Belief
“Everybody has a choice,
To believe or not to believe!
Those who believe, they achieve.”
The first step on the ladder to heaven is Belief. It starts our ascent to heaven but not everyone is fortunate to grow up as a believer.
We are born, but we have no choice to decide who our parents are, and when and where we will be born. It seems that we don't choose the circumstances of our life. Whatever be the religion our family follows, we tend to follow the same as we grow up. Of course, we are influenced by our school and our friends, and we learn more about God from the world around us.
No child is blessed with an intellect to decide whether to believe or not to believe. It seems to be a Divine will that starts our relationship with God. Some children are taught to pray every day because their parents do. Others may not be so religious because the circumstances of their life have not given them an opportunity. Whether we are Hindus, Muslims, Christians, or believers of some other religion – this is how we start to pray and believe in God.
However, this changes as we grow into our teens and become mature. Then, we begin to decide how much to pray, and which God to believe in. I was a staunch believer in Lord Shiva since I was 8, but by the time I was 12, I was greatly influenced by the Jesuit institution where I studied. My faith in God experienced an amalgamation of what my grandfather taught me and what the priests in my school advocated. As a kid, I saw the difference between my God and their God and accepted it without question. I did not pay much attention to investigating how many Gods existed. As I grew up, I believed in the power of faith and did not find it wrong to go to the church in my school whenever I got the opportunity to. However, my devotion belonged to my God, Lord Shiva.
I consider myself lucky that I grew up in an atmosphere where God was an important part of my life, both at home and in school. By the time I passed out of school, my faith in God was very strong. I was blessed to grow up with the belief in Lord Shiva, just as I imbibed the values of the Christian faith. I was fortunate, not to have any conflict in my mind regarding the two.
Today, as I look back at my teenage years, I realize that we have a choice as we grow up. The choice to believe or not to believe in God. As I reflect upon this, I feel grateful that my life started with believing in God. If I look at some atheists, those who don't believe in God, I feel sad for them, because they have missed a very important truth of life. They probably didn't get an opportunity to be mentored well in their early, formative years and lost this blessed privilege of believing in God.
There are also some agnostics who are not sure about God. Somehow, they are confused and do not build faith in their life as they grow up. I sometimes wonder how they doubt that this entire universe, the beautiful world that we live in was not created by a power that we call God. In a way, agnostics are blessed to question the existence of God. But if they do not pursue their investigation in the right way, they lose the treasures of faith and belief.
To start the journey to God, one has to first believe in a Power that we call God. It doesn't matter which religion we belong to. All religions are good. They teach us about God and encourage us to pray. But if we don't believe in God, then prayer is meaningless. The starting point, therefore, is to actually believe that God exists. We must not have an iota of doubt about the existence of God. Do you believe that you have a nose on your face? You don't need to believe it. You know it! You can touch it, feel it, just as you can smell with it and see it in the mirror. Just as we know about several truths, we must know that God exists. The moment we doubt the existence of God, we start our journey to disaster.
There was once a conference related to science and Spirituality and a famous scientist debated the existence of God with a Spiritual saint. They were both intelligent and after two days of deliberation, they agreed to disagree about the existence of God. Before departing, the scientist visited the saint to bid him goodbye. As he was getting up to leave the office of the saint, he noticed a beautiful globe made of ornate marble with intricate carvings of gold. He asked the saint, “This is a beautiful piece of art. Where did you get it from?” The saint replied in wonder, “I don't remember. One day it just appeared on my table!”
The scientist got a bit annoyed and replied, “If you do not want to tell me where you got the globe from, please just say so! But do not give me a story that the globe just appeared on your table.” The saint got an opportunity and replied, “For the last two days, at the conference, you have been incessantly debating that this entire universe and this beautiful earth just appeared from nowhere! And now, you are unable to believe that this tiny globe appeared on my table just out of nowhere. You think that this tiny globe must have a manufacturer, somebody who created it! Then what stops you from believing that a Divine power that we call God created this humongous globe that we live on?” The scientist left after being hugely impacted by this incident. There is no doubt that God exists. The choice is ours to believe or not to believe.
Somehow, we human beings live in ignorance and do not start our journey to God. We do not believe in God because we do not observe the Universal Laws that he has commissioned. For instance, do you see apples growing on mango trees? Never! Why? Because this is a Universal Law. Just like this law, there are several laws including the Law of Gravity, the Law of Opposites and the Law of Cycles. If man was to pay attention to the Universal Laws, then man would not doubt the existence of God. Those who believe in God know beyond doubt that a Power exists. Our challenge is to believe.
Therefore, we have a choice to believe or not to believe. How does it benefit a man if he does not believe? At least, man must use the little intelligence that he has to understand the reward of believing in God. If not for the love of God, at least for the love of himself, man must learn to believe in the Power that created the universe.
How do we demonstrate our belief in God? It is through prayer. Prayer is communicating with God and it is only those who believe in God who fold their hands in prayer. Belief is the first step on the Ladder to Heaven. If we do not pray and demonstrate our faith in the Power we call God, we will just wander through life and then die. Death is certain. Nobody can escape death. But we can definitely believe in a Power as we live. We have a choice to believe in God, to pray and to start our journey on the Ladder to Heaven.
Belief
TAKEAWAYS
The 1st step on the Ladder to Heaven is Belief.