Dr Asha Goswami defines shraddha or faith and its role in religious traditions

A common belief goes that faith, which is equivalent ofshraddha, broadly signifies a religious feeling which is based on the fancies, instincts, hopes, yearnings and steady spiritual reflections.

According to Bhagavad Gita, faith or shraddha has to be adhered to by man while playing both the roles in life viz for supporting knowledge as well as to transcend the reasons and beliefs. Shraddha, generally denoting ‘a will to believe or realise religion’, has a profound role to play in the history and philosophy of religious traditions like Krishnabhakti and Christianity.

Shraddha combined with devotion leads the seeker into union with divine. As far as the Indian tradition is concerned, the history of this notion can be traced back to the time of the Rigveda wherein the term shraddha is used to denote an abstract deity in the form of Devi Shraddha. Next, shraddha is stated to be born out of the heart which may prove that such an instinct called shraddha existed at the primary stage of all the desires in humans. It is also spoken as one with satyam or truth.

While in the Upanishads, shraddha is stated to be the embodiment of ‘the activity of mind, the understanding faculty or the intellectual introspective aspiration for knowledge’ and is treated as the direct manifestation of supreme Brahma himself. It is also included among the basic values of human beings and the very inherent nature of man as it constitutes the very base of his identity.

It is also included among the 16kalaas of Parampurusha Brahma which he created with the help of his pranashakti. Hence, being the part and parcel of the supreme God himself, this  instinct of the human beings  is treated on par with prakriti, the primeval source of creation and forming the third creation in the process of world creation, while the other two beingprana or tapas and the conglomeration of the five Mahabhutas.

In the lexicon Amarakosha, shraddha is assigned with the  meaning of confidence and fondness. Derived from the Sanskrit root dhaa by prefixing the word shrat. Shraddha denotes the inherent value of truthfulness in a human being.

However, in the Vaishnava Aagamas, shraddha is treated as a quality of self-surrender as well as of faith. It is also looked upon as the sthaayibhaava of bhaktirasa. According toPatanjali, it is one of the five means of attaining the highest samaadhi. In the Gita, the notion ofshraddha finds a central place since it forms the main objective ofGita teachings which were so construed by lord Krishna just to restore back the shraddha of Arjuna.

In Gita, the 17th chapter is devoted to delineate fully the threefold shraddha, titled Shraddhaatrayavibhaagayoga. Therein it is treated as a fundamental quality of the best of devotees who are titled asYuktatmaah. Shraddha connoting the quality of true devotee sounds the same as the aspiration of the heart for the communion with the lord; the consciousness of the transcendence of the lord accompanied with the humility and total surrender; as well as moral relationship of the finite person (bhakta) to the infinite supreme.

It makes clear that both the terms shraddha and bhakti had parallel implications during the medieval Bhakti movement. Assigned with the title of the state of a Yogic practice, shraddha is also stated to be the basic quality of best of the learners. It is also treated as a pre-requisite quality of a Yogi when Gita states: “shraddhaavaan bhajate yomam sa me yuktatamo matah”. Next, in Gita’s 11th chapter, shraddha is treated on par with the concept of devotion or bhakti, as it also denotes the theistic emotional attitude of a person.

In this context, Gita categorises two types of shraddha, which are known as ananya and paraa implying longing and trust in a particular worship of the supreme God and other deities. Hereby Gita seems to treat shraddha as connoting a special expression in some form of worship, sacrificial action, charity which constitutes different aspects of religious activity, which be taken similar to the ananyabhakti of the Vaishnavas.

Nevertheless, to reach out its main viewpoint the Gita has sufficiently elaborated the concept of shraddha in various contexts. For instance, it has been categorised as being of three types: That which is born of human beings’ true nature; that which is born of their essential nature; and that which forms human beings’ faith, will to be, and belief in himself or herself as is stated ‘that purusha connoting the very soul in man is made of shraddha; “shraddhaamayoayam purusha yacchraadhah sa eva sah”.

It is also stated as born of the latent disposition of a human being and not imposed from outside. It is produced by his samskaaras, the tendencies which are the results of his actions in previous lives. Thus, according to Gita, this tendency shraddha, which constitutes the central principle of man’s entity, reveals his true nature, character and the enduring essential aspect of an individual since whatever he sees, seeks and the means he adapts for accomplishing his works all are determined for him by this very instinct called shraddha, which in turn is effected by the nature of his actions.

Here, Gita’s concept of shraddha runs parallel with the whole theory of the gospel of pragmatism which is summed up as ‘if a man or soul in man consists of faith lying in him, it implies that whatever he sees is the truth of himself which he himself has created is due to some past will of his nature which is sustained and continued by a present will known as shraddha’. Gita, however, lays stress on inculcating the best of three types of shraddha known as sattviki since the others raajasi and taamasi lack discernment of spiritual objectives and reflect chaotic state of mind; and due to that he lacks confidence in himself and the means he adopts for his achievements.

With regard to the shraddha concept Gita’s main assertion is that “it is not some kind of uniform concept rather it is individual, dynamic and subjective attitude which differs from person to person according to the proportional strength of two gunas in each person depending on his sattva or individual nature which is determined by his samskaras”.

Moreover, according to the Gita, man’s actions while religious or otherwise depend on his shraddha which constitutes his pattern of interest in life. Whatever man does without shraddha turns into asat karma which is of no avail. Thus the Gita ideology preaches paraa-shraddha which is sattviki and arises in man in accordance with his prepondering sattva guna and which when adhered to provides sense of zeal to the human beings for undertaking sattviki activities which are morally good and characterised by selflessness.

Thus finally it be maintained that shraddha connoting healthy temperament of human beings constitutes central principle and innate source of our existence.

The writer is a noted Indologist and authority on Krishnaite studies