Page 31 - All India Magazine Sep-2025

Can Faith be Increased by Personal Effort?

Faith is certainly a gift given to us by the Divine Grace. It is like a
door suddenly opening upon an eternal truth, through which we
can see it, almost touch it.
As in everything else in the ascent of humanity, there is the
necessity — especially at the beginning — of personal effort. It
is possible that in some exceptional circumstances, for reasons
which completely elude our intelligence, faith may come almost
accidentally, quite unexpectedly, almost without ever having
been solicited, but most frequently it is an answer to a yearning,
a need, an aspiration, something in the being that is seeking and
longing, even though not in a very conscious and systematic way.
But in any case, when faith has been granted, when one has had
this sudden inner illumination, in order to preserve it constantly in
the active consciousness individual effort is altogether indispens-
able. One must hold on to one’s faith, will one’s faith; one must
seek it, cultivate it, protect it.
In the human mind there is a morbid and deplorable habit of
doubt, argument, scepticism. This is where human effort must be
put in: the refusal to admit them, the refusal to listen to them and
still more the refusal to follow them. No game is more danger-
ous than playing mentally with doubt and scepticism. They are
not only enemies, they are terrible pitfalls, and once one falls into
them, it becomes tremendously difficult to pull oneself out.
Some people think it is a very great mental elegance to play
with ideas, to discuss them, to contradict their faith; they think
that this gives them a very superior attitude, that in this way they
are above “superstitions” and “ignorance”; but if you listen to
suggestions of doubt and scepticism, then you fall into the gross-
est ignorance and stray away from the right path. You enter into
confusion, error, a maze of contradictions.... You are not always

All India Magazine, September 2025 31