On Faith, by Swami BV Tripurari In the West, and in Christianity in particular, faith has become synonymous with belief.

William Cantwell Smith has documented this in his important boo , Faith and Belief. This blurrin! of faith and belief has contributed considerably to the de"elopment of the dominant anistha adhi ari e#pression of Christianity, in which mere belief in doctrine characteri$es the faithful. %audiya Vaishna"ism suffers from this same confusion in its dominant e#pression of multinational Vaishna"a practitioners influenced primarily, if not e#clusi"ely, by Srila &. C. Bha ti"edanta Swami 'rabhupada, my belo"ed 'rabhu. Srila 'rabhupada preached in such a way that new recruits to the sampradaya could come within the fold of %audiya Vaishna"a understandin!. Thus he preached a "ery literal, and at times, blac and white form of reli!ion. Because the conceptual framewor of %audiya Vaishna"ism is considerably wider than Christianity, e"en this presentation of reli!ious ideolo!y appeared "ery liberal in comparison to fundamentalist Christianity. 'rabhupada !a"e his fled!lin! disciples much to hold on to, a structure of beliefs, enemies to a"oid (maya"adis, saha)iyas, etc.*, moral codes, a society, and so on. Without these thin!s it would ha"e been difficult for him to awa en our faith and then collect and direct it. This he did "ery successfully. +e awa ened faith, the prero!ati"e of the soul, while e#pressin! his own faith, or di"ine e#perience in the form of the traditional %audiya belief system, pac a!ed within his society (Is con*. While the belief system etc. were e#pressions of his own di"ine e#perience (faith*, mere intellectual acceptance of them constitutes only belief, a function of intellect, and tender faith at best. Belief in his system carries with it the potential to nourish faith. It can help omala sraddha (tender faith* to de"elop into firm faith characteristic of the intermediate de"otee (madhyama*. This de"elopment of faith constitutes spiritual ad"ancement. Those with omala sraddha will feel threatened when the teachin! is presented in a different "ocabulary, what to spea if it is presented on a deeper le"el, unreco!ni$able to them due to their deficiency in real e#perience. If they are not dili!ent in their practice, and far more important, if they do not associate with ad"anced de"otees, they will not only remain neophytes, but lea"e themsel"es open to serious offenses directed at the "ery thin! they are culturin!, althou!h unreco!ni$able to them at the time. Vaishna"ism is a feelin!. If you ha"e the feelin!, you reco!ni$e it where"er and in whate"er pac a!e it presents itself. 'rabhupada said that ,rishna has a form. I say ,rishna has no form, rather he is the form of beauty. &t close scrutiny, we are sayin! the same thin!. %od has no material form. Simply put, he has a spiritual form. %oin! deeper, he has no form, no form li e our material form, and thus he has no form, for to ha"e a form is to be different than that form. &s 'rabhupada used to say, -I ha"e a body therefore what am I. I am not the body, for I posses the body./ So ,rishna has no form, he is the form of beauty. Spiritual form is bha"a deha, and what is that. With our mental constructs we thin of it in terms of our e#perience, while we are constantly told not to. We must thin to what e#tent spiritual form is not li e our material form, and this may help us to appreciate the nature of a world in which the

!opis0 hearts became the chariot of 1a!annath. It is a world, in the lan!ua!e of Sridhara 2ahara)a, of faith. We are our faith (sraddhamaya 3yam purusho*. Oh4 how we must chan!e our an!le of "ision, our li"es, if we are to reali$e the truth and depth of our %urude"a0s messa!e. +ow fle#ible we must become, trinad api sunicena. . .amanina manadena. This is our motto. Without this we remain anistha, neophyte de"otees with tender faith. We should fer"ently pray to all Vaishna"as, -'lease sa"e me from the anistha adhi ari mentality./ The madhyama adhi ari has firm faith, faith in sastra. +e or she has faith, that is, in the descendin! path (a"aroha pantha*, and thus the spirit of the sastra. +e can understand its essential meanin!5 has a feelin! for it, not merely memori$ation of the te#t. +e can understand it relati"e to time place and circumstance. +e can accommodate cultural and historical adaptation. +e can understand that which pertains to material matters within sastra, and that which is transcendent in nature. +is faith re6uires no enemy5 It is stron!, yet it too re6uires nourishment. +e must associate with uttama adhi ari Vaishna"as, their writin!s and personal association if possible. If he is a madhyama adhi ari, he can !et their association from their writin!s, while the neophyte cannot. The neophyte will confuse the teachin! when he reads it, while themadhyama will catch the spirit and pro!ress. +e will !et ruci and he will become an uttama adhi arihimself. This is our tas . 7othin! short of this. But we are fi!htin! about whether or not to associate with ad"anced Vaishna"as. Some ar!ue a!ainst this policy in practice, while e#tollin! its "irtue in theory. Others ar!ue in fa"or of such association and reco!ni$e it when it presents itself. 8et they li e to ar!ue in fa"or of it more than ta e ad"anta!e of it. They fail to put into practice that which ad"anced Vaishna"as embody and teach. The former !roup we may ha"e to a"oid, while the latter !roup we must minister to9 -&ction spea s louder than words./ 2ahaprabhu is mentioned thus in Sri %ita9 3yad yad acarati sresthas3 (the !enral masses follow the e#ample of !reat men*. So says ,a"ira)a ,rishnadasa, for it is 2ahaprabhu more than ,rishna who conducts himself so that the masses can follow him and thus attain the !reat treasure of di"ine lo"e. +e is our ista de"ata (our most worshipful deity*. +is own ser"ice (ni)a bha ti yo!am, s"a bha ti sriyam* isunnto))"ala rasam (the most ele"ated, efful!ent taste of sacred rapture*. We must follow him in lo"e, and let lo"e teach us all its own ways, mysterious as they are.