Freedom From Doubt And Delusion

In the Fourth Chapter of Gita Krishna says, "But ignorant and faithless men who doubt the revealed scriptures go to ruin and perish. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next." (Gita, 4.40) Doubt has been called the shadow of truth. At the very beginning of one's spiritual life, a devotee is invariably beset by a legion of doubts. These doubts, which are but demons of innumerable colors and forms, all have one purpose: to obscure the light of truth from the vision of the devotee. Francis Bacon once wrote, "In contemplation if a man begins with certainties he shall end in doubts, but if he be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties." In this age, especially, one is inclined to disbelieve and doubt-to doubt scripture, to doubt God, to doubt oneself. This age is called Kali yuga and is characterized by strife, doubt, ignorance, chaos and disagreement. So at the outset of one's spiritual life, needless to say, innumerable doubts will present themselves. These demon doubts always surround the threshold of Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute. As the neophyte stands at this threshold, confused and fearful, the doubts assail him and tell him to turn back and not jump into the ocean of Divine bliss, and the timid soul, afraid of being hurt, hardly believing that it is eternal bliss and knowledge awaiting him, often fidgets and sometimes turns back in fear and disbelief.

Doubt is directly opposed to faith on the battlefield of the soul. Doubt and disbelief are the enemies of faith. If we have faith in a particular man, then we trust him in all kinds of ways, but if we have doubts about a man, then we trust him with nothing. Our relationship with the Divine is similar: our faith and trust in Him is inversely proportionate to the degree of doubt. The more we trust Him the more He reveals Himself to us, and the more He reveals Himself to us, the less we doubt. In the Bhagavad-gita Arjuna stands out as a man with a great deal of faith in Krishna. He was offered a chance between commanding a great army without Krishna or a small army with Krishna as his chariot driver. He chose Krishna as his charioteer and rejected the large army because he had faith in Krishna. Nonetheless, before the Battle of Kurukshetra, even with Krishna as his charioteer, he was beset with doubts. But Lord Krishna dispels all these doubts with the light of knowledge. He tells Arjuna, "Therefore the doubts in your heart risen out of ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge. Armed with yoga, O Bharata, stand and fight." (Gita, 4.42) After Krishna spoke the knowledge of Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, Arjuna said, "My delusion is gone. I have regained my memory through Your Grace, O Krishna. I am firm, I am free from doubt, I will act according to Your word." (Gita, 18.73) Doubt, fear, and delusion are interrelated. They are all the sons of ignorance and are all to be found on the roads of darkness. Knowledge is the sunshine that triumphantly disperses darkness and its consorts. Doubt is due to delusion. One is deluded who thinks that that which is unreal is real and who therefore does not know the nature of reality. Matter is illusion and spirit is reality. Therefore one who knows and can distinguish between matter and spirit is not deluded. Knowledge, therefore, as stated above, is understanding the nature of matter and spirit. Just as Krishna dispelled the doubts of Arjuna on the battlefield, the Spiritual Master imparts knowledge to his disciple and dispels the doubts that destroy his spiritual life. "If the sun and moon should doubt, they'd immediately go out," Blake wrote. Lord Krishna proclaims that just a little advancement in the Dharma He is teaching can "protect one from the most dangerous type of fear." (Gita, 2.40) So if one doubts the knowledge imparted by Lord Krishna and the Spiritual Master, one remains in ignorance and continues to be deluded about the nature of matter and spirit and so confuses his body with his Self and fears death.

Etymologically the word "fear," coming from the Anglo-Saxon faer, literally means "a sudden attack," and it is akin to the Old High German word fare which basically means "ambushed, snared, or entrapped." So we are entrapped by material nature and are constantly being attacked by it. And because of this we are always in a fearful condition in the material world. Fearfulness is due to worrying about the future. When a person has no knowledge about the next life, when he thinks his body is all in all, then he is always in anxiety to protect that body from the onslaught of other living entities, from natural catastrophes and from diseases arising from the body itself. Therefore fear is due to one's absorption in illusory energy. It is often said that all fears boil down to the basic fear of death. At death only the gross material body dies. So it is only when one identifies himself with the gross body that he fears death. Fear is therefore due to ignorance of one's real identity. Conversely, fearlessness is due to one's knowledge of his constitutional position. One who is in Krishna consciousness has no fears because his activities are non-material and assure him of going to the spiritual sky, back to Godhead at death. He is established in the Divine consciousness apart from the body consciousness, and because he has knowledge of the next life he is never in anxiety. His eternality is asserted by Lord Krishna Himself, "Proclaim it boldly, O son of Kunti, that My devotee never perishes." (Gita, 9.31) Krishna also says that He is both the personification of fear and death itself, Yamaraj. Because a bhakta always sees Krishna, death is not something unknown or strange to him, and because he knows the constitution of the soul, he knows that death is simply a transition to life. With the Names of Krishna on his lips, he fears nothing, for Krishna says that His Names contain all His potencies. And in the Srimad Bhagavatam it is said that the vibration of Krishna's Names strikes terror into fear itself.