By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar | Posted: July 14, 2020

When a concept passes through the channel of logic and gets approved by the logical mind, it lodges in yourself as faith, and is then supported by your experience. For example, we’re told that aspirin is good for people with heart conditions. Everyone should take baby aspirin. Or statin, a medicine, is good to control cholesterol. So, logically you understand that.

Then, because it’s verified by some scientific experiments, you develop faith in it. Once you start having faith in it, you start getting results from it. That's how the placebo effect also works. It’s faith that makes the placebo effect work on you. 

Your body works on faith. Your mind works on faith. A human being can’t be devoid of faith. Someone believes in a certain concept because it’s scientifically proven, and if you scientifically disprove it, the faith breaks, right? 

Faith against logic?

So, when a whole generation believed, based on some research, that butter is bad for people with heart conditions, what happened? That faith was thrown away by another discovery that showed butter is good for heart patients because it has vitamin K. 

Now, when you understand something intellectually, and you start believing it, then it starts giving you experiences. You can see how thin the line is between logic and faith. It isn’t a hard and fast line. It’s a moving line. 

Although logic and faith appear to be two different things, the line between them is blurred, and it keeps shifting. There have been many scientific concepts which we believed, which we had faith in, but after counter studies and research findings, we had to drop all those beliefs. So through logic, we got into faith, and through logic, we discarded faith.

The importance of science

Logic is important in life. Scientific temper is very important. In the East and West, there are two different methodologies. The Western approach always says first you believe, and then you’ll get experience one day. This is contrary to science. Science says, first let me experience and then I’ll start believing it. First let me logically prove it, then I’ll experience it. 

But the West says first believe, then you’ll have the experience and it’ll be proved. What you believe is correct will be proved later. One day it’ll be proved that your belief, faith, was correct. And you don’t even have to look for it. That’s what the Western philosophy was. 

The East has always said you experience it first. Exhaust your logic. Use your logic. Then, whatever comes out of it, then you start believing it. You can’t say you won’t believe, even though your logic has accepted something. Logically it’s all correct, but then you say ‘No, still I don’t believe.’

So here, the East says you first experience it and then from experience you move on to postulating it as your faith, as your belief. That’s the reason not a single scientist was ever persecuted in the East, whereas scientists were persecuted in the West. 

Faith is the foundation of life 

Science and spirituality come together in the Eastern way of looking at things. That is, first experience. Give logic its due place. Give science its prominent seat, and then through science, see that comes out as faith, as belief, as reality, as truth. That you accept. If you don’t accept that, then that’s not scientific.

Faith is the very foundation of life. If someone’s faith is shaken on anything, their life is shaken, right? Faith brings stability into life. Faith brings inner strength to life. Faith is the greatest motivator. Faith keeps us sane. Faith keeps us out of fear and frustration. Faith keeps the hope alive in us.

In this way, logic and faith complement each other and they’re not contradictory. They shouldn’t contradict each other. If they appear to be contradictory, we have to revisit our methodology. 

To learn how to breathe to achieve happiness through methods that are supported by science and research, try Beyond Breath - A FREE Breath & Meditation Online Session With a Live Instructor. You can experience life beyond contradictions and strengthen your own faith!