By Trust the Fire Is Kindled
By trust the fire is kindled; by trust the offering is made. Trust is the threshold of every good thing — let us set trust within our hearts.
Before I even begin, do I douse the spark that could have caught, with the thought 'it won't work'?
📝Reflection
'By trust the fire is kindled' — here trust (śraddhā) is not a particular creed but the spark of a mind that something can come to be. Fire is lit only with the trust that it will catch; a seed is sown only with the trust that it will grow. I often reverse this order — I'll believe once it's certain. But the poet says trust comes first. Trust does not guarantee the result, but it makes the beginning possible. Deem it 'won't work' and even a workable thing never starts. At the threshold of everything achieved lies one small trust toward what is not yet seen.
🌱Apply It Today
On one thing you deferred as 'probably won't work,' without promising the outcome, take just the first step in the spirit of 'let me at least light the spark.'
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
