The first is verifying the facts or the truth.
Faith that does not allow itself to be questioned on the basis of facts or truth is a superstition. What does this mean?
Babasaheb Ambedkar gives an apt illustration. He says, “If you find a yellow shining piece of metal, do you burst with joy that you have found a precious piece of gold? No. You argue with yourself that when put to the test of fire, the piece will shine if it is gold and will not if it is only a piece of brass. You give so much thought while deciding about a piece of metal. Why don’t you take such a considered decision regarding your values that guide and sustain your life? You must take a decision about your values thoughtfully. It means that you ought to put your faith to the test of the fire of truth.”
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 temptation are two drives that weaken a human being’s determination.
For example, you believe in your religion. Your faith is strong and deep. Now someone asks you, “Come on, I will give you twenty lakh rupees cash down, will you change your faith?” It is likely that you will first make sure that nobody is around within hearing distance and ask him, “Will you really give me that much money? Then maybe 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 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 shoulders.”
You will then tell him, ‘My life is worth millions. I am prepared to change my religion as you wish.” You will 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 were certainly not faithful to your religion.
In both these cases, it is not the faith but temptation and fear that drive you to act against your faith. Except in such extreme situations, it should be the other way round.
The fourth criterion is that faith sublimates your value judgment, while superstition, on the contrary, debases it.
Whenever I accept something as part my faith, I have to accept its value content too. If 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 Ram so fervently accept and stick to these two values – truth and constancy – in their personal life.
About truth, the 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 MANS (Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti) movement.
Excerpted from the ‘Selected Writings’, Narendra Dabholkar, translated from the Marathi by Suman Oak, in Words Matter: Writing Against Silence, edited and introduced by K Satchidanandan, Penguin Viking.
