Belief and Knowledge

A speaker at a sermon I recently attended said “Knowledge without belief is not sufficient.” For a person with a desire to seek knowledge it was intriguing.

All religious texts emphasize unequivocally on the need to have faith. All books on spirituality and modern propagandists of the power of mind say that the mind can achieve whatever it believes and thus the need for unstinted belief.

Why is this need for faith or belief? Is knowledge, followed by action not enough to achieve what we desire to achieve?

The logical mind seeks to understand and this seeking for understanding leads to the thirst to know or knowledge. This knowledge coupled by a strong desire for achievement of goal or purpose or need for success leads us into action. And when we act with knowledge we succeed.

Where does belief and faith come in all of this?

There could be many answers to this, and each one of us can discover his own answer. That is a matter of faith. And that probably is also the shortest, and as with anything shortest, also the most complex answer.

Let us get a little simpler.

If I have to travel from Mumbai to Pune and I decide to take the train because my knowledge says it is the cheapest, reliable as well as comfortable mode of transport, I need to first find out which trains go to Pune. That is seeking knowledge. So I will act, i.e. visit the railway site, find out the trains using a query and then book a ticket on the train which suits my schedule.

However at the basis of all this is my fundamental faith in the railway website and the fact that if it says a train will go via Pune and halt at Pune then it will indeed halt at Pune.

Imagine my state of mind if I didn’t have that belief in the railway website or the railways as a system. There would be a constant fear throughout the journey on whether I will reach my destination or not, whether I will achieve my desired outcome.

Life though is not as certain as the Indian (or for that matter any) Railways. And thus even when we act with knowledge we live in doubt, in the constant fear of achieving outcome.

Whether I am making the right investments which will yield expected returns? Whether the returns would be good enough when they happen? Is my current job going to continue or will I become redundant?

The fact of life is that most of the time we do reach our destinations; that our investments are good enough to meet our needs, that less than 5% actually lose a job and even for those few, 90% of them find something or other to earn a living.

Yet without belief we live in constant doubt and though in the end (or somewhere in the middle) we reach our goal, the journey is fraught with fear and uncertainty. And due to this fear and uncertainty of the outcome we fail to enjoy the journey; notice the verdant greenery of the plains of Karjat, the thrill of overlooking the valley at Lonavala, the childish excitement of counting the tunnels or the beauty of the always full Indrayani river as it snakes along the railway track at Kamshet.

Because all the time we are worried whether we will reach Pune or not.

Belief takes away the fear of outcome. And without that fear, not only am I able to act with clarity and thus with greater chances of making the right decisions, I also enjoy the entire process.

Life, if one were to define it like a line, is a journey between two points – birth and death. Our ability to learn i.e. act with knowledge, retrospect, correct and act again determines the success during the journey. Belief ensures that we lead the journey with clarity and enjoy it without fear. And when I act with clarity and without fear success become that much more easy and guaranteed.

That was my discovery of the reason for belief. There would be many more and I am sure you may discover your own. Or you may believe otherwise – that would be your belief.

And there would be a similar argument for belief without knowledge and action. We will leave that for some other day.