There is a story in the Upanishads. Once, there was a drought in a kingdom. There had not been any rain for years. Animals were dying, the fields were dry, the earth was cracking and people were migrating to other places. The king thought, “My kingdom will become empty if there is no rain. It will become a barren land, a barren kingdom.” He asked his wise men what could be done. They advised him to perform a yajna to please Indra, the god of rains. The yajna was begun. People from all over the kingdom came to participate in it. The day the yajna was scheduled to culminate, a little boy reached there holding an umbrella over his head. Everyone started to laugh at the sight, “What a mad boy, he has come with an umbrella while there is a drought! There is not a single cloud anywhere in the sky, only the scorching sun, and this boy stands with an umbrella!”
The boy replied, “Who are you laughing at? There is a drought in your kingdom and you are performing a yajna to invoke rain, but you do not have any faith in it. If you had faith, then you would have received the fruits of the yajna by now. I have come with the faith that at a place where all the citizens of the kingdom have gathered to pray for rain, there will certainly be rain.” The moment the boy uttered these words, the sky filled with clouds and there was such torrential rain that the entire yajna venue was washed away. Everyone ran hither and thither soaking wet. Only this boy stood dry under his umbrella.
This is known as faith. The faith of one little boy swayed the throne of the king of gods, yet the yajna performed by thousands could not achieve anything for their sentiments were not connected with it. That is the reality of people’s lives also. They perform actions but their sentiments are not connected with them. They may have belief, but not faith. Their faith is not aflame. Faith has to be intensified through viveka and protected through refection. Faith is an encounter with truth. The emotion, the sentiment, the thought whose basis is truth is called faith.
To develop faith one has to learn to let oneself go. The moment one does this one will have faith. One should have freedom of personal expression, without any inhibitions, yet within the limits of dharma, within the limits of preordained universality. This free expression of human nature within the limits of dharma is faith. Balanced expression will eventually allow one to let go of the archetypes, the impressions stored inside, and then there will be faith.