we start associating with non devotees and say start searching on the net about all controversies about Krishna or his con or whatever then naturally that will damage our faith so there is no doubt that there are problems even in Krishna's movement there is no doubt that devotees around us in general are not pure devotees so they may also let us down but Krishna is in our heart and he never lets us down, rather he lets the rope down to lift us up he will give us experience of his sweetness if we just turn to him with patience and with resilience patience means we go on with it and resilience means even if we are knocked down sometimes we rise and keep going onwards again so the point is that faith is not something which we can just lock up in a in a bank and keep it safe, faith is something which yes it is in our heart and it is going to be affected by the ups and downs of life and that's why we need to constantly intelligently choose how we act only when we learn to act properly will we be able to move onwards through life, not only protecting but enhancing our faith so Sadhgopala has got such faith and that faith with this level of faith at present he is liberated and if he continues living with this level of faith, enhancing that faith by his choices then liberation eventually from existence is just a formality that will happen in the course of time.