This evening I would like to speak on the question of belief and faith. Very often we confuse the word "belief" with "faith." Belief is a settled thought; as long as thought is wavering, it is not belief. When a person says, "I wonder, is it so or is it not so?", that does not mean belief. He may appear to believe but he does not believe. Belief means the thought has settled in the mind and it is difficult to root it out. And yet belief is not necessarily faith, because faith is the culmination of belief. Faith is that belief which is no longer settled thought, but is in the very being of the person. Although we use the words faith and belief for the same thing in our everyday life, when we come to analyze and understand them from the metaphysical point of view, belief and faith are quite different.

People have used the word" faith" for a person's religion, but that is another thing. It is very good to say that one has a Christian faith, another a Muslim faith, and another a Jewish faith. If a Christian has a Christian faith, if a Muslim has a Muslim faith, if a Jew has a Jewish faith, what more do you want? Because faith is no longer Christian or Muslim or Jewish; once a person has reached faith, he no longer needs a faith; he is above all religions.

In the Eastern languages, in the Hindustani language, they separate the word "faith" which is used in everyday language, from the other word, which is used in connection with one's spiritual evolution. That faith is called iman. Yaqin is a settled belief; iman is the culmination of faith.

When you say, "It is so," that means belief. But when you say, "It cannot be otherwise," that means faith. And when you say, "I wonder," it is imagination.