What is the role of faith in the spiritual life?

Ans : The great saint and philosopher, Sankaracharya, has laid down shraddha (faith) as one of the fundamental vehicles for spiritual practice. If everything could be understood by analysis and enquiry, then why did he stipulate faith as one of the keys? If an aspirant has no faith in the teacher or if he doubts what the teacher is saying, how can he learn anything at all? Even in our daily life, faith is indispensable. If somebody cooks some food for you, you have faith that they have not put poison in it. You go to a doctor and take the medicine he gives you, without thinking that it might be poison.

Similarly, it is reasonable to put faith in the words of those who have seen the Truth, because they say, "I have experienced the Truth, so you can also experience the Truth, provided you do what I have done. Experiment for yourself, and then see whether you attain the same result or not." They give us an assurance that we can also experience the highest Truth by following the proper path. Tulsidas said that faith is like the handmaiden of the queen. If anyone wants to see the queen, he has to be led finally into the queen's quarters by the trusted handmaiden. All our reasoning and theoretical knowledge will take us only up to a certain stage. Beyond that they cannot help us, but only faith can help us in attaining the Supreme Experience. Faith is necessary for all aspirants, whatever their path may be.