Friday 10 May 2019

Source of Advaitin Locution Faith Pending Realization


Recollect my observations on the common advaitin locution ‘faith pending realization’:
faith pending realizantion

I believe I have found the source of this snappy summary:

It is clear that the concept of faith itself also carries very different connotations in the schools which accept jivanmukti, compared with those of the West. In schools which accept jivanmukti, faith is understood as faith pending realization - it denotes the trust one must have in order to undertake an experiment, but the outcome of the experiment is independent of such faith. It is even possible that the revealed results might contribute towards strengthening faith, just as one's faith in science is strengthened when one experimentally discovers that water is made of two gases.
(from Advaita Vedanta: an Introduction by Arvind Sharma pub.2004)

Maybe Professor Sharma found it elsewhere. However my strictures still stand and are even augmented by his “but the outcome of the experiment is independent of such faith”. This makes faith sound like a ‘no risks, get your money back at any time’ scheme.



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