Sambodhi

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 18

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Shantilal M. Desai
generate a similar faith i.e. goood actions generate good faith and wrong actions a wrong faith. Faith and actions and one's being can never be seperated and they make a whole. Haribhadra recognises this principle and makes a similar statement in Karika 227 of Yogabindu. From the discussion uptil now of these yoga-concepts, it can be well seen that they are all interrelated and one is related to another in a subtle way. These yogaconcepts are not mere concepts but they are principles of yoga and as they are psychologically sound, they are the principles of psycho-psyn
thesis too.
Faith has been very well upheld by Patanjali in his unique and pithy style. He recommends it to the common man who desires to tread the path of yoga. As is his style, he gives only one sutra consisting of only eight words but he has couched in it a volume of subtle and far-reaching meaning.
In the sutra 20th of the first Pada he says that the path of yoga for an average inan can be built on the firm foundation of faith or śraddha. How is this possible? He says that energy and enthusiasm are begotten from faith. This in turn begets self-consciousness i.e. the conciousness of the self, the higher self or the core of consciousness. Consciousness leads to concentration and that in turn leads to Prajñā or the highest knowledge. This statement would seem to be fictitious if seen casually. But it is pregnant with a meaning and that can be grasped only by its application in the form of an example. But before we take up such an examination of the statement about faith by Patañjali, it can be asked how such faith can be generated? The inquirer may first doubt the very statement and even if he accepts it, he would ask how an ordinary man can have such a faith. Is it a gift of God or boon of nature? All these doubts can well be answered only by a simple and day-to-day experience. Let us take an example of a novice in a smithy workshop. The novice does not know even the ABC of the smithy work. The black-smith introduces him first with work of the hammer and anvil. Slowly the novice begins to learn one process after another and in a few years becomes a blacksmith and going further in the line, he becomes a technician. He had no confidence in the beginning in even holding the hammer but in a few years he becomes a technician. How is this every-day miracle performed? It is the work of faith but the faith is generated by practice. As is the practice, so is the faith. The novice gained faith as his practice increased and the higher and subtler the practice, the higher and firmer his faith becomes. So Patanjali is right in making the statement that faith would certainly make an ordinary man an adept in the path of yoga if he practices yoga methods. If a novice becomes