Real knowledge is faith

Abstract

Spiritual seekers are often puzzled by the distinction between faith and knowledge born out of reason and rationality. The truth is that there are definite limits to reason and rationality. God cannot be experienced by reasoning or by using the mind. It is faith that brings us to God. Indeed faith is the foundation of real knowledge.

Sri Ramakrishna once said that man is a true man whose mind dwells on God. He alone is a man whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened and who is firmly convinced that God alone is real and all else illusory.

As he expressed it: “There is another view, according to which, God has become all that you see. It is like a bel fruit which consists of three parts: seeds, shell and flesh. That which is the Absolute also has its relative aspect and that which is the relative also has its Absolute aspect. You cannot set aside the Absolute and understand just the Relative. And it is only because there is the Relative that you can transcend it step by step and reach the Absolute. So long as ‘I-consciousness’ exists, a man cannot go beyond the Relative. Through meditation, he can negate phenomena following the process of ‘neti-neti’ (not this, not this) and reach the Absolute; but nothing can really be denied as in the instance of the bel fruit.”

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