The topic for the English Satsang on Sunday, 28th April, 2013 was ‘Developing Faith.’
Following is the transcript of the speech made by Smt. Hansaji Yogendra on the topic.
|
Listen to the Audio:
“With faith, man can maintain his balance of mind and is able to perform his duties. But this faith doesn’t come easily. When a child is small, it has faith in parents. But as and when the ‘I’ sense increases, he starts thinking for himself and faith in parents goes away. As we grow older, we think we know more than our parents or more than everybody.
So we are born with faith. A child has faith that he will get nutrition from the mother and its life depends on it. But as the ‘I’ sense increases, faith is the main thing that reduces and we don’t even realize that our life becomes like an anchorless boat. If the wind blows it one way it will sail in that direction, if the wind blows the other way, the boat will sail in that direction. So steadiness of mind disappears. We get angry or worried at any small thing. There is no faith in our lives anymore.
All religions talk of faith in higher reality. However, in each religion there is a particular name, shape and size etc. and have faith only on that. But yoga is the grammar of religion. It talks of the essence of religion. You need not give a name and form to God. God is there everywhere in every moment. God is full of wisdom, strength and contentment. He doesn’t want anything from us, He only gives. There is no question of fearing Him, we have to be like Him.
So whenever we suffer or are disturbed, that quality of not expecting anything from anybody, of being content, of just doing our duty, is missing. For example, a cloud will produce rain, but it is not selective on where it will rain, whether fertile land or barren rocks, it just rains. All things in Nature are for all of us and it is up to us what we want to take from it. So why do we get calculative? If a person spoke rudely with us, we decide to dislike them and like someone who supports us. So when we reach this level, we are deviating from Nature.
So faith means we should keep doing our duty and not think of anything as wrong. Everything that happens is right. Anything is possible anytime. So we should always remain in a balanced state and see what we can do in a particular situation, instead of becoming sad.
Buddha summarized his entire life’s experiences in one line – that we suffer because of our expectations and desires. He also said, not to go into extremes of love and hate. Maintain a balance. He fasted and performed many Tapas but later realized that he was making the body weak. The balance in the body must be maintained as everything we do is with the help of the body. But that also doesn’t mean that we think only of the body. Awareness of the body is enough and emphasis should be on steadiness of the mind. We have to stop thinking, analyzing, calculating, expecting, etc. then only will we experience something bigger.
So yoga says just do your duty (Dharma). Dharma will sustain you. If we can develop faith in the path of yoga, everything else will fall into place because yoga ensures progress. It is very scientific and systematic. So do your duty with a balanced state of mind and strong faith. This is the main message even in the Bhagwad Gita. Do your best and leave the rest. Slowly maturity comes and man will choose not to suffer because of others. It only needs faith. So let’s work hard to increase our faith and come to a stage where nothing baffles or disturbs us. Everything that happens will have a meaning.”