FAITH - THAT WORKS WONDERS

God can be attained through faith alone.  He who has faith has all and he who lacks faith lacks all......It's faith that works wonders, for  faith is life and doubt is death.

---Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

'Faith'  in simple terms may be defined as 'complete trust or confidence in someone or something'.  It is the very "Force of Life" in  the words of Leo Tolstoy, famous Russian writer.  Right from one's childhood it is experienced - faith in parents, for protection  and security in bringing up;  in teachers and professors, for guiding through education; in friends,  all along for their selfless bondage through thick and thin; in  the spouse for sharing a cosy family life; in doctors, for their committed  treatment; and so on with the rest of the world encountered  in one's span of life.  It is strong belief that acts as a driving force in  spiritual path towards realisation of God. It is beyond reasoning,  for the latter ends at the limitations of our intellect.  And God is beyond those known human boundaries!  When a staunch atheist teacher summed up his argument about non- existence of God saying , ' The Sun, Moon, stars, Earth are visible, hence they exist.  But God is not visible, hence He does not exist,"  pat came the repartee from an astute theist student,  "Teacher's hands, legs,  dress,  head are visible, hence they exist, but his brain is not visible.  Hence brain does not exist."   'God cannot be realized without child-like faith.  God bestows His grace on the devotee who has the faith of a child' says Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. To quote him, 'Strong heart of the faithful does not despair in difficult situations, like rock in  water which remains hard over the years. But man of weak faith is shaken even by the most trifling cause,  just as clay soon softening into mud by coming in contact with water.' 

Faith and trust play a vital role in medical profession too.   Particularly, the doctor's soothing words give great relief and inspiration to the patient. They work like mantras to boost morally in fighting back the disease. In  the course of treatment whatever given by the doctor is regarded by the patient as life saving potion.  'Sharire jharjhara bhute, vyadhigraste kalebare ;  aushadham jahnavi toyam,  vaidyo narayano harih II' - When the body is suffering and the body is beset with disease,  medicine is like the holy water of Ganges (Ganga teertham) and the doctor is (incarnation of) Lord Narayana 

Himself.  To depict this......

Once an express bus was speeding on a highway in the night towards a far off  destination.  In the middle of the night, all of a sudden one of the passengers became  panicky with suffocation  and gasping.  He cried out for help asking if there were any doctor in the bus to come to his rescue.  Seeing his plight, the passenger sitting behind  the patient said,  'Please be cool, there is nothing to be worried about, I know the symptoms and I have proper medicine with me right now in my bag.'  So saying he pulled out a bottle from his baggage and asked the patient to swallow it.  After drinking the content of the bottle, the patient felt relieved, became composed and fell asleep. As the day dawned and seeing that his station  arrived, the patient picked up  his baggage and turning to the passenger behind said, " Doctor, I am very much thankful for the life-saving medicine  you had administered last night. If you tell the name of the drug I shall keep a bottle with me on safe side, in my future journeys." The passenger behind replied with a smile,  " To be frank, I didn't carry any medicines with me.  Seeing your plight and suffering with anguish, I had no alternative but to offer my drinking water at that moment, which you believed as life-saving medicine and swallowed.  The very faith  and trust in a doctor's treatment relieved you from suffering."  That is the Power of Faith!

'Faith is capable of achieving the impossible .  Faith is an invincible power  and it is one of the essential qualities of achieving progress in spiritual life.  One should have unwavering faith in the power of Supreme and doggedly pursue one's spiritual goal' ---Srri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. 

 Om Shanti!