you see most religions for example when they are kind of challenged by science and rationality
will fall back behind the screen is a matter of faith matter of belief don't argue about it we
have no particular rational way of responding except say that it is a matter of belief so if
you like this screen they put up to avoid taking on challenging questions that come
to all religions from the rational and the science oriented lobby saying this can't be true the world
couldn't have been created in seven days six days they say well it's metro faith you just have to
live with it believe it and things will work out so they hide behind the word faith what is the
position of the word faith in the indic tradition hindu tradition hindu say look faith is in a way a
hypothesis that you subscribe to begin your any journey in any field suppose you study physics
you start with hypothesis and you say okay the hypothesis can be challenged and can be kind of
you know until it cracks up but you start with some hypothesis some some kind of belief system
science doesn't we start with a hypothe hypothesis is a belief system a faith but then that faith
has to be tested against if you like your experience against reality against if you're like
you know checking out so faith has to be tested against if you like reality is it really true
or just completely make believe so the hindus subscribe to the idea that your religious journey
starts with faith starts remember the word is start you need a hypothesis to get started
so if i told you okay you are essentially the spirit you say mr lahani i don't know i don't
feel like it i said this is your starting point of your journey have that faith to start with
then test it so you start with a faith system but it doesn't stop there otherwise you are dead
you're you're really you know you're not made any progress whatsoever
so faith can be a starting point in any journey including a religious journey but it must not stop
there it must be taken to his next stage which is called realizations if i said you are the
spirit you say well i've heard about it i'm saying experience it for yourself experience firsthand
not your prophet not your teacher you experience it and if you say yes i know i'm the spirit i see
okay hit the jackpot so the cornerstone of the hindi tradition hindu tradition even same in
buddhism and jainism is experience you start with say yes maybe there is something god or there is
the spirit okay heard about it sounds nice and mean or floaty and poetic and nice stuff like
that i'm that but i don't haven't experienced that then you're not even started your journey you get
start with that belief system and then progress there's a very nice thing that comes from one of
the most best philosophy india producers called adi shankara this is what he said he said your
spiritual progress goes in the following manner shruti start with the faith system
next one say yukti use your rational faculty to see if that faith system is self-consistent
it is inconsistency in your belief system you're off you're off the rocker you're wasting your time
first shruti second yukty use your rational faculty to see if the faith that you have
is if you like self-consistent so what i'm talking about spirit suppose you say but
does it make sense is there something more to me or it's something that flies off it's you know
against my common sense check you check it with your own common sense rationality yukty shruti
and the third part of the thing is this is precisely how science progresses it suppose
it gives you hypothesis you'll say first of all check out if the hypothesis is self-consistent
then it says now experiment the third part swan ubudi it for yourself shruti yukti swan
ubudi check it out for yourself you heard about it it seems rational so you progress and then
do experiment to see if it is for real this is exactly what science does a hypothesis
must be self-consistent and check it out with experience experiments does it stand up so when
you go this idea of gravitation okay first of all you know einstein comes with the idea
the space-time curvature and very interesting faith systems just believe system the space-time
occurred and it produces gravitation not good enough it's self-consistent very nice beautiful
theory mathematical theory general relativity it doesn't stop there then he waited for somebody
to definitely confirm that beams of light are bent so there is space-time curvature light
beams are bent so this was actually tested out in his own lifetime in just yappi
right so shruti yukthe rational kind of system of thinking and then experience actually first an
encounter yes light beams do bend near stars that proved einstein's theory of general relativity see
shruti yukti swan ubudi same in religion start with the faith you are the spirit okay i heard
it sounds nice and everything he says about the spirit seems to be reasonably self-consistent
now i must experiment is it for real swan with your own experience experiment for yourself
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