Faith is a certitude which is not necessarily based on experience and knowledge.
Faith―confidence in the Divine and the unshakable certitude of the Divine’s Victory.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 79
Faith is the soul’s witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realised, but which yet the Knower within us, even in the absence of all indications, feels to be true or supremely worth following or achieving. This thing within us can last even when there is no fixed belief in the mind, even when the vital struggles and revolts and refuses….
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 93
Faith is a general word = śraddhā—the soul’s belief in the Divine’s existence, wisdom, power, love and grace—confidence and trust are aspects of faith and results of it.
Faith—a dynamic entire belief and acceptance.
Belief—intellectual acceptance only.
Conviction—intellectual belief held on what seem to be good reasons.
Reliance—dependence on another for something, based on trust.
Trust—the feeling of sure expectation of another’s help and reliance on his word, character etc.
Confidence—the sense of security that goes with trust.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 88
This śraddhā—the English word faith is inadequate to express it—is in reality an influence from the supreme Spirit and its light a message from our supramental being which is calling the lower nature to rise out of its petty present to a great self-becoming and self-exceeding….
Sri Aurobindo – The Synthesis of Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 24, p. 774
If you desire only the Divine, there is an absolute certitude that you will reach the Divine. But all these questionings and repinings at each moment because you have not yet reached, only delay and keep an impeding curtain before the heart and the eyes. For at every step when one makes an advance, the opposite forces will throw this doubt like a rope between the legs and stop one short with a stumble—it is their métier to do that. One must not give them that advantage… one must say, “Since I want only the Divine, my success is sure, I have only to walk forward in all confidence and his own hand will be there secretly leading me to him by his own way and at his own time.” That is what you must keep as your constant mantra and it is besides the only logical and reasonable thing to do—for anything else is an irrational self-contradiction of the most glaring kind. Anything else one may doubt but that he who desires only the Divine shall reach the Divine is a certitude much more certain than that two and two make four. That is the faith every sadhak must have in the bottom of his heart, supporting him through every stumble and blow and ordeal.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 97
Faith in its essence is a light in the soul which turns towards the truth even when the mind doubts or the vital revolts or the physical consciousness denies it. When this extends itself to the instruments, it becomes a fixed belief in the mind, a sort of inner knowledge which resists all apparent denial by circumstances or appearances, a complete confidence, trust, adhesion in the vital and in the physical consciousness, an invariable clinging to the truth in which one has faith even when all is dark around and no cause of hope seems to be there.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 89
Oh, give us the faith which we lack; give us the certitude of detail which is wanting in us. Deliver us from the ordinary way of thinking and judging; grant that we may live in the consciousness of Thy infinite love and see it at work at every moment and that by our consciousness of it we may bring it into touch with the most material states of being….
O Lord, deliver us from all ignorance, give us true faith.
The Mother – Prayers and Meditations: CWM, Vol. 1, p. 182
“Happy are they who in this chaos of things,
This coming and going of the feet of Time,
Can find the single Truth, the eternal Law:
Untouched they live by hope and doubt and fear.
Happy are men anchored on fixed belief
In this uncertain and ambiguous world,
Or who have planted in the heart’s rich soil
One small grain of spiritual certitude.
Happiest who stand on faith as on a rock.
Sri Aurobindo – Savitri: CWSA, Vol. 33 , Book Seven, p. 499
It is good to have this unshakable faith―it makes your path easier and shorter.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 79
Faith is the surest guide in the darkest days.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 80
Have faith in the Divine, and go deep inside yourself. My help is always with you.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 81
Sweet Mother, 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….
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM, Vol. 9, pp. 350 – 51
Of one thing we must be convinced―all that happens is exactly what must happen in order to lead us and the world as quickly as possible to the goal―the union with the Divine and ultimately the manifestation of the Divine.
And this faith―sincere and constant―is at once our help and protection.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 97
Whatever adverse things present themselves you must meet them with courage and they will disappear and the help come. Faith and courage are the true attitude to keep in life and work always and in the spiritual experience also.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 101
Mental faith combats doubt and helps to open to the true knowledge;
Vital faith prevents the attacks of the hostile forces or defeats them and helps to open to the true spiritual will and action;
Physical faith keeps one firm through all physical obscurity, inertia or suffering and helps to open to the foundation of the true consciousness;
Psychic faith opens to the direct touch of the Divine and helps to bring union and surrender.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 99
You have seized the right principle again, to be all for the Mother and to have full confidence that one has only to go on quietly in that confidence and all will come that needs to come and all be done that the Divine wills to be done. The workings of the world are too subtle and strange and complex for the human mind to understand it—it is only when the knowledge comes from above and one is taken into the higher consciousness that the understanding can come. Meanwhile what one has to follow is the dictates of the deeper psychic heart within based on that faith and love which is the only sure guiding star.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, pp. 88 – 89
It is quite sufficient if there is the firm and constant will towards faith and self-offering. It is understood that it is not possible for the human nature to be always without movements of doubt, obscurity or things not yet offered until the inner consciousness has sufficiently grown to make these impossible. It is because it is so that the will is necessary so that the Force may work to remove these things with full consent and will of the mind and heart of the sadhak. To try to reject these things and make the will permanent is sufficient,—for it is this effort that brings eventually the permanence.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 98
Do not allow any discouragement to come upon you and have no distrust of the Divine Grace. Whatever difficulties are outside you, whatever weaknesses are inside you, if you keep firm hold on your faith and your aspiration, the secret Power will carry you through and bring you back here. Even if you are oppressed with opposition and difficulties, even if you stumble, even if the way seems closed to you, keep hold on your aspiration; if faith is clouded for a time, turn always in mind and heart to us and it will be removed. As for outer help in the way of letters we are perfectly ready to give it to you. But keep firm on the way—then in the end things open out of themselves and circumstances yield to the inner spirit.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 101
Keep firm faith in the victory of the Light and face with calm equanimity the resistances of Matter and human personality to their own transformation.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – II: CWSA, Vol. 29, p. 102
…For this faith is a support from above; it is the brilliant shadow thrown by a secret light that exceeds the intellect and its data; it is the heart of a hidden knowledge that is not at the mercy of immediate appearances….
Sri Aurobindo – The Synthesis of Yoga – I: CWSA, Vol. 23, p. 245
…. Faith is indispensable to man, for without it he could not proceed forward in his journey through the Unknown; but it ought not to be imposed, it should come as a free perception or an imperative direction from the inner spirit….
Sri Aurobindo – The Life Divine: CWSA, Vol. 22, p. 896
Faith
You flame up and triumph.
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, Rose- of-China
Medium-sized double flower, variegated in red and white.
The Mother – Spiritual significance of flowers
