Shraddha - Part 9 of 15

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The Acharya keeps emphasizing, in all his works, the shraddhA in Shastras and the words of the Guru.

He has added ‘shraddhA’ as one of the ‘shamAdi-shhaTka-sampat’ (the treasure-sextad beginning with shama), along with shama, dama, uparati, titikshhA, samAdhAna. But he has not added it as a sixth, following the five mentioned.

The first four are mentioned in that order in Brihad-Aranyakopanishad; he keeps that order and now adds shraddhA as the fifth. So shraddA comes after titikshhA but before samAdhAna.

The word ‘samAdhAna’ has several meanings. One of them is the establishment of truth after meeting doubts. Usually the proponent of one school makes a claim and the opponent from the other school raises objections to the claim. These objections and the arguments laid in support of the objections are collectively called ‘pUrva-pakshhaM’.

Now the original proponent meets all these objections, and establishes his proposition. This process of meeting objections is called ‘samAdhAnaM’. And the established proposition is ‘siddhAntaM’.

When one listens to the arguments of the purva-pakshha side, even the disciples of the proponent himself, may begin to doubt the truth of the proposition of their own master. In other words their faith in their own master’s proposition would waver. This loss of faith, which is the opposite of shraddhA, is what is ‘pacified’ by the ‘samAdhAna’ of their own guru.

When the Acharya includes ‘shraddhA’ as one of the components of SAdhanA, the implication is there is what is called ‘ashraddhaa’ (the opposite of shraddhA, namely, lack of faith). To conquer that lack of faith is ‘shraddhA’.

Having conquered that, one reaches the ‘samAdhAna’ stage. Just like Peace after War. When faith has to duel with lack of faith, more faith (shraddhA) is needed. Afterwards, when there is no more duel, it is the ‘samAdhAna’ stage.

All this means that ‘samAdhAna’ has to be preceded by ‘shraddhA’.

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