Belief is mind speech. Faith is heart speech. If one can lose faith easily due to disillusionment, it means that one never had it. Belief can often be construed as faith due to the understanding that belief means acceptance with adherence, placing one’s trust in what one has accepted. However, in faith there is trust, surrender and acceptance, not adherence. In belief it is not necessary to have the feeling of surrender. Adherence can often become a way of surrender, when one feels, ‘I have been following this for so many years in my own life that I feel I have surrendered myself.’
Belief can be broken; faith cannot be broken. If faith is broken, it means it was only a head-trip without any real inner surrender. One has to surrender to oneself to one’s feelings and convictions. One never surrenders to another person. One might say that one has surrendered to the guru and accepted him as one’s guru. Surrender happens when there is trust and belief in oneself. Even if the guru is miles away, yet one identifies with him in spirit, mind, behaviour, action and wisdom, then one can say, “Yes, I have been able to surrender.”
Belief and surrender are interesting concepts. I can believe that Swami ‘X’ is a nice person, containing the wisdom of the ages. I may feel that this person can guide me, be my refuge. I feel a great energy field around that person in the form of love, compassion and knowledge. That is my link with this swami whom I have accepted as my guru; however, it is only a belief, it is not faith. It is a belief that I have created in order to give myself a direction in which to move.
It may happen that somebody comes and says, “Swami ‘X’ is a bad person, look what has happened because of him” and suddenly one thinks, “Right, that Swami ‘X’ must be a bad person” and one’s belief is gone! Faith cannot be shattered; it was only a belief which shattered, and it did not shatter due to a personal experience, but because one is susceptible to the influence of other people. If one has accepted somebody, something or some idea as the focal point, there has to be a feeling of unity with which a third person cannot interfere. If unity exists, faith manifests. If unity does not exist, it is only a heady concept, a belief, a thought, that can be shattered at any time.
Belief can change; faith can never change. Faith is awareness of the quality which is good within oneself, the other person and everyone. It is communicating at that level where one is able to experience equality. Belief and faith are matters of individual discovery. This discovery can only happen if one is sincere with oneself.
Faith and belief represent some basic realizations that one may have had about oneself and God. One can say belief is personal refection and faith is universal refection. One has faith in God, something and somebody whom one has never seen and may not see in this lifetime, yet faith continues. There is faith in some transcendental form of existence, and there is belief in oneself.
Every aspect of creation is guided by its inherent nature. The nature of a fruit tree is to eventually bear fruit. The nature of a human being is to experience peace, truth and bliss. If the seed of a fruit tree is left above ground in the middle of a desert, it will not germinate, much less become a tree and fulfil its nature by bringing forth fruit. One has to plant the seed, care for it and create the right environment for it to fulfil its destiny. It is the same with human beings. The nature of a human being is to experience satyam, truth; shivam, positivity, auspiciousness; and sundaram, beauty. However, to have this experience one has to create the right environment. One cannot just say, “I am going to fulfil my destiny.”
The right environment begins with belief in one’s own potential and ability and faith in God, Ishwara pranidhana, knowing one is being guided and directed, and that the essence in oneself is the same as the essence of God. This is the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. Whether water is contained in an ocean, a river, a lake or a cloud, the essence is the same: H2O. Similarly, the essence of God and the refection of that essence in everyone is the same. The essence of water is called H2O and the essence of divinity, God. Recognizing and realizing that essence is the development of faith and belief. Therefore, one component of bhakti is dropping the masks and experiencing the reality at a personal level, a social level and a global level. If the aim of bhakti is to experience truth, the first sadhana of bhakti is to realize the truth of who and what one really is.
Once faith and belief are alive and active, the emotions are channelled and this is bhakti. Emotion is e-motion: energy in motion. When it is directed outwards into the world, one experiences pleasure, pain, change, likes, dislikes, fulfilment, satisfaction, as well as a vacuum and emptiness. However, when the same energies are directed inwards with the help of faith and belief, it becomes bhakti. Bhakti is channelling the emotions towards transcendental realization.