A curious tech savvy youth was trying to find out some answers to his doubts related to the existence of God. He went to a knowledgeable believer, known for his belief in God. The youth asked the believer if God was actually present everywhere as is claimed. The ardent believer forcefully answered that God is omnipresent.
To this the seemingly unconvinced youth put another question that if it was so why was he not able to connect with God. The believer answered this with a question; he asked the youth whether he used a laptop for his work. The youth nodded. Then the believer asked him what was the basic requirement for the laptop to connect. The youth said there would be a need for a WiFi connection. The believer then asked if having a WiFi connection enough. To this the youth said that a password was needed to get the benefit of connecting. It was to this that the believer said that the youth perhaps had himself given the answer to his question.
God’s presence is like the WiFi but to connect to him you need a password. And that password is faith. We do not know whether the young and curious enthusiast was satisfied or not, but the one basic requirement to get access to your connectivity to God is faith, unquestioning faith. If you have faith you will connect to God.
This is the crux of Saint Aquinas philosophy that “don’t believe so that you may have faith, have faith so that you may believe”. Religions are like WiFi connections which tell you about the availability of an opportunity to connect. But you need to have a password in order to connect. Incidentally, in the case of God there is only one password that works. And that is faith.
How to develop this faith is a difficult question to answer, but sages and seers, religious texts and scriptures suggest ways and means to understand the mechanism of faith. True, proving that God exists is indemonstrable but we need to remember that absence of proof is no proof of absence. It is the question of faith which transcends science.
In the Indian scriptural text Ramcharitmanas, Goswami Tulsidas writes that it is the faith driven by devotion that will decide whether you see God in an idol or not. Tulsidas wrote: “Jaaki rahi bhavana jaisee, prabhu moorat dekhi tin taisi.” We cannot by logic alone demonstrate all matters of fact and existence.
Perception in the words of famous psychologist William James is as dependent on the mental state of the individual as it is on the external stimuli. There are many realities that are believed due to inferred conclusion. God is also like an inferred entity, and connecting to God is a matter of faith. Faith needs to come first, before we can believe. Faith is pragmatically verified whereas science is experimentally verified. And many a times science also depends on faith. For instance the medical science. It does not work without faith.
Famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung said that in his more than 50 years of practice, he did not come across a single patient who had faith. Many people experience certain events that are nothing short of a miracle. And they are all acts of faith. Human mind is finite and to understand the infinite, the role of faith is critical.
The writer teaches management at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand). He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com