The second criterion of faith is non-violence. In any society people have diverse faiths. They all should be allowed to preach and propagate their faiths as long as they confine their activities within the bounds of propriety. To allow people adhering to faiths other than ours to propagate, to consolidate and to persuade others to accept that faith is akin to reverence for others' faiths. It is tolerance and is rooted in non-violence, the fundamental rule of life. And to insist that 'those who adhere to faiths other than ours have no place here' is in itself an enormous superstition. Thus the first criterion of faith is truth and the second non-violence.
What is the third criterion? It is being dynamic. It can be tested as below. Fear and lure are two drives that weaken a human being's determination. For example, you believe in your religion. Your faith is strong and deep. Now some one asks you, 'Come on, I will give you 20 lakh rupees cash down, will you change your faith?' It is likely that you first make sure that nobody is around within a hearing distance and ask him, 'will you really give me that much money? Then may be I need not fuss over my religion and do as you ask me to do.' Similarly if someone puts a sword to your or your child's throat and threatens, 'either you change your religion or you (or your child) are dead', how will you react? You will certainly think, 'let me extricate my neck first, and then think what to do next. I can change my hats any number of times only if my head remains intact on my shoulder.' You will then tell him, 'my life is worth millions. I am prepared to change my religion as you wish.' You also quietly contemplate, 'Eventually as the situation improves I will be back into my fold again.' This you may call a wise decision but you are certainly not faithful to your religion. In both these cases it is not the faith but lure and fear that drive you to action against your faith. Excepting such extreme situations, it should be the other way round.
The fourth criterion is that faith sublimates your value judgement while; superstition on the contrary, debases it. Whenever I accept something as part my faith, I have to accept its value content too. If Lord Ram occupies an important place in my faith, then the values- truth and constancy (to his wife despite the custom of the day of having several wives)-that he upheld should also be important to me. It would be quite interesting to find out whether those who extol Lord Ram so fervently accept and stick to these two values-Truth and Constancy, in their personal life. About truth less said the better in this country. ‘Truth alone triumphs’ is our motto that is engraved on our national emblem. But our everyday experience tells us that untruth generally triumphs. What we regard as faith, some of them call loyalty. Others describe it as sensible (or shrewd?) faith. The choice of the word aside, what is important is whether you examine your faith or not; whether you tolerate other faiths and do them no violence; whether your faith drives you to action.
The most important, whether your faith makes you a sublime human being or a debased one. So, these are the criteria that help you examine your faith. Insistence on such examination alone brings about human progress. Discourse on faith and superstition therefore is an important matter in the ideological discussions of the ANS movement.
Dr Narendra Dabholkar
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