Faith in Yourself
Master Sri Avinash was asked, “How important is faith in yourself on the spiritual path?” Vitally important, he says. But his answer goes one step further, sharing how we can best have faith in ourselves.
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I’ll tell you how important faith in oneself is by asking you a question. How important is oxygen when you’re a deep-sea diver? Isn’t it life and death for the diver? So, we should see it like that. Our faith in ourself on the spiritual path should be like life and death. We should feel, “Without faith I will not survive in this world, it’s too difficult. So, I’m going to cultivate faith, I’m going to have faith in myself.”
Have unshakeable faith in yourself—that knowing in your heart that you’re a good person, it doesn’t matter who says what, you know you’re a good person. Because when you know that then you can’t feel guilty. You can’t feel bad about anything. You might make mistakes, but you know you’re a good person.
And have the faith that you know God will take care of your life—that whatever happens in your life God will take care of it, you don’t have to worry about anything. Have that feeling and that faith. Then you feel very relaxed, because the ruler of the whole universe is taking care of you. You don’t have to worry about cancer, you don’t have to worry about not surviving, you don’t have to worry about your relationships or your partner leaving you, you don’t have to worry about anything. Because God will take care of everything.
With that type of faith, are you going to be enjoying life? Are you going to be tranquil and relaxed and joyful in life? Or are you going to worry about life? You will not be worried, with that faith—that whatever happens in life all will be good, all will be good. Whatever outcome, all will be good. Even when people say there’s good and there’s bad, your faith is—if it’s good, it’s good, if it’s bad, it’s good!
When that’s your faith, you’re going to be happy.
Now, it’s not easy to have that faith. Like Jesus said, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you will move mountains.” Even just a bit of faith and you’ll move mountains. And it’s critical to have this faith.
How can we have faith in ourself if we keep leaning on others and putting all our faith in others? It’s like leaning on a fence that’s been totally eaten by termites. If you’re leaning on that, what happens? You fall over!
The wise teachers say, “Don’t put your faith in anybody but God and those people who have realised God.”
Now it doesn’t mean you don’t love everybody—you love everybody. And it doesn’t mean you’re suspicious of everybody, otherwise you’ll go mad. But in your heart, your faith is towards God and those who have realised God, or those who have become one with God. And when that happens, then you have faith in yourself. Just like that.
Think about this for a moment. If you were a person that is suspicious, that means in your heart you don’t have trust in the force that moves all the planets and guides the stars. If you don’t have trust in that, who can you trust?
If you trust in that force, then naturally you trust in yourself. That’s how it works. And faith in oneself on the spiritual path is critical if we want some positive outcome on the path.
