Page 19 - All India Magazine Sep-2025

Section 2:
Faith, Confidence, Trust

Faith, Confidence, Trust
Faith is a general word = śraddhā — the soul’s belief in the
Divine’s existence, wisdom, power, love and grace — confidence
and trust are aspects of faith and results of it.
Confidence is a feeling of sureness that the Divine will hear
when sincerely called and help and that all the Divine does is for
the best.
Trust is the mind’s and heart’s complete reliance on the
Divine and its guidance and protection.
CWSA 29: 88

...faith does not depend upon experience; it is something
that is there before experience. When one starts the Yoga, it is
not usually on the strength of experience, but on the strength
of faith. It is so not only in Yoga and the spiritual life, but in ordi-
nary life also. All men of action, discoverers, inventors, creators
of knowledge proceed by faith and, until the proof is made or
the thing done, they go on in spite of disappointment, failure,
disproof, denial, because of something in them that tells them
that this is the truth, the thing that must be followed and done.
Ramakrishna even went so far as to say, when asked whether
blind faith was not wrong, that blind faith was the only kind to
have, for faith is either blind or it is not faith but something else —
reasoned inference, proved conviction or ascertained knowledge.
CWSA 29: 92–93

... confidence in the Divine and a faith in one’s spiritual destiny (i.e.
since my heart and soul seek for the Divine, I cannot fail one day to
reach Him) are much needed in view of the difficulties of the Path.
CWSA 29: 92–93 Sri Aurobindo

All India Magazine, September 2025 19