What Faith My Love !

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Yesterday my unseen  friend said, without a faith it is not possible to live. To move forward you must have a goal, to strive relentlessly to achieve whatever you  wish to achieve you must have faith as the propeller. I did not argue for I know arguments too are based on a premise, rather flow from a seminal idea. This seminal idea too is almost incomprehensible as the contextuality or the emotion of the moment determines the premise to draw upon the logic to enforce your point of view. This entails a faith in your premise which is not the only one or the final one with infallibility written all over it. If I say I trust no faith, that too stems from a faith, which apparently is a dismissal of all logical constructs provided by thinking  men over the centuries. If I adhere to one such construct it means I do not accept any other thought construct and blindly adhere to my faith in it. And to defend my faith I can argue till I go blue in my face and if that does not give me victory, I can even murder my challenger.

This naturally leads me to the Rigvedic assertion(1.164.46) " The wise speak of One in many ways". If so what is that One we do not know. Each man( wise or otherwise) had his own perception of the One. One who denies the One  cannot  escape perambulating around it to find  another one which will empower his denial. If you accept the one as the Maker, the Manipulator or the fixer there is hardly any scope for another discovery or invention. The One will circumscribe all your intellect and finally in desperation you may fall in line like  all atheists. But if you think of the One as a conglomerate of many ( and all) and follow your own instincts and live a life, any disagreeable event will paralyse your logic. But is life such a  difficult proposition that unless we have some faith life will be wasted?

We have inherited the idea that life is the greatest gift of God, Darwin notwithstanding. And we have built up theories of Karma, Moksa, Sin etc under the supervisory authority of sacerdotalism. Those who followed the pleasure principle had to eat the bitter pill of unpredictability of life in social reality.The One became the Many as the wise individually had self-flourishing wisdom which they used for power and individual success in the mundane sense. What was their faith? Certainly faith in some  divine power which they used for creating fear in the uninformed; the fear of this world and the other world with rebirth as reward or punishment. The many led to many religions, systems of worship and rituals thereby rendering life in the now reality a journey through self- inflicted restrictions of all kinds- in food, daily routine, sex and even creativity.

If some said life is a penance ritual, others said it is atonement for the Original Sin; Yet others said don't sing, don't dance, pray seven times a day etc. Ok. But why did they become intolerant of each other? How could hate enter faith? How could they kill in the name of faith?

When organised societies came up , chieftains and kings took leadership by their faith on the sword, heroic measures became a new faith for  it fulfilled desires and ambitions in many . If power was the faith, submission to power also is another faith- cowardly though. Kingdoms under powerful kings began displaying their faith in some god or sword in adventurous expansionism and the result was Golgotha or Kurukshetra. Modern, so called scientific education, freed the intellect from superimposed faith but free quest for a new  faith with a vision of freedom and self-fulfillment, could not become inclusive despite sincere efforts of  some open minded rulers. Faith in equality and justice was often betrayed by subversive intellectualism. The judge too was an appointed character who must respect his own faith in survival. Belief in eternal economic growth and development too is controlled and manipulated by powers beyond our comprehension. Faith was a Truth, often belied by the human condition. Faith in institutions too was marred by betrayals of truth. If religious faith or Faith in the One ruined human initiatives and suppressed natural urges, faith in democracy, science and institutions made the questing intellect subservient to other rituals.

The average citizen in the current popular culture is a reflexive pragmatist. He believes in the truth of laws, rules, procedures and considers those as his faith for a good life. For him truth is a tool which  will fetch him his desired things but gets frustrated often by his own beliefs. What faith should I have than my friend to surge forward to carve out my destiny my way? The only faith I can think of is the faith in my love, my abilities, dreams and even in my efforts. But as the day advances I myself betray my love and dreams: As the obstacles are too high to surmount I bifurcate myself as a river does and go to the other side: But not in one  piece, in pieces.