Proof of faith.. ?

 Are there proofs for faith? Proofs are there if you do not believe in things of common experience. But for faith? Faith alone may be common but not its contents. May be you will like to say what does not need proof is actually faith. But who knows? Faith sometimes may search for anchor or a collateral yes, however remote. In the great commentaries of Sri Vaishnavaite devotion there goes an observation to this effect. That when you are sleeping, who is in charge you? your system? voluntary and involuntary? Who maintains your fort till you wake up? (of course even after you wake up, there are so many things happening to make it possible for you to make conscious moves, that is a different matter). If the supreme principle immanent in you is in charge during your sleep, if Paramatma is taking care of you when your eyes are closed, your system shutdown, then why should you doubt when you are awake? - 'who protects you while asleep will not fail you when you are awake'.

Czeslaw Milosz, a great Polish/Lithuanian poet, who won Nobel Prize in 1980, expresses his sentiments on faith in a poem, which are so resonating with what I understood about the Sri Vaishnavaite observation in the commentaries.

"Faith is in you whenever you look

At a dewdrop or a floating leaf

And know that they are because they have to be.

Even if you close your eyes and dream up things

The world will remain as it has always been

And the leaf will be carried by the waters of the river."

Perhaps dispassionate details may not interest you unless and otherwise accented by a hurt personal, reminding and reassuring. But can one call such hurts painful? when they really are soothing scathing bruises of doubts?

"You have faith also when you hurt your foot

Against a sharp rock and you know

That rocks are here to hurt our feet."

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Things concrete sometimes come as proof of things abstract. Things tangible may underline our transcendent hopes. Perhaps our humility must become more and more understanding rather than just a vehement stance.

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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