Faith and blind faith (religious gatherings in Pandemic times)

 Faith and Blind faith

Dictionary meaning of faith is strong belief (in somebody/something). But the word 'faith' is mostly used for the religious beliefs of a person.

There is a very thin line of difference between Faith and blind faith which people often cross unknowingly.

We have seen during this pandemic period there are large religious gatherings of people despite the government's warnings and advisories. If u ask devotees, they say we have full faith in our God and nothing will happen to us. But the facts show a different picture as many of those devotees are getting critically ill and hospitalized.

So, the question arises that 'is God incapable of saving them? or are they believing in the wrong faith?'

    The answer to the above questions is- People are following blind faith due to their ego, which is very difficult to recognize.

I would like to quote a Pravachan of H.H.Shivkrupanand Swamiji (Samarpan Meditation). Swamiji explained the above matter with the help of a story. There was an Ashram of a sadguru on the outskirts of a village where he, with his disciples, lived a Vedic life. There was a disciple named Ramu who was very active in gurukarya, but very adamant in his beliefs. One day, Sadguru ordered him to get some essentials from the village. So he left for the village. There were two different ways to reach the village. At the start of his journey he met a Mahout who advised him to take the alternate route as on this particular way, a mad elephant was roaming around. But Ramu was adamant, he told him that he is going for gurukarya and therefore the mad elephant will do him no harm. But he was wrong, the mad elephant attacked him and he got injured. He was very angry and also confused about why that happened to him.

 The next day he asked his sadguru the following question. "I was following all your orders. You told me to go to the village and bring essentials for the ashram. You are a very Powerful saint and you know everything. Then too why did not you save me from that mad elephant? "

Sadguru smiled and said, "I tried to save you from that mad Elephant but you didn't listen to me. I came there in the form of the mahout and warned you to take the alternate route. But it was your ego that did not allow you to bend and that's why u got the injury." Ramu understood his mistake and surrendered his ego to the sadguru. 

From the above story, we can conclude that God always gives indications about possible dangers but we should be able to understand it. In this pandemic we can say that God is communicating with us through the medium of Governments (competent authorities) to not carry out religious gatherings. It has become very vital to stay safe and follow the prescribed instructions. That would not make us less faithful. We should have full faith in the almighty to face uncertainties in life but only after doing our part of the duties which are expected from us..