Talk On Vivek Chudamani

Author(s): Chinmayanand Swami
Publisher: Chinmay Publications Trust

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have the description of Śraddha. Perhaps, no other spiritual term has been so far so badly handled by the priest-class and so profitably polluted by the laity in Hinduism as this pregnant word of healthy suggestions, graddha.
In the name of 'graddha' a perverted set of priests started trading upon the highly credulous but extremely ignorant community, shamelessly but successfully. Sraddha is not a blind faith as it is generally understood now. Here it is very clear in the definition of the Acharya that Sraddha is but a very healthy attempt at a clear intellectual appreciation of the secret depths of significance behind the pregnant words of the texts as well as of the teachers.
And indeed this is an unavoidable qualification for anyone who is trying to master the truths of the Scriptures. Scriptures give us through the technique of suggestions as clear a description of the Infinite Truth as possible, through the finite sounds and words. As such, the Pure Consciousness which is the core of the Reality in life, cannot be defined or expressed in words, but this supreme point of human evolution has been only indicated by the text of the Scriptures. As such, an honest and sincere effort on the part of the readers and students is unavoidable if the words indicating the Truth are to be correctly interpreted, understood and efficiently made use of. This capacity at realizing the words of the Scriptures in all their pregnant suggestiveness is termed as Sraddha.
A certain amount of Śraddha is even used by us in our everyday life. When my friend is narrating to me how he failed in love or how he was insulted by another, in his narrations, it is not so much the words that give me a complete idea of what he experienced but it is always my Śraddha in his words that illumines for me in all vividness his experience. If in the material world, it is my Śraddha in the words of the poet that makes me see the face of beauty; it is my Sraddha in the strokes and in the hues on the canvas that makes me realize the experiences of the painter; if it is my Śraddha in a given prospect that gives me a glimpse of its message of beauty and innocence-if, in the gross outer