“Faith is the bird that sees the light and sings when the dawn is still dark” – said Tagore.
That’s exactly what faith is all about. It isn’t an intellectual idea or capability that one could reason out why is it so. It isn’t even a belief that you have it. It simply IS. Hence any attempt to apply reason to it and rationally explain it, is as futile as trying to find the pH value of an abstract painting in order to interpret it! Not that pH value cannot be taken of a painting. It simply wouldn’t help.
Faith is the laughing baby when his mother throws him up in the air. Who or what made him understand that he would still be safe in his mother’s hands, even when she throws him up in the air, that she wouldn’t drop him and he is still safe? Therefore there is no point in trying to reason out. We need to simply understand it, even if some of us don’t or needn’t agree with it. And least of all, should try and reason it out in order to convince the person who has the faith, otherwise. Similarly, it is equally futile to “convince” or “convert”, those who don’t have it, to be otherwise. It’s simply a matter of privacy – to have it or not. Like one’s fantasies. Not for public display or scrutiny!
So asking them questions like are those stories that you read or hear actually happened or are they true, are redundant and irrelevant. The real question is “does it matter to you? As faith is mostly based on what we have already considered as true, than examining what the real truth is!” It is “believing is seeing”, rather than “seeing is believing”. It could be a random occurrence for a person who doesn’t have faith. But for a person who has it, it is a predictable miracle. And he sees it before hand.
Like the bird who feels the light and sings, before it is dawn!
(Inspired by an article on Tatvaloka magazine. Image source : 123rf.com)