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Monday, October 20, 2014

A Working Hypothesis from Retreat on Patanjali's Way



by Charlie

I learned an important lesson from Pravrajika Gitaprana's retreat on Patanjali's Way. Up until now I have felt that I needed to have proof of such things as Thakur being an Avatara or meditation leading to God-realization. I have felt that without proof, I could not accept these things. I have never felt comfortable with the idea of faith, or belief without proof.

But Gitaprana said in the retreat at one point that we need to have a working hypothesis instead of finding one objection to an idea and picking it apart. When she said this, I realized that I can accept the above ideas as a working hypothesis without needing proof ahead of time. This has the same effect as having faith, but with the idea that some day, I may experience these things for myself and find the proof. Without a working hypothesis, we can't do much of anything. This clarifies for me on an intellectual level why I am doing what I am doing.
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4 comments:

  1. AbhijitOctober 21, 2014 at 11:25 AM

    That's a BIG leap of faith!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. KetuOctober 21, 2014 at 8:09 PM

    This proves GRACE of God exists. It showered on you by answering your question in retreat.
    As a sidenote, here is an interesting article that talks about working hypothesis -- "Better To Begin With Disbelief" by Swami Atmashraddhananda (Editor of
    Vedanta Kesari)
    http://m.timesofindia.com/edit-page/Better-to-begin-with-disbelief/articleshow/12693076.cms
    Article ends with an important note: The river of faith is ever flowing. One must become aware of its presence and enormous power. One can choose to quench ones thirst by drinking its pure waters or die of thirst of doubt and fear. The choice is ours.

    ReplyDelete
  3. KaivalyamOctober 22, 2014 at 8:58 AM

    Every action and thought of a person is based on faith. Even if it is through intellect, the underlying assumption or faith is that 'intellect is right' as no one has ever validated one's own intellect itself.

    Proofs of avatara cannot be given at the level of senses: one can only appreciate it oneself when one has reached a state of purity. All others just believe it (or do not believe it) with no proofs. So in that sense, even non-believers are actually believers as they cannot give proofs for their stand either! And even just this belief (or non-belief) is irrelevant if that belief/non-belief does not mold a person's life towards achieving the higher goal.

    Lastly, faith on some great teachers is better than having faith on one's own intellect. This is because the great teachers have already reached the goal (again a faith, but it can be validated through their actual lives), so their thoughts/words/deeds are of higher value than those originating from our sense-oriented intellect.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AbhijitOctober 22, 2014 at 10:24 AM

    (͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖)👌 "faith on some great teachers is better than having faith on one's own intellect"

    ReplyDelete

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