One time Prabhupada asked the devotees "How can we say Krishna is God?". One devotee said, "Because you say so, Prabhupada". Prabhupada replied "I am an old man, how can you believe me". Someone said "Because it is mentioned in Scriptures". Prabhupada countered "But people will say that is simply blind faith". Prabhupada finally answered "Krishna is God because you can experience Him". Prabhupada was not minimising the importance of hearing from Guru and Scriptures, but the point he was making here was that we should be eager to experience God and genuine spiritual emotions in our lives.
As devotees we know that Krishna is God, that we are spirit souls and that we can experience great bliss in the process of Krishna consciousness. The question is, shouldn't our lives be examples of someone who has genuine experience and realisations of all these aspects of spiritual life. And if the answer is 'Yes', then the next question is 'When?'.
We are waiting for right time to come when Krishna wants us to have these realisations. What if I say that the time you have been waiting for has already come, "It's Now" and Krishna has already awarded you all these realisations, but the only prerequisite is that you have to "Believe that you are self-realised".
You may say "How is this possible? How can I believe that I am self-realised when I am not?". Here's our problem, even if we are on the highest spiritual level, we will never act on that platform if we don't believe we are there.
So, does belief come first or result come first. Most of the situations in life, you have to believe first so that you experience the result. We usually don't take up to any task until we believe we can do it and even if take it up, we will give up half way through.
Our general understanding is 'I have see it to believe it", but the right understanding is "I have to believe it to see it".
Beliefs are like blue prints of reality. You can't have a reality whose blue print you don't have. To give you a practical example. Imagine that there is a person who is actually smart but somehow believes that he is stupid, how do you think he will behave? As you rightly guessed, he will behave in a stupid way.
That's why it is said - Reality is not so much a result of who you are as much as who you believe you are.
Few more quotes on beliefs which may be great eye-openers -
As devotees we know that Krishna is God, that we are spirit souls and that we can experience great bliss in the process of Krishna consciousness. The question is, shouldn't our lives be examples of someone who has genuine experience and realisations of all these aspects of spiritual life. And if the answer is 'Yes', then the next question is 'When?'.
We are waiting for right time to come when Krishna wants us to have these realisations. What if I say that the time you have been waiting for has already come, "It's Now" and Krishna has already awarded you all these realisations, but the only prerequisite is that you have to "Believe that you are self-realised".
You may say "How is this possible? How can I believe that I am self-realised when I am not?". Here's our problem, even if we are on the highest spiritual level, we will never act on that platform if we don't believe we are there.
So, does belief come first or result come first. Most of the situations in life, you have to believe first so that you experience the result. We usually don't take up to any task until we believe we can do it and even if take it up, we will give up half way through.
Our general understanding is 'I have see it to believe it", but the right understanding is "I have to believe it to see it".
Beliefs are like blue prints of reality. You can't have a reality whose blue print you don't have. To give you a practical example. Imagine that there is a person who is actually smart but somehow believes that he is stupid, how do you think he will behave? As you rightly guessed, he will behave in a stupid way.
That's why it is said - Reality is not so much a result of who you are as much as who you believe you are.
Few more quotes on beliefs which may be great eye-openers -
How others see you is not as important as how you see yourself.
The quality of your communication with others will determine your success but the quality of your communication with yourself will determine your happiness
Your external world is nothing but a reflection of your internal world.
All this knowledge of beliefs is not to scare us but to equip and empower us to become the best version of ourselves. Even a small change in your belief system can open the floodgates to all the success, joy and spiritual experiences we have been dreaming about. It's well worth a try.
- Achyut Gopal Das
- Achyut Gopal Das
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