Question: We are brought up in the West not to accept anything unless it has been proven. Should we have a mind that accepts things without questioning and without thinking?

Sri Chinmoy: When you tell your son, "I am your father," why does he accept you as his father? Just because he believes you. When we come into the world, our very first step is belief. When a father says to this child, "This is fire, this is a knife. Do not touch them because they will hurt you," the child believes him. The father need not prove to the child that these things will hurt him. The child has no need to ask for proof. The simple faith that a child carries is the happiest thing. Arguments begin when his mind begins to develop. Then he may start doubting his very existence.

But in the spiritual life, faith is not mere belief. It is the oneness of truth. When you have faith, the Master does not have to prove anything, because you feel the essential truth of what he says, just as in the physical world you do not have to prove your existence to others because they themselves can see you and feel you. Their existence spontaneously becomes one with yours, and there is no necessity for any other proof. In the outer life you have to prove what you are saying. But in the field of consciousness, truth proves its own existence. In the outer life, truth does not prove its own existence. That is because we relate to the outer world with our outer senses. Therefore truth has to be proved by some kind of perception. But we also have inner senses. The mind has one foot in the inner world and one foot in the outer world. As an inner sense it is inadequate, and as an outer sense it is incompetent. So let us ignore the mind and deal with the soul. When we stay in the soul, truth's very existence is its own proof.