Faith

Savina Kamal, 19.02.06

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” (Mahatma Gandhi).

A question that I often ask myself is, “Why do bad things happen to me and to my nearest and dearest?” I tend to think that if something does not put a smile on my face, it is bad and instantly, I lose faith in God. But my biggest mistake in life is that I do not realise that something that appears to be bad to me, is actually beneficial to me. You are probably thinking how can this be? Surely if something bad happens to us, we are aware of it and we have every right to lose faith in God. However, if this is true, then what is Blind Faith?

A short story was shared with me a couple of weeks ago, which I think explains Blind Faith.

There were once two brothers, one of which did not believe or have faith in God, and the other was a great believer in God.

One day, the two brothers set out into the woods, but after a short while, they decided to separate from each other. As they continued their journeys alone, the brother who believed in God felt a sharp pain in his foot. He looked down and saw a thorn underneath his foot, which had caused it to bleed.

On the other hand, on his brother’s journey, he had found a pot of gold.
When both of the brothers arrived home that evening, the brother that hurt his foot questioned God. He said, “Why is it that I believe in you, I have faith in you, I follow your teachings, yet my brother, who does none of these, found a pot of treasure whereas I got hurt?”

As you can imagine, this brother was very upset as he had dedicated his whole life to God. However, God replied, “The thorn that wounded your foot today, contained poison in it and would have killed you, yet I saved you from death.”

Feeling astonished but ashamed, the brother realised that his faith had been blind. He felt guilty that he had ever doubted God.

As quoted in the Avtar Bani:
“Jis de man vich Har Har vasiai har rang vich ik rang rahe.
Pal pal sang Hari de raihndai Rab vi ohde sang rahe.
Jis de man vich Ram proiai Nam ohda adhar rahe.”

This states that those who have faith in God and follow his teachings, will always be blessed with his love and guidance throughout their life. After all, we are his children. And as parents love their children and look after them throughout their life, God does the same but he also has the ability to change our future, depending on our actions. If we lead a respectful life and treat others as we wish to be treated, then we will no doubt receive the same in return.

Personally speaking, I have experienced this in my life and feel I would not have had such a blissful and fulfilling life had I lost faith in God Almighty.