But the man who is ignorant and without faith and always doubting goes to ruin. Nor this world nor the world beyond nor happiness is for the doubting soul. (Krishna in the Gita, 4.40)
If the sun and moon should doubt
They would immediately go out.
William Blake
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, disguised as 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 "Kaliyuga" 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, not to 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 at the threshold and sometimes turns back in fear and disbelief.
Doubt is directly opposed to faith on the battlefield of the soul. Doubts 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 to 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 choice 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 fears and doubts. But after Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to him he engaged in the fearful battle and 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 You word." (Gita, 18.73). Of course, Christianity affords the classic example of "Doubting Thomas" who would not believe until he actually placed his fingers in the wounds of Christ. "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John, XX/29)
Doubt and fear are interrelated. They are both the sons of ignorance. They are all to be found in the realms of darkness. Knowledge is the sunshine that triumphantly disperses darkness and its consorts. Because this age of Kaliyuga is an age characterized by darkness, ignorance and disagreement, doubt and fear are predominant at this time. Kaliyuga, thankfully, does not last forever, but when mankind is in the midst of it, it seems interminable. Yet even in this age it is possible to transcend these inferior modes one can transcend when one is in Krishna consciousness, God-consciousness. It has been calculated that Kaliyuga lasts 432,000 years and that we have now been through 5,000 years of the yuga, but those in Krishna Consciousness are transcendental to all this darkness, for they are in the realms of eternal light, bliss and knowledge. Nonetheless, to arrive at the transcendental platform in this age, one has to disentangle oneself from the Kaliyuga labyrinth. It is during the disentanglement that maya, illusion, doubt, ignorance and dispair make their most vigorous assaults.
In the West, especially, so much doubt is due to the method of approach: empiricism, the pursuit of knowledge by observation and experiment, which began spreading like a disease in the 17th century in Europe and was well established by the 18th. Locke and Hume were the great "observers" of the phenomenal world and the methodology resulting from their speculative philosophies fostered the skepticism that gradually corrupted faith for the Western mind. In the 18th century, William Blake, a Christian visionary and a personalist, blasted the European skeptics and the method of scientific empiricism in some brilliant verse. For example:
Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, mock on; 'tis all in vain!
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back they blind the mocking eye,
But still in Israel's path they shine.
The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton's Particles of Light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.
In Universities today, however, the empiricists are considered more "respectable" than Blake, and the words of scientists are considered more potent and reliable than the Word of God as revealed in Scripture. Man is now in the material universe; he wants to "know" this universe, and as far as he is concerned, science is his best tool. Science is based on empiricism, and doubt is the basis of empirical proof. The knowledge that man is now seeking to acquire is, according to the Gita, knowledge in the modes of passion and ignorance because science is concerned with knowledge of the material universe, and this knowledge acquired by science is being used by man to lord it over the material nature. This has "progressed" to such an extent that there have been recent attempts to institute a religion based on chemicals (psychedelic drugs) and the empirical process of psychology. Vain men are trying to used their tiny brains to puncture a realm that can only be known through faith, devotion, and the grace of God. As a result the Supreme has strictly confined them to the material universe and the limited knowledge associated with it, which is no more than knowledge in the modes of passion and ignorance. They are only scientists and they know nothing of the transcendental spiritual realms that compose three fourths of the creation. Because they are recalcitrant children of darkness, they have been confined to material nature and their attempts to break out of it through super drugs and sputniks will always prove futile because their scientific methodology, based on doubt and empiricism, will continue to drag them back to the material world. Thinking the physical, material universe the all in all, they set about conquering it like children and blatantly deny the spiritual (non-empirical) worlds and, in addition, deny God, devotion, and the Scriptures that point to the spiritual worlds. The scientist never acknowledge that he automatically accepts so much on faith his very breath, for example, that makes it possible for him to pursue science and the empirical path.
Such respected "oracles," great-grandsons of old Europe's age of skepticism, have succeeded in instilling doubt in the minds of the young, especially in universities, and have taught them to disbelieve the Scriptures and the Supreme Lord. As a result, general disbelief in the unseen is common. Not that the Supreme Lord is unseen, but His material energy (maya) serves as a guise. "Veiled by My maya born of the gunas, I am not revealed to all. This deluded world knows Me not as the unborn and eternal." (Gita, 7.25). This maya, illusory energy, is the property of the Lord Himself and is kept under His control. "Controlling My own Prakriti (Nature), I send forth, again and again, all this multitude of beings, helpless under the sway of maya." (Gita, 9.8). He is therefore the Unseen Player behind the play. Science and the empirical method teach man to doubt the unseen, and as a result man frantically searches for signs that can be scurried off to the laboratory for analytical investigations. Christ said, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign," and Whitman (a "disreputable" mystic and poet) wrote in Son of Myself, "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars…and a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels….And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times." Of course this is roughly dismissed as "sentimentalism" by the learned scientists and empiricists.
But what do they give in return? Legions and generations of "sullen mopers and doubters." They briskly dismiss the Scriptures, guidebooks to the Divine, and replace them with analytical textbooks. Totally under the dictates of their senses, they teach their students to trust their senses only. Altogether dismissing the Real, which they think the unreal, they substitute the unreal which they call the "real," and label this process as education. In addition, because so many ignorant religionists in this age are indiscriminately citing the Scriptures, people are naturally repelled they associate the ignorant proponents of the Scriptures with the Scriptures themselves and consequently turn away altogether from the authorized guidebooks. Since institutionalized religion only offers a closed door intellectually, many turn to the scientists and professional academicians for guidance. Of course, these men are only too happy to be gurus, and they lead their followers cheerfully into the swamp of materialism and delusion.
Due to this insurmountable barrier, constructed by centuries of rationalization, speculation and conceit, God-realization has become increasingly difficult. First of all the inherited wall of ignorance and passion must be reduced to ruble. This is a hard task indeed for a lonely soul caught in the involvements of the social order. It necessitates a great deal of stamina, conviction, courage, and knowledge. The masterminds of deceit are clever in their defense of materialism and in their attacks against the Supreme Lord and the spiritual worlds. Krishna says, "Men of demoniac nature know not what to do and what to refrain from doing. Purity is not in them, nor good conduct, nor truth. They say, 'The world is devoid of truth, without a moral basis, and without a God. It is brought about by the union of male and female, and lust alone is its cause: what else?' Holding such a view, these lost souls of little understanding and fierce deeds rise as the enemies of the world for its destruction." (Gita, 17.7-9). Typically, these demoniacal creatures, who instill doubt in others, cannot answer for death, which poses an inevitable end to their bodies and material possessions. For them, death is an embarrassing subject, an inevitability that is somehow to be overlooked or avoided. The recognition of death and its inevitability, the sensing of one's finite self, the body and its constituents, to be moving towards death, can be the first step in reducing the wall of ignorance and passion to rubble. Doubts may still remain, but at least a man conscious of the inevitability of death and its implications may be able to see through the shallow guise of materialism and its allurements. The perception of one's miserable material condition and the desire to escape death can mark the beginning of the spiritual life. A this point one may approach a spiritual master.
Unfortunately, the doubts are immediately transferred to the spiritual master. Because there are so many unqualified, self-proclaimed gurus, the neophyte is naturally dubious in the beginning. His way of thinking has been so conditioned by science and the materialists that he may often see the guru as "quaint" or "old-fashioned" or perhaps just short of mad. Of course, there is the initial difficulty of finding a competent spiritual master in this age of Kaliyuga, but if, through the grace of the Supreme Lord, one is so lucky, then one's trust is strengthened through increasing association and gradually, by the help of the guru and through the grace of the Supreme Lord, the darkness of one's doubts are one by one dispelled by the light of knowledge. In this process, the Supreme Lord may speak in several ways to dispel fear, ignorance and doubt through the guru, through the Scriptures, or directly. In this matter, Lord Krishna speaks through the Bhagavad Gita: "Now listen to the wisdom of yoga, armed with which, O son of Pritha (Arjuna), you will break through the bonds of karma. In this no effort is ever lost and no harm is ever done. Even very little of this dharma saves a man from the Great Fear." (Gita, 2.39-40) This Great Fear is caused by the seemingly endless circle of birth and death, the net that is continually entrapping the materialists, scientists and speculative philosophers who turn from the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord alone can grant liberation from this cycle to which the individual soul has been confined since time immemorial. He only grants this to the soul who, in all sincerity, turns to Him and surrenders to Him. "Take refuge in Him alone with all your soul, O Bharata. By His grace will you gain Supreme Peace and the Everlasting Abode." (Gita, 18.62)
In the process of surrender, innumerable doubts continually assail the neophyte, especially as he approaches the threshold of liberation. Maya, the material nature, is very strong, and the memory of one's past karma, the ghosts of habit, still linger before the candidate for liberation, trying to get him to retreat while retreat is possible. They are constantly reminding the individual soul of his weaknesses and imperfections, which in truth may still be there and are recognized by the neophyte. In this regard, the attempts of the neophyte toward purification and perfection of self are continually thwarted by his lower nature. Krishna warns of this: "There is no creature here on earth, nor among the gods in heaven, who is free from the three gunas born of Prakriti." (Gita 18.40) Therefore Krishna does not expect perfection of the individual living entity: "One ought not to give up the work to which one is born, O son of Kunti, though it has its imperfections; for all undertakings are beset with imperfections, as fire with smoke." (Gita, 18.48) Rather, the process is one of surrender and devotion to the Supreme Lord who grants liberation through His boundless Grace, not through the "earnings" of the devotee. This Grace enables one to come to Him despite one's imperfections. "For those who take refuge in Me, O Partha, though they be of sinful birth women, vaisyas, and sudras even they attain the Supreme Goal." (Gita, 9.32) even Lord Jesus Christ, the symbol of perfection in the Western World, deprecated His human nature to teach others. When addressed as "Good Master," Christ said, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." (Matt, XIX/17) Therefore recognition of one's imperfections due to material contact should not be an impediment on the path back to Godhead. One should run roughshod over them, trampling them and the creeping doubts they nourish.
But how does one run roughshod over imperfections and doubt? How does one win the bout to rout out doubt, clearing the road back to Krishna? Once it is clear that doubt is the hell of the human soul, and that, as Petrarch once wrote, "The end of doubt is the beginning of repose," we can then begin to recognize doubt as doubt, as a keen eye can recognize weeds in a garden, and we can begin to uproot the cause of unhappiness. Seeing that doubting the Supreme Lord, His words as revealed in Scriptures, His emissaries, and ultimately our very selves, only leads to a self-defeating unhappiness, we can be therefore willing to discard our doubts. As Krishna says in the Gita, "The man who is ignorant and without faith and always doubting goes to ruin. Not this world nor the world beyond nor happiness is for doubting soul." (Gita 4.40) The will to dispel doubts is a big step toward taking the leap of faith, that "terrifying" plunge out the open threshold of material existence and into the spiritual ocean. Partly the disbelief of one's own ability to attain self-knowledge, doubt is conquered swiftly by knowledge imparted by the Grace of the Supreme. Krishna says: "Solely out of compassion for them (His devotees), I, dwelling in their hearts, dispel with the shining lamp of wisdom the darkness born of ignorance." (Gita, 10.11) Once the Supreme is seen, then the darkness of doubt is scattered by His light. The process of seeing God is the process of God-realization, Krishna Consciousness, and is most easily accomplished in this age through the process of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service which basically entails chanting the Holy Names (Hare Krishna, Hare Rama), in addition to working detached from the fruits of labor, reading the Scriptures, following the regulations of the spiritual master, and totally surrendering to the Supreme Lord. This process may be gradual or sudden, but as one progresses in the dharma one chooses to follow, doubts, fears and ignorance are overcome. "With sins destroyed, doubts dispelled, senses controlled, and devoting themselves to the welfare of all beings, the sages attain freedom in Brahman." (Gita, 5.25)
Therefore recognition of doubt and disbelief as fetters binding one to unhappiness is the first step in cutting these fetters. In our present state of material bondage, we are bound by nature to the flesh. We can hardly, out of our own efforts, break loose from the grip of a force that has been binding us since time immemorial. Surrendering to the to the Supreme Lord, Krishna, we must petition Him to release us. Recognition of our release from material bondage is the process of enlightenment.
This enlightenment of the devotee perfectly enables him to distinguish the spirit from the matter because the knot of spirit and matter is unlocked by the Lord. This knot is called ahankara which falsely obliges a living being to become identified with matter. As soon as, therefore, this knot is loosened, the cloud of all doubts are at once cleared. He sees his Master and fully engages himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, making a full termination of the chain of fruitive action. In the material existence, a living being creates his own chain of fruitive work and enjoys the good and bad effects of those actions life after life. But as soon as he engages himself in the loving service of the Lord, he at once becomes free from the chain of karma and all his actions no longer create reactions in the material energy. (Swami Bhaktivedanta, Purport, Srimad Bhagavatam, Vol. I, p. 133.)
This process of breaking free is the process of liberation. This is achieved through devotional service to the Supreme Lord, for it is the Supreme Lord only Who awards liberation. Liberation is incomplete as long as one has not surrendered to Vasudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. "At the end of many births the man of wisdom seeks refuge in Me, realizing that Vasudeva is all. Rare indeed is such a high-souled person." (Gita, 7.19) transcendental service of the Lord carries us into eternity. At death, all material connections are severed, but this transcendental service continues. Although this cannot be "proved" to the empirical scientist, it is revealed beyond the shadow of a doubt to the devotee by the Supreme Lord. "Proclaim it boldly, O son of Kunti, that My devotee never perishes." (Gita, 9.31) knowledge that the Lord keeps His word in this matter dispels all fear and doubt. This is beyond all mundane considerations, and the devotee is advised not to engage in idle debates with mundane word-wranglers, for "He who replies to words of doubt/Doth put the light of knowledge out." (Blake.)
There is no doubt in the ocean of Divine Bliss. Doubt, fear and ignorance belong to this relative world which is the abode of darkness, the perverted reflection of the spiritual world. Doubts and fears assail the man who is about to break away from material bondage. In the spiritual world, the Kingdom of God, doubt is impossible because there we are in the abode of Bliss-knowledge-Absolute, having been lifted, through grace, into a region where we can come to know the fullness of our nature and God Himself. Acting as a sort of quaint American guru, the poet Whitman in Song Of Myself delineates his own spiritual fears and doubts and exhorts the young nation to take the spiritual plunge willingly.
Down-hearted doubters dull and excluded,
Frivolous, sullen, moping, angry, affected, dishearten'd atheistical,
I know everyone of you, I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair and unbelief…
Be at peace bloody flukes of doubters and sullen mopers..
Each who passes is considered, each who stops is considered,
Not a single one can it fail.
Dear son,
Long enough have you dreamed contemptible dreams,
Now I wash the gum from your eyes,
You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of
every moment of your life.
Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore,
Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to
me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair.
Finally, we might recall the example of Sir Isaac Newton who saw himself as a child on the seashore, and his discoveries nothing but the colored shells. He realized he had no knowledge of the great ocean that lay before him, yet he perceived what he could with the faith of a child, and the knowledge he thereby acquired shed light that has dispelled a great deal of ignorance, fear and doubt. How much more light a fully surrendered devotee of the Supreme Lord could shed to dispel doubts and ignorance would be, in comparison, inestimably greater. But he must first be willing to take the plunge and splash in.