Faith is a spiritual substance and the main factor behind human existence. If innocent faith could be maintained without any intellectual pollution, one could do anything in life. Knowledge of God is one aspect and faith in God is another. Through knowledge alone one may or may not develop communion; it is never a certainty. Knowledge of God does not necessarily bring one closer or guarantee communion with Him, but faith does. Faith has to be experienced. A child has faith, a disciple has faith, and that faith is realization.
Faith does not demand any proof or epistemological conclusions. One cannot say that one will have faith in God only when one has seen Him. He cannot be seen until one’s faith is complete. Faith is an intuitive attitude which one cultivates inwardly even before coming across an object or a person. It is the first and foremost condition. Of course, faith presupposes love. Thus one loves the object of one’s faith. Awareness follows, then surrender, then merging and finally realization. This is how the aspirant progresses.
There are many stories about saints, miracle workers and great devotees. Things have happened to them and around them which cannot be explained in terms of human knowledge. This is due to faith. One has to guard and protect one’s faith because intellect and logic kill faith. However, if the difference between faith and intellect is understood properly, both can develop simultaneously in their respective directions.
Usually one’s faith in God is intellectual. It is therefore not faith at all, but an idea. Most people believe in God; they love, respect and worship Him. That is belief. Generally, when people refer to faith in guru or God, they mean that they are intellectually convinced of the guru’s or God’s superiority, a notion acquired from their parents or society. What most people have is belief, and it is mistaken for faith. Many also kill the little belief with which they could have survived on the psycho-emotional level. They say there is no God and conduct arguments on the subject, damaging their only link with the divine forces. Therefore, it is necessary to protect one’s faith as well as one’s belief.
Faith, however, is more than belief. It is a higher energy in a concentrated form. Belief can fail, and sometimes does. Intellect fails, but faith is infallible. It will never fail because faith is not an expression of the mind. It is under stood through the mind, but not expressed through the mind. It has a different source and a different channel.
A human being has intelligence and faith. It is through intelligence that he learns about God, but it is through faith that he experiences God. Not knowledge but experience comes about through faith. Just as love, enmity, jealousy, joy and sorrow are not the stuff of the intellect but of experience, faith is also a matter of experience. The basis of the intellect is analysis. The Upanishads may have been written with the help of intelligence, but faith is such a substance that it accepts even the invisible. After all, no one has seen anger, but anger exists. This is a matter of faith. Faith needs to be experienced, not seen.
Faith and belief are essential, though intellect has its own place. Intellectuals ask why idols of gods and goddesses are worshipped. At the level of intellect, this may seem strange. After all, how can a piece of stone be God? How can a piece of paper be God? How can a person who eats and sleeps be guru and God? The intellect may question this, but when it comes to faith, then a stone is indeed God, a leaf is God and a tree is God.