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| 6) Strong or vehement desire; तथापि वैचित्र्य- रहस्यलुब्धाः श्रद्धां विधास्यन्ति सचेतसोऽत्र (''tathāpi vaicitrya- rahasyalubdhāḥ śraddhāṃ vidhāsyanti sacetaso'tra'') Vikr.1.13; युद्धश्रद्धा- पुलकित इव प्राप्तसख्यः करेण (''yuddhaśraddhā- pulakita iva prāptasakhyaḥ kareṇa'') Mu.6.18. | | 6) Strong or vehement desire; तथापि वैचित्र्य- रहस्यलुब्धाः श्रद्धां विधास्यन्ति सचेतसोऽत्र (''tathāpi vaicitrya- rahasyalubdhāḥ śraddhāṃ vidhāsyanti sacetaso'tra'') Vikr.1.13; युद्धश्रद्धा- पुलकित इव प्राप्तसख्यः करेण (''yuddhaśraddhā- pulakita iva prāptasakhyaḥ kareṇa'') Mu.6.18. |
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− | Sri Aurobindo on Shraddha | + | === 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> === |
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| This soul faith, in some form of itself, is indispensable to the action of the being and 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 ´sraddh¯a, 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. 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. | | This soul faith, in some form of itself, is indispensable to the action of the being and 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 ´sraddh¯a, 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. 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. |
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| 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. | | 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. |
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| + | The faith of the heart and the life mind, like that of the intelligence, must be capable of a constant correction, enlarging and transformation. |
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| + | This faith is essentially the secret ´sraddh¯a of the soul, and it is brought more and more to the surface and there satisfied, sustained and increased by an increasing assurance and certainty of spiritual experience. Here too the faith in us must be unattached, a faith that waits upon Truth and 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. |
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| + | Our 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. |
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| + | The faith demanded of us both in its general principle and its constant particular application amounts to a large and ever increasing and a constantly purer, fuller and stronger assent of the whole being and all its parts to the presence and guidance of God and the Shakti. The faith in the Shakti, as long as we are not aware of and filled with her presence, 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. Man is given faith in himself, his ideas and his powers that he may work and create and rise to greater things and in the end bring his strength as a worthy offering to the altar of the Spirit. |
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| + | At the same time this faith in oneself must be purified from all touch of rajasic egoism and spiritual pride. |
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| + | The power of the divine universal Shakti which is behind our aspiration is illimitable, and when it is rightly called upon it cannot fail to pour itself into us and to remove whatever incapacity and obstacle, now or later; for the times and durations of our struggle while they depend at first, instrumentally and in part, on the strength of our faith and our endeavour, are yet eventually in the hands of the wisely determining secret Spirit, alone the Master of the Yoga, the Ishwara. |
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| + | 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. |
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| + | 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. |
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| + | And behind her is the Ishwara and faith in him is the most central thing in the ´sraddh¯a of the integral Yoga. |
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| + | This faith we must have and develop to perfection that all things are the workings under the universal conditions of a supreme self-knowledge and wisdom, that nothing done in us or around us is in vain or without its appointed place and just significance, that all things are possible when the Ishwara as our supreme Self and Spirit takes up the action and that all that has been done before and all that he will do hereafter was and will be part of his infallible and foreseeing guidance and intended towards the fruition of our Yoga and our perfection and our life work. This faith will be more and more justified as the higher knowledge opens, we shall begin to see the great and small significances that escaped our limited mentality and faith will pass into knowledge. |
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| + | 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. |
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| The term is derived from two Sanskrit roots: ''shrat'' meaning "truth," "heart" or "faithfulness," and ''dha'', meaning "to direct one’s mind toward." (Yogapedia https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/5360/shraddha) | | The term is derived from two Sanskrit roots: ''shrat'' meaning "truth," "heart" or "faithfulness," and ''dha'', meaning "to direct one’s mind toward." (Yogapedia https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/5360/shraddha) |