Leading Light | Doubt As Much As You Can

Last Updated:May 30, 2025, 10:42 IST

Doubt what’s good, never bad? True faith isn’t shaken by questions—it’s strengthened. Let doubt arise, pass, and give way to faith, your greatest inner strength.

I am often asked about doubts. What do you do when doubts arise? Do you brush them under the carpet or deny them? Neither seems to help. To overcome doubt, we need to first understand what it is.

A true Master will never rush to clear your doubts. On the contrary, He may encourage you to have more doubts. Why? Because doubt, when examined well, strengthens you. You bake in it, and the understanding that comes out from this makes you more solid, more centered. If not now, the same doubt will return years later. It is better to face it fully today.

Truth can withstand all your doubts. Real faith is like the sky that is vast and open. Doubts are just like passing clouds. They come and they go. They cannot shake what is real.

The Nature Of Doubt

Notice how you always doubt something which is good. You doubt someone’s honesty, never their dishonesty. You question your capabilities, not your limitations. If someone says “I love you”, you ask, “Really?” But if they say “I hate you”, you believe it instantly. You doubt happiness, but never your sadness.

But the truth is your faith, your love, your beauty, your truth is a hundred times more powerful than the doubt.

The nature of faith is that it remains unaffected by even a million doubts. When you see that our doubt is always about something that’s positive, a certain level of awareness comes within you and that helps you transcend doubt. Faith which goes through the process of doubt becomes much stronger and genuine. Faith comes to play only at times of crisis. It is strange that one loses faith when it is most needed! That’s when you must remember: Faith is a gift, a blessing and a wealth. And if you feel you have no faith, then pray for it. But even to pray, you need faith. This is the paradox. But we are all born with innate faith. When we are born we trust our mother. Nobody has to teach us that. A child has complete trust.

Faith is not a favour you do to God. Your faith does not elevate the Divine. It uplifts you. It gives you strength, stability, calmness, and clarity. It brings you home to yourself.

There are three kinds of faith: faith in yourself, faith in the world, and faith in the Divine. Without faith in yourself, you feel small, “Oh I can’t do this. This is not for me.” Without faith in the world, you cannot function. Banks give you loans because they believe you will repay them. You deposit your money because you believe it is safe. If you doubt everything in the world, then you cannot move forward in life.

The same is the case with Faith in the Divine – have Faith in the Divine and you will evolve. You feel anxious in life because you don’t have faith that there is a power that is taking care of you. All these three types of faiths are connected. Faith in yourself brings you freedom. Faith in the world brings peace. Faith in the Divine brings boundless love.

Faith integrates your entire being. It brings steadiness to your consciousness. It gathers the scattered threads of your mind and weaves them into something whole.

So don’t be afraid of doubt. Just don’t stay stuck in it. Let it come, and let it pass. And slowly, let the sun of faith shine through.

The author is a humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and an ambassador of peace. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.

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