All is filled in with Shraddha

The word shraddhaa, in Sanskrit, is usually translated into English as trust, faith, confidence, loyalty, respect, reverence etc. But this is not all about shraddhaa. When we analyze and go deep into the root sense of the word then we not only know the true meaning of shraddhaa but also experience what is meant by it. The word shraddhaa is constituted of two components: shrat and dhaa. The component dhaa is a root sound which refers to putting, placing, bestowing, holding, having, causing &c. From this root we get the word dhaatu which means a constituent element or essential ingredient which holds things together. The primary element of the earth or of a word is also called dhaatu. The words dhaatri and dhaana are from this root both of which mean a receptacle or vessel that holds things within it. These are few derivatives of the root-sound dhaa meaning ‘to hold’. The other component of the word shraddhaa is shrat. This sound is not used in the classical Sanskrit as an independent word. But find the independent use of the word shrat in several Mantras of the Veda (see, for example, Rigveda, 10.147.1) with a proper meaning of its own. Usually shrat in the Veda means truth. Sri Aurobindo has interpreted the word shrat as ‘whatever is true to one’s aspiration’. Now taking this meaning together with that of dhaa we can very well say that shraddhaa means ‘to hold that power within which is true to our aspiration’. This is the true faith. When everything is in agreement with one’s aspiration then one is truly faithful. When things are not in agreement with one’s aspiration it shows that one is not faithful to himself, is not sincere. When all our movements inner or outer are turned towards the fulfillment of our aspiration then we are truly faithful or shraddhaavaan. When the Gita (4.39) says Shraddhavan labhate jnanam (He who has faith attains to knowledge) it refers to this utmost sincerity in all parts of one’s being. Shraddhaa is the aadhaara or base of all that we do as our saadhana. It is the force of shradhaa saves us from all stumbles and errors and sustains us in the path of our saadhana.

“The perfect faith is an assent of the whole being to the truth seen by it or offered to its acceptance, and its central working is a faith of the soul in its own will to be and attain and become… This soul faith, in some form of itself, is indispensable to the action of the being and without it man cannot move a single pace in life, much less take any step forward to a yet unrealised perfection. It is so central and essential a thing that the Gita can justly say of it that whatever is a man's sraddha, that he is, yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah, and, it may be added, whatever he has the faith to see as possible in himself and strive for, that he can create and become.”
-Sri Aurobindo (Synthesis of Yoga, Part IV Chapter XVIII, p771)

The Vedic Rishis considered shraddhaa to be a force. Therefore, we find in the Veda that shraddha is often personified and invoked as a deity. In the tenth Mandala of Rigveda, the 151st hymn is entirely dedicated to goddess shraddhaa. There are five mantras in which shraddhaa devi has been invoked. Here is the last mantra of this hymn with meaning.

“We invoke (havaamahe) shraddhaa early in the morning (praatah); we invoke her in the midday (madhyandinam pari); we invoke her at the setting of the sun (suryasya nimruchi); O shraddhaa devi, endow us with true faith (shraddhaapaya).