Faith is beyond intelligence!

IT IS easy to acquire intelligence. If we work continuously using our intellect, it matures into intelligence. There are a number of meditation techniques that can help us sharpen our intellect. The peak of intellect is intelligence.

Emotions arise from the heart. Ancient masters have taught us many meditation techniques and methods to work on our emotions. Any of these meditation techniques will change our emotion to faith. The peak of emotion is faith. Our thoughts have a lot of power. Be clear about one thing: if you believe in a particular god or guru, believe with all your might. Do not bother about whether he has power or not. Your faith has the power. Ramakrishna used to narrate this beautiful parable to his devotees.

A learned scholar, a great pundit, had his home on one bank of a river. All provisions for his home used to come from the other bank. A milkmaid used to bring him fresh milk every morning.

One morning she was late, very late. The pundit was very angry with her. “My morning prayers have been delayed because of you,” he ranted, “don’t you have any responsibility?” She apologised profusely. “Master, the river was in spate and the boats refused to ply. That’s why I was late.”

“Don’t give me excuses” roared the pundit, “if the boats couldn’t come you should have walked on water. How can you make the gods wait? Have faith and cross the river.” The milkmaid meekly listened and went away. She was never late gain. A month later it rained profusely for a week and no boats could ply. Yet, the milkmaid came on time and delivered the milk.

The pundit asked the milkmaid how she managed to come at all. She simply said, “you told me how to do it. I believed in you and walked on the water ever since that day!” The pundit was shocked. Disbelieving her, he took her to the riverbank and told her to cross the river, which she did with ease. “If this milkmaid can do it believing in me, I should have greater powers” thought the pundit. Lifting his dhoti with one hand he stepped into the water and promptly sank.

“Oh! Master! What faith do you have? How can you cross the river if you believe your dhoti would get wet?” You do not need an enlightened master to liberate you. All you need is absolute trust. A stone can liberate you. Ramakrishna was enlightened through his unshakeable faith in the statue of Mother Kali.

When you live with such trust and surrender your mind, body and senses to the entity you trust in, you are automatically enlightened!