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Is it correct that faith associated with devotion gets some value?

Shri C. Balu asked: Mere faith is useless as You said previously. But, if devotion is associated with it, faith gets some value. Is it not?

Swami Replied:- Faith by itself is not good, if you analyse it. What do you mean by faith? Faith means that you are confident of God’s help in the fulfilment of some desire in return from God for your devotion. Such aspiration is poisonous to devotion itself. In devotion also, if the entire devotion is theoretical, there is no use of it. Practical devotion may also kindle some aspiration in return. If you are pure before doing practical devotion, such aspiration will never enter your mind. Hence, even before doing practical devotion, it is better to kill the aspiration in return. You cannot speak about faith in the absence of aspiration in return. Therefore, devotion, both theoretical and practical, based on true spiritual knowledge is the best path to please God without unnecessarily mixing faith with devotion. Without aspiration, the word faith cannot exist. If you purify your mind from aspiration, even before doing practical sacrifice,  practical sacrifice will not be polluted by aspiration in return. Hence, knowledge based-theoretical devotion supported by practical devotion without aspiration in return is the best path to please God and such best path results due to total attraction of the divine personality (and the attraction is not polluted by aspiration in return).

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