why do we lack faith?

Gour Govinda swami maharaj's lecture on faith...Inspiring..

Strong determination and strong faith is most important. Nothing is impossible. Krishna is always there to help you. He is there in your heart. He will test how strong your faith is in Him. Your faith is shaking; it is not strong. How determined are you? Krishna creates everything. His will is supreme. By His mere desire creation, maintenance, and destruction take place. We are completely dependent on His will. Bhaktivinoda says in Sarangati (3.4.7) tomara icchaya achi nirbhara koriya --- “I am completely dependent on Your will, O Krishna.” So Krishna says, “Okay, I will test your faith, to see if you are really completely dependent on My will.” But you are lacking faith and Krishna knows, “Oh, he has no faith. He only speaks from the lips. In his heart he has no faith.”

Everything takes place according to the will of Krishna. If He doesn’t will, a blade of grass will not shake. So it is a question of faith. But why do we lack faith? Dhruva immediately put strong faith. He was not afraid of any situation. “Where is Narayan? Where is Narayan!” But we can’t put faith. What is the reason? Why are these small children able to have faith, but adults cannot? It is because you are crooked and they are simple. A child is very simple, but as soon as he grows up and associates with adults, those who are very crooked, he develops crookedness. Otherwise, in the beginning a child is very simple. Simplicity is vaisnavism. All our acaryas have said this. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami stresses on this; saralata hi vaisnavata—simplicity is vaisnavism. Real vaisnavas are a simple as a child. There is no question of crookedness, duplicity or pretentiousness in them. But our heart is full of these things. We are not al all simple-hearted persons. We are very crooked. Duplicity, crookedness, and pretentiousness are in you. But Krishna is in your heart. He knows what is in you; you cannot cheat Him. Therefore we say that sadhu-guru-mahajan are patita pavana, not kapati-pavana---they are the saviors of the fallen, not saviors of the crooked.

Some persons say, “Shall I just have blind faith? Shall I not think anything? Shall I not apply my intelligence, my deliberation? Should I just put blind faith in whatever sadhu and sastra say?”

They say, “We have our own intelligence. We must think very seriously before we can accept.”

How can you deliberate on what Krishna says, what sastra says , what the mahajanas say? They have no defects. You are a conditioned soul with four defects; bhrama (tendency to commit mistakes), pramada (the tendency to be illusioned), vipralipsa (the tendency to cheat), and karanapatava (imperfect senses). Your senses are defective. The thoughts in your mind are defective. What you perceive through your senses is defective.

“There is no Sadhu Present”

You say, “Oh! we have been cheated so many times. Now we won’t put faith in anyone. No sadhus are there. We don’t see any sadhu.”

Can you see a sadhu? Do you have the vision to see a sadhu? You are a conditioned soul. You have defective vision. How can you see a sadhu? You have developed this motto, “Seeing is believing.” You say, “ If I see, then I will believe. Can you show me? Can you show me the Lord? Then I will believe.”

But you are not prepared to admit that you are blind. You have no vision to see the Lord. Even if I show you the Lord, how can you see without vision? You are not prepared to admit your shortcoming. You are such a crooked, pretentious, duplicitous person. You are always trying to hide your defects. You are not prepared to admit them. This is proof that you are not at all simple. You are a crooked person. Be simple! If you just once say with an open heart, “Krishna I am Yours!” then immediately Krishna will accept you. He is there in your heart, but you can’t cry out to Him. Your heart if filled with such filth, such duplicity and crookedness. You are never simple. And Krishna knows it.

This is the reason why you cannot develop strong faith. Now you want to see sadhu. You say, “We don’t see any sadhus. There are no sadhus.

If there is no sadhu, then how are things going on? This is Kali-yuga, the most sinful and degraded age. Still there is ekapad-dharma, one-legged religion, therefore things are continuing. Otherwise everything would have been finished, destroyed. In Satya-yuga dharma had four legs. In Treta-yuga three legs were there. In Dvarpara-yuga two legs were there, and in Kali-yuga there is one leg. Because this one leg of dharma is present, things are going on and we are all here.

The holy name came---this is the yuga-dharma for Kali-yuga. But we have no faith, no belief in it. We are such crooked persons. We have no simplicity. We only speak with the lips while something else is in the heart. This simplicity is vaisnavism It is the only thing required. Make your heart simple. Drive out, throw out all this filth, crookedness, duplicity, and pretentiousness, and immediately you will get Krishna.

Krishna emphasizes this sraddha in many places in the Gita: Chapter four, text 39 states: sraddhaval labhate jnanam---“A faithful person quickly obtains transcendental knowledge.” In chapter nine, text three, Krishna states: asraddadhanah purusa aprapya mam nivartante mrtyu-samsara-vartmani ---.Those who have no sraddha, no faith, cannot approach Me. Again and again they will fall down here to this mrtyu-samsara, world of death.

Sadhus Have No Defects

Those who have vision, they see and they say, arya-vijna-vakya nahi dosa catustaya—the words of the mahajanas, sadhus, are free from the four defects. Why don’t you put unflinching faith in their words? You say, “I must think about it first. I must deliberate on what they say. If I am convinced then I will apply it.”--- This is all duplicity, crookedness, lack of faith! You are not prepared to admit that you have four defects. Your senses are defective, how can you see? You think, “I am the seer. I will see.” But you are not the seer. You have defective vision. How can you see a sadhu who is free from defects and exists on the transcendental platform? He is in the fourth dimension. You are limited to three dimensions: length, breadth and height. Can your material mind conceive the fourth dimension? Then how can you say, “If I see, only then I will accept?” Nonsense! Such nonsense! You can only act on faith. Nothing else.

In the story I told, the mother instructed and the child put faith in her words. The mother is authority and the child is simple. Sadhu, mahajana, and sastra are authority. But you have no faith in them. How can you get Krishna? Faith is the most important thing. Even if you put blind faith, still you will be delivered because sadhu mahajanas are free from defects. What they say is real truth---mahajana yei kahe, sei satya mani (Cc. Madhya 25.56). Suppose you put blind faith in sadhu’s words and you go to hell; then sadhu-mahajan will go to hell to deliver you. But by your manipulations, politics, and duplicity, even if you elevate yourself to the position of Brahmaloka, Satyaloka, still you will fall from there and you cannot be delivered by sadhu-mahajana.

One who is very simple, immediately puts strong unflinching faith, immediately surrenders, and immediately is accepted by Krishna. That is what is needed. Simplicity is vaisnavism, but we are lacking that thing.

You should take example from mahajanas like Rupa and Sanatana Goswami. How simple they are! Once a very puffed-up, proud pandit came to see them. He was traveling everywhere, challenging and trying to defeat others. That pandit came to Sanatana Gosvami and Rupa Goswami and said, “You debate with me. If I am victorious then you will sign a certificate of defeat and if you defeat me then I will sign a certificate that you have defeated me.” Rupa and Sanatana immediately said, “No, we will give you a certificate. Please go, dandavats. Yes, we are defeated. You are victorious” This is simplicity.

Jada Bharat and the Dacoits

Jada Bharat was also simple in this way. A group of dacoits were searching for a nice human being to sacrifice so that Kali would be pleased and they could get a benediction from her. They found Jada Bharat sitting in a cornfield. He was very strong, stout, and good-looking. They thought he would be very nice for sacrifice. Jada Bharat was like a madman --- dumb and callous like an animal. Just like the butcher taking an animal to the slaughterhouse, the dacoits took him to be sacrificed. Jada Bharat went with no protest, just like a simple child. He was such an elevated paramahamsa! The dacoits bathed him and put new clothes on him. The put vermilion on is forehead. Then they asked him, “Please bow down here.” Like a simple child he did what they said. Then they raised a sword to cut off his head.

Kali is a vaisnava, a maidservant of Krishna. Seeing their activity, she said, “What are these rascals dacoits doing?” Kali suddenly came out from deity with a sword in her hand and chopped off the heads of those dacoits and Jada Bharat was saved.

Nevertheless you are thinking, “Shall I put faith blindly? Shall I not think about it? Shall I not deliberate on it?” You are saying like that because you have no faith. Because duplicity and crookedness is there in your heart. You are not simple.

One who is very simple is really surrendered. He is a real sadhu, and he is protected. This simplicity is lacking in you. You think, “I will see.” But you are not the seer. Krishna is the seer; sadhu is the seer. You are to be seen. But you are thinking just the opposite, “I will be the seer and the sadhu will be seen.” What is this nonsense? They are the seer---Krishna is the seer, sadhu is the seer. You have to be seen. When they cast their merciful glance on you, then your good fortune arises. You become fortunate, subhagya. But you are thinking, “I am the seer.” Just the opposite. That’s the whole problem, nothing else.