All in Vain Without Faith

Sandalwood which is pleasantly cool by itself, can burn the fingers of one holding it once set on fire. If pure gold which has been mixed with an alloy and melted in a mould is taken for pure gold, it will be nothing but sheer stupidity. Similarly, faith by itself is a very pure principle, but one’s disposition of mind determines in what objects the faith is directed.

People have faith in accordance with their own attributes. Faith is thus being colored by the three gunas: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Water, although a life-preserver, becomes fatal in poison, pungent in black pepper and sweet in sugarcane. .Similarly, faith becomes tamasic, rajasic, or sattvic depending on whichever quality of nature faith is impregnated with. In this way the entire universe is cast solely in the mould of faith; nothing can be accomplished without it.

Even if cores of horse-sacrifices are performed, the entire earth’s supply of jewels given away in charity, tapasya performed by standing on one toe for thousand of years, or all kinds of ponds and wells made for public use, all these are of no use without faith. Use as watering a stone, giving oblations to ash, embracing a shadow and slapping the sky are of no consequence, all actions carried out without faith bear no fruit.

If stone is crushed in a mill instead of mustard, then neither oil nor oil cakes will come out. Similarly, acts done without faith yield absolutely no material benefit; then what to speak of ethereal benefit.
-Sri Jnaneshwar Maharaj

The implication is, actions without faith yield no results and life becomes cheerless. If somebody breaks the bones of an individual, it s surely an offence. But a more grave offence is to destroy someone’s faith leading to a spiritual downfall. Not only does this cause one to deviate from the divine path, it also destroys worldly peace and happiness.

‘Kabir considers that a slanderer of the Guru is worse than a thousand sinners. Such a one should be regarded as carrying lakhs of sinners on his head; because there is a possibility of reforming the sinners, but there is no salvation for the slanderer of the Guru.’

Kabirji opines that a destroyer of faith is a terrible sinner. Similarly, Nanakji, Tulsidas and other saints have berated those who destroy faith.