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== Sri Aurobindo on Shraddha<ref>Sri Aurobindo, [http://www.sriaurobindo.nl/docs/Sri%20Aurobindo/23-24TheSynthesisofYoga.pdf The Synthesis of Yoga], Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.</ref> ==

== Sri Aurobindo on Shraddha<ref>Sri Aurobindo, [http://www.sriaurobindo.nl/docs/Sri%20Aurobindo/23-24TheSynthesisofYoga.pdf The Synthesis of Yoga], Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.</ref> ==

Sri Aurobindo emphasizes that the three parts of the perfection of our instrumental nature, intelligence, heart, vital consciousness and body, the perfection of the surrender of our instruments and action to the divine Shakti, depend at every moment of their progression on a fourth power that is covertly and overtly the pivot of all endeavour and action ie. shraddha or faith.

Sri Aurobindo emphasizes that there are three parts of the perfection of our instrumental nature including perfection of intelligence, heart, vital consciousness and body, perfection of the surrender of our instruments and action to the divine Shakti, etc. And they depend at every moment of their progression on a fourth power that is covertly and overtly the pivot of all endeavour and action ie. shraddha or faith. This perfect faith he describes as an assent of the whole being to the truth seen by it or offered to its acceptance. According to him, its central working is a faith of the atman in its own will to be, attain and become; its idea of self and things and its knowledge, of which the belief of the intellect, the heart’s consent and the desire of the life mind to possess and realise are the outward figures. This faith, he says, in some form of itself, is indispensable to the action of the being. Because, without it, man cannot move a single pace in life, much less take any step forward to a yet unrealised perfection. In fact, it is so central and essential a thing that the Gita justly says that whatever is a man’s shraddha, that he is, yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah. Here, it may be added that whatever he has the faith to see as possible in himself and strive for, that he can create and become.

Perfect faith is an assent of the whole being to the truth seen by it or offered to its acceptance.  

Sri Aurobindo talks about integral yoga that forms a sort of synthesis of all the different systems of yoga. And in the practice of this system of integral yoga, there is one kind of faith demanded as indispensable which is faith in the divine and the Shakti, faith in the presence and power of the Divine in us and the world, a faith that all in the world is the working of one divine Shakti, that all the steps of the Yoga, its strivings, sufferings and failures as well as its successes, satisfactions and victories are utilities and necessities of her workings and that by a firm and strong dependence on and a total self-surrender to the Divine and to his Shakti in us we can attain to oneness, freedom, victory and perfection.

Its central working is a faith of the atman in its own will to be, attain and become; its idea of self and things and its knowledge, of which the belief of the intellect, the heart’s consent and the desire of the life mind to possess and realise are the outward figures. This faith, in some form of itself, is indispensable to the action of the being. Without it, man cannot move a single pace in life, much less take any step forward to a yet unrealised perfection. It is so central and essential a thing that the Gita can justly say of it that whatever is a man’s shraddha, that he is, yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah. And it may be added, whatever he has the faith to see as possible in himself and strive for, that he can create and become.  

Sri Aurobindo also specifies the character of the shraddha needed for the integral Yoga. He says, a great and wide spiritual and intelligent faith, intelligent with the intelligence of that larger reason which assents to high possibilities, is the character of the shraddha needed for the integral Yoga.

There is one kind of faith demanded as indispensable by the integral Yoga and that may be described as faith in God and the Shakti, faith in the presence and power of the Divine in us and the world, a faith that all in the world is the working of one divine Shakti, that all the steps of the Yoga, its strivings and sufferings and failures as well as its successes and satisfactions and victories are utilities and necessities of her workings and that by a firm and strong dependence on and a total self-surrender to the Divine and to his Shakti in us we can attain to oneness and freedom and victory and perfection.

He also mentions that the English word faith is inadequate to express the connotations of the concept of shraddha. He says, this shraddha is in reality an influence from the supreme Spirit and its light a message from our supramental being which is calling the lower nature to rise out of its petty present to a great self-becoming and self-exceeding. And that which receives this influence and answers to the call is not so much the intellect, the heart or the life mind, but the inner atman which better knows the truth of its own destiny and mission.  

A great and wide spiritual and intelligent faith, intelligent with the intelligence of that larger reason which assents to high possibilities, is the character of the shraddha needed for the integral Yoga.

Because the intellect, the heart, or the desires of the life mind may take a prominent place in the circumstances that provoke our first entry into the path; but if these are all, then there can be no surety of our fidelity to the call and our enduring perseverance in the Yoga. For, the intellect may abandon the idea that attracted it, the heart weary may fail us, the desire of the life mind may turn to other objectives. But if it is the spirit that has been touched, the inward atman that has received the call, shraddha will remain firm and resist all attempts to defeat or slay it. (Need for shraddha)

This shraddha—the English word faith is inadequate to express it—is in reality an influence from the supreme Spirit and its light a message from our supramental being which is calling the lower nature to rise out of its petty present to a great self-becoming and self-exceeding. And that which receives the influence and answers to the call is not so much the intellect, the heart or the life mind, but the inner soul which better knows the truth of its own destiny and mission.  

Describing the journey of a seeker in the path of integral yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that a seeker's progress is an ascent from level to level and each new height brings in other vistas and revelations of the much that has still to be done, bhurikartvam, till the divine Shakti has at last taken up all his endeavour and he has only to assent and participate gladly by a consenting oneness in her luminous workings. And that which will support him through these changes, struggles, transformations which might otherwise dishearten and baffle is a firm faith in the Shakti that is at work and reliance on the guidance of the Master of the Yoga whose wisdom is not in haste and whose steps through all the perplexities of the mind are assured, just and sound, because they are founded on a perfectly comprehending transaction with the necessities of our nature.  

There the intellect, the heart, or the desires of the life mind may take a prominent place, or even more fortuitous accidents and outward incentives; but if these are all, then there can be no surety of our fidelity to the call and our enduring perseverance in the Yoga. The intellect may abandon the idea that attracted it, the heart weary or fail us, the desire of the life mind turn to other objectives. But outward circumstances are only a cover for the real workings of the spirit, and if it is the spirit that has been touched, the inward soul that has received the call, the ´sraddh¯a will remain firm and resist all attempts to defeat or slay it.  

He also explains that the progress of the Yoga is a procession from the mental ignorance through imperfect formations to a perfect foundation and increasing of knowledge and in its more satisfyingly positive parts a movement from light to greater light, and it cannot cease till we have the greatest light of the supramental knowledge. Therefore, the motions of the mind in its progress must necessarily be mixed with a greater or lesser proportion of error and hence he says that faith of the heart and the life mind, like that of the intelligence, must be capable of a constant correction, enlarging and transformation. So that is prepared to change and enlarge its understanding of spiritual experiences, to correct mistaken or half-true ideas about them and receive more enlightening interpretations, to replace insufficient by more sufficient intuitions, and to merge experiences that seemed at the time to be final and satisfying in more satisfying combinations with new experience and greater largenesses and transcendences.  

There will very possibly be many of those trying obscurations of which even the Vedic Rishis so often complained, “long exiles from the light”, and these may be so thick, the night on the soul may be so black that faith may seem utterly to have left us. But through it all the spiritwithin will be keeping its unseen hold and the soul will return with a new strength to its assurance which was only eclipsed and not extinguished, because extinguished it cannot be when once the inner self has known and made its resolution.1

In short, one's faith must be an assent that receives all spiritual experience, but with a wide openness and readiness for always more light and truth, an absence of limiting attachment and no such clinging to forms as would interfere with the forward movement of the Shakti towards the integrality of the spiritual being, consciousness, knowledge, power, action and the wholeness of the one and the multiple Ananda.

There can be for the seeker of the integral Yoga no clinging to resting-places on the road or to half-way houses; he cannot be satisfied till he has laid down all the great enduring bases of his perfection and broken out into its large and free infinities, and even there he has to be constantly filling himself with more experiences of the Infinite. His progress is an ascent from level to level and each new height brings in other vistas and revelations of the much that has still to be done, bhu¯ ri kartvam, till the divine Shakti has at last taken up all his endeavour and he has only to assent and participate gladly by a consenting oneness in her luminous workings. That which will support him through these changes, struggles, transformations which might otherwise dishearten and baffle,—for the intellect and life and emotion always grasp too much at things, fasten on premature certitudes and are apt to be afflicted and unwilling when forced to abandon that on which they rested,—is a firm faith in the Shakti that is at work and reliance on the guidance of the Master of the Yoga whose wisdom is not in haste and whose steps through all the perplexities of the mind are assured and just and sound, because they are founded on a perfectly comprehending transaction with the necessities of our nature.

Faith in the Shakti must necessarily be preceded or at least accompanied by a firm and virile faith in our own spiritual will and energy and our power to move successfully towards unity and freedom and perfection. At the same time this faith in oneself must be purified from all touch of rajasic egoism and spiritual pride. The faith in the divine Shakti must be always at the back of our strength and when she becomes manifest, it must be or grow implicit and complete. The intimate feeling of her presence and her powers and the satisfied assent of all our being to her workings in and around it is the last perfection of faith in the Shakti. And behind her is the Ishwara and faith in him is the most central thing in the shraddha of the integral Yoga.

The progress of the Yoga is a procession from the mental ignorance through imperfect formations to a perfect foundation and increasing of knowledge and in its more satisfyingly positive parts a movement from light to greater light, and it cannot cease till we have the greatest light of the supramental knowledge. The motions of the mind in its progress must necessarily be mixed with a greater or lesser proportion of error, and we should not allow our faith to be disconcerted by the discovery of its errors or imagine that because the beliefs of the intellect which aided us were too hasty and positive, therefore the fundamental faith in the soul was invalid.

Sri Aurobindo says that once faith is developed to perfection, as higher knowledge opens, it becomes more and more justified as we begin to see the great and small significances that escaped our limited mentality. And faith will pass into knowledge.

The highest state of the assent, the shraddha of the being will be when we feel the presence of the Ishwara and feel all our existence and consciousness and thought and will and action in his hand and consent in all things and with every part of our self and nature to the direct and immanent and occupying will of the Spirit. And that highest perfection of the shraddha will also be the opportunity and perfect foundation of a divine strength: it will base, when complete, the development and manifestation and the works of the luminous supramental Shakti.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highest state of the assent, the ´sraddh¯a of the being will be when we feel the presence of the Ishwara and feel all our existence and consciousness and thought and will and action in his hand and consent in all things and with every part of our self and nature to the direct and immanent and occupying will of the Spirit. And that highest perfection of the ´sraddh¯a will also be the opportunity and perfect foundation of a divine strength: it will base, when complete, the development and manifestation and the works of the luminous supramental Shakti.

== Śraddhā: Construct Definition from the Bhagavad-Gītā by Dharm P. S. Bhawuk ==

== Śraddhā: Construct Definition from the Bhagavad-Gītā by Dharm P. S. Bhawuk ==