When faith awakens in a person, it can arise in different ways. Some have endured suffering; others have had a spiritual experience—an out-of-body experience, lucid dreaming, or a kundalini awakening. Some have gone through clinical death. Others had the predisposition from their youth, and their faith simply matured. Whatever path has led us to faith, it is a blessing.
But faith in a general sense is a diffuse force. A person feels that God exists, that there is something higher, yet cannot clearly explain to themselves what exactly they believe in. In our tradition, the Creed exists to concentrate this inner force.
What Is the Creed?
The Guru explains:
“Faith in general is good, but to concentrate it, it needs to be centered and defined in some way. When we center and define it, this is called the Creed. It is a collection of aphorisms stating what, in fact, we believe in. We need to explain to ourselves, on the level of the conceptual mind: what do I actually believe in? In God in general—He is everywhere—but what comes next? When we lack clarity about this, that is not very good either.”
— Swami Vishnudevananda Giri, lecture “Divine Forces and the Structured Path to Liberation”
In Sanatana Dharma, such a body of principles is called the shraddha-mandala (Sanskrit: śraddhā-maṇḍala)—the space of faith, its structured map.
Living Faith, Not Dogma
Accepting the Creed in our tradition is fundamentally different from accepting dogma. The Guru emphasizes that we accept it as a project of spiritual work.
“We do not accept it merely to accept it and forget about it, to put it on a shelf and say, ‘I have become a believer, everything is wonderful’—no, that will not help. We accept it as a project of our spiritual work; we accept it in order to work with the Creed.”
— Swami Vishnudevananda Giri
True faith is a living process. Every day, the practitioner moves toward God, examines their faith, analyzes it, strengthens it, and deepens it. There is nothing textbook-like or rigidly rule-bound about it. It is a direct experience: one can contemplate God, love God, and surrender to God.
The Creed as the Foundation of the Path
Three stages are distinguished in the spiritual Teaching: the Foundation (adhara), the Path, and the Fruit. The Foundation is the view, the basis upon which the entire practice rests. The Path is divided into three components: view (jnana), meditation (dhyana), and conduct (kriya). The Fruit is the ultimate result of one’s efforts, moksha.
The Creed is precisely this Foundation. The Guru says that the foundation is the view of Advaita Vedanta. At first, it is intellectual and philosophical, and then it becomes an inner experience. The view means understanding the great truths—Prajnanam Brahma, Aham Brahmasmi, Tat Tvam Asi—and reflecting deeply upon them.
Without a clear Foundation, practice becomes chaotic, and progress toward the goal becomes unstable. Before engaging in the practice of awareness, we must determine what we base ourselves upon and what serves as our support.
The View as an Inner Treasure
Once the view has been received, it must not be abandoned. But receiving it is only the beginning. The Guru compares this to being admitted to a prestigious educational institution: you have been given potential, but you must study and develop yourself. Getting in is not yet the final achievement.
Contemplation is the means of developing this potential. The view is like faith, like potential. Potential must be developed. And as it develops, the practitioner’s self-identification changes. At first: “I am an ordinary person devoted to the Dharma” (this corresponds to the first bhumi). Then: “I am a sadhu; I identify myself with the values and ideals of the Dharma.” Then it goes even deeper.
From the Creed to Refuge
Once the principle of the Creed is understood, the next step is Refuge (Sanskrit: śaraṇam). Refuge is God who has come to us in a specific form. This is because God is incomprehensible and abstract to ordinary consciousness. We need something more tangible through which we can come into contact with Him.
In our tradition, Refuge is taken in the five jewels—the pancharatna: God Shiva as the source of all living beings, Shakti—His energy, the Guru—the spiritual Teacher, the Dharma—the teaching, and the Sangha—the community of saints and practitioners.
Thus, the Creed becomes a living foundation: through the shraddha mandala, we gain clarity; through Refuge, we establish a direct connection with the divine. And this connection grows, deepens, and guides us along the Path from our first steps to complete Liberation.
