Shraddha - Part 12 of 15

(Continued...)

Another point has to be noted here.

A shadow, a trace, of the bliss of the Atman will however be there right from the beginning, just as one feels a cool breeze slightly sneaking through a hot summer day, because of a distant rain somewhere. That trace of bliss is the grace of the Almighty.

And that grace increases to light showers – but not a downpour. Hot sun, and off and on some cool air, now and then some showers. This is how it goes, because the bliss of the Atman comes only after numerous lives. We forget the fact that through all that journey through several lives we have been immersed in the non-self.

We think we have not been compensated well enough after all the SAdhanA we have done in this life. We feel a sense of disappointment and there is an intense anguish. By the steps of our SAdhanA we think we have achieved quite a bit of tolerance and endurance (titikshhA), but this anguish for the blissful experience of the Atman comes from nowhere, as it were.

It actually comes because the Lord Himself is testing you. This is the time when you need shraddhA so that you don’t leave off your SAdhanA. That is the reason for shraddhA, the higher level shraddhA, being kept after titikshhA.

The definition that the Acharya gives to shraddhA is:
shAstrasya guru-vAkyasya satya-buddhyA-vadhAraNA /
sA shraddhA kathitA sadbhiH yayA vastU-palabhyate //
(Verse 25/26 of Vivekachudamani)

“The noble ones say: ShraddhA is the conviction arising through the intellect that shAstras and the words of the guru are indeed true; by this shraddhA is the Reality attained”.

(Continued...)