BELIEF

The belief is a quite intriguing thing that the human mind possesses. It is necessary to live because you don't need to have the facts or knowledge of everything on which you can base your actions. Belief comes into action when knowledge is lacking. To make it more religious, some people call it "faith". The science of belief is quite interesting. 

First, understand the nature of "Belief" in contrast to "Fact". When we see Belief in contrast to Fact it reveals two meanings. The first meaning, which is mentioned in the first paragraph i.e. lack of knowledge of fact. But sometimes we also believe despite having knowledge of complete fact. This second meaning is quite difficult to understand, and one may be called as “mad” for having that kind of belief.

The fact is the final conclusion. “This is a yellow car”. You know that this is car and you know that this colour is yellow. So, here, you do not need to have a belief. When you cannot see the colour of car and you need to make a decision on that then you will jump to a belief. This is the first kind of belief, which is very easy to understand and live by.

The second meaning of belief is very dangerous. It implies that there is no “fact” in this world. Everything we see, hear, and listen to is one facet of the “thing”, and then your whole life works on a “belief system”.  You see the yellow car, but you don’t conclusively accept its existence. It makes your life very difficult. It is not that it is wrong. It is true, if you read science, that everything in this Universe is made of matter and energy. Having this belief is not wrong. Why it becomes dangerous is because you start believing “this existing fact can be changed”. Let’s make it simpler.  

Everything in this Universe is made of matter and energy. For us, this belief, not a fact. The fact is, when you perceive it through your five senses. You do not have a sense which can make you understand that, it is your mind only which keeps on making different permutations and combinations. When you believe in matter and energy, then the second belief you have is that you are also matter and energy. The third belief you make is that you understand the mechanism of this matter and energy. When you have made all these believes then you believe that you can manipulate these matter and energy. Like, you can change a car into a bike. But when you cannot do this, then your mind starts finding an answer to it. It comes to the conclusion that “existing facts are made of such matter and energy that you require lots of energy to break that existing fact”.

What I have explained to you is the basic meaning which can be afforded to the statements like "Have faith in life, it will become better”; “Belief has the power to move mountains”; “Belief is the fuel of life”. These all statements point to this explanation.

How is this dangerous? This makes you the centre of the whole existence. It makes you responsible for everything in this world. Because you have built a belief that you can change everything. But the “fact” is that you cannot. When you struggle between your belief and the reality, you completely break down. The reason of breakdown is that “something is wrong”. You will not question that belief because it has become very sacred for you, and the only thing which remained to check is “YOU”. You completely start destroying yourself, blaming yourself, and every kind of negative thought you can have of yourself.

These two meanings of belief lead to two different concepts of God.