GRACE – A Speech by Mr. Raghavendra Somayaji on 21.12.2014 Namaste, Today, I would like to speak about the role of Grace in our lives and in our Sadhana. While preparing for this topic, I came across some questions on ‘good luck’ or good fortune and grace. These were asked to Guruji. I will refer to his answers here. The first question is, are good luck and grace, one and the same? Guruji had explained that good luck or good fortune is the result of our good Karmas. From this we also understand that bad luck comes from our bad Karmas. This really means that there is no such thing as luck in the strictest sense. What seems to be luck is the Universe’s response to our good intentions, thoughts and actions. This also implies that the more good we do now, the more ‘lucky’ we will get in the future through the Law of Karma. So, when people ask why some individuals are very lucky and some are very unlucky, this is the simple answer: Their good Karmas. This is important to know because, it implies that things don’t happen by chance; there is an order in the Universe that we may not fully understand. There are some who believe that everything we have now, every facility and convenience, every meal of the day is available to us only because of our good Karmas. I had met a devout lady who is very good, very spiritual, but somehow believed that only if she gives food to the poor three times a day, she will get food three times a day in her next life. This is an extreme view of Karmas. If this were true, then the souls that take birth for the first time will not get any food to eat, any water to drink or even, any air to breathe. Though good Karmas bring us rewards, all rewards are not because of our Karmas. Guruji had also explained that good Karmas bring us rewards at the Material level, proportionate to the amount of accumulated Karmas. This is very important to note. They bring us rewards at the Material level proportionate to the amount of our Karmas. This implies two things. The first implication is, our luck can run out, meaning, once our good Karmas are used up, there will be no more such rewards. The second implication, which is very important, is that the rewards are only at the Material level. This means, regardless of how much good Karmas we accumulate, it cannot bring us Spiritual benefits or rewards. WE THE MEDITATORS HERE UNDERSTAND CLEARLY THAT WE NEED TO CLEAR ALL OUR KARMAS, INCLUDING THE GOOD KARMAS, IF WE WANT TO EXPERIENCE LIBERATION. Those who are new to this Path may sometimes find it difficult to understand that we have to clear our good Karmas also. Does this mean, we should not do any good? Should people stop doing good out of the fear of accumulating good Karmas? We know that we have to continue to do good if possible, whenever an opportunity presents itself. But how do we ensure that our action does not attract good Karmas? When we have the thought or desire to help someone, we must go within ourselves and see what is behind the desire to help, by asking ourselves questions like, “Do I want to help this person to feel good about myself and to certify myself as a good person? Am I doing it to receive a favour in return or to show that I am good?” “Do I feel superior by helping the needy? By helping others, do I feel I am their saviour?” As I understand, any such expectation from our actions will attract good Karmas. If we carry a strong feeling like, “I am helping this person; he is getting benefited because of me”, we attract good Karmas. When we do something with such an expectation, we do get something in return. It then becomes a business like transaction. After helping someone, if we have an urge to tell everyone about it, it indicates that our action was self-centred and not charitable. We were not giving, we were receiving. Instead, we must act out of pure compassion. If we truly embody compassion, what manifests through us will be pure and full of love. Such action will be unconditional and will not attract any good Karmas. This is what is selfless service. If we are unable to bring out compassion, we must practice empathy in that moment. We must imagine ourselves in the position the other person is in and try to feel what the other person is feeling. This will help bring out compassion, and in this state we must act to avoid good Karmas. The question that comes to mind then is, if we clear all our good Karmas, how can anything good come to us? This brings us to the second part of Guruji’s answer, which is about Grace. Guruji had explained that our good Karmas cannot bring us grace. Good fortune and grace are entirely different. So, the next obvious question is, how do we earn God’s grace? What do we have to do to qualify for God’s grace? The fundamental difference between Grace and good fortune is, their origin and the level at which they operate. Grace is from the Absolute Realm, and it is an Absolute Truth like God’s Omnipresence and His Unconditional Love. Whereas, good fortune exists only in this relative realm of opposites. In the relative realm, there can be more and less, or good and bad. In the relative realm, everything is finite, limited, so, good fortune is also limited. Since Grace is an Absolute Truth, it has no opposite, and there cannot be less or more of it. Grace is always present and it is infinite. So, to the question, “How to earn God’s grace?”, the answer in my opinion is, it cannot be earned. It is not something that can be accumulated like Karmas. IN FACT, GRACE NEED NOT BE EARNED BECAUSE, IT IS ALWAYS PRESENT. We can never run out of it. We cannot live for a moment without it. And to the question, “How do we qualify for grace?”, the answer in my opinion is, everyone qualifies for grace. THERE IS NO SOUL IN CREATION THAT DOES NOT DESERVE GOD’S GRACE. GURUJI HAD SAID, GRACE COMES OUT OF GOD’S LOVE FOR US. AND GOD LOVES EVERYONE AND THEREFORE, EVERYONE RECEIVES GOD’S GRACE. GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS UNCONDITIONAL AND IT DOES NOT DEPEND ON OUR KARMAS. THEREFORE, GOD’S GRACE IS ALSO UNCONDITIONAL. It is not possible for God to love some souls and not love others. Can a mother love one child and not the other? God loves us regardless of whether we believe in Him or not, regardless of whether we love Him or not. If we believe that God’s grace is available only for some and not others, then it is an incorrect understanding of Grace and God Himself. This implies God is partial. This is absurd. Such a belief arises from imagining God to be like us human beings. In this sense, I can say, God is made in the image of Man! We have brought Him down to our level. We should not see God as an individual. If we do, we will be seeing the infinite as a finite being with boundaries. This happens because we try to understand God through our intellect. The intellect, which is limited, cannot comprehend the infinite. The intellect can only understand reality by turning a small aspect of it into a concept. That is its job. So, it has turned God into a concept. Any concept is limited because it is created by a tool which is limited. Though we cannot do anything about the intellect, we can at least be aware of its limitations. What I am going to say next may sound difficult to practice. We must try to see the entire Creation and the life in it through the eyes of God. We can call this, ‘Empathy for God!’ I believe that when we practice ‘Empathy for God’, it takes us closer to the experience of Oneness. It also helps us forgive others and accept them as they are. When we see life from God’s point of view with the awareness that God has split Himself into all the souls, we realise that when He loves us, He is loving Himself and therefore, it is not possible for Him to love one part and not love another part of Himself. I am emphasising this point because, there are many people in this world, especially those who are suffering, who believe that God does not love them and therefore, they believe they are not receiving His Grace. In fact we must remove completely this idea that we need to do something to qualify for God’s Grace. That is the beauty of grace when compared to Karmas. For good Karma, we have to make efforts and earn it. But no effort is required for Grace. But then, if God loves everyone and everyone has His grace, why is it that some individuals do not seem to receive His Grace? Just because a person is suffering, we cannot presume that he or she is not receiving God’s Grace. We cannot understand all the reasons behind a person’s suffering, but it is definitely not because of a lack of Grace. We can understand this seeming absence of Grace as follows. When the Sun shines, everyone receives the light. But those who shut all the doors and windows will not receive much light. We have the freewill through which we can deny the Grace. In the same way, we somehow prevent the Grace from reaching us. All the wrong choices that we make, consciously or unconsciously keep God’s Grace away from us. For example, earlier I mentioned that it is important to believe that God loves us. But if we cannot accept this, if we believe that God does not love us, we judge ourselves as unworthy of God’s love and we start believing that we do not deserve His Grace. We also stop loving ourselves. Such a strong belief combined with a feeling of unworthiness can prevent us from receiving the Grace. It is for this reason it is most important to love and forgive ourselves. If we cannot love ourselves, then the Universe cannot love us because, we are the Universe. A person who is suffering from a disease invariably makes the conclusion that he or she is unfortunate and forsaken by God. This is a judgement of the self, which should be avoided at all costs. In spite of the disease or problems, we should not conclude that we are unworthy of God’s Grace. We must love and accept ourselves regardless of what problems we are facing. When we are able to love ourselves, we can forgive ourselves and accept ourselves without judgement. If we can do this, the floodgates of Grace will be opened on us. One very important and effective way of receiving God’s Grace is through the expression of Gratitude for all that we have already received. For this, we need to become aware of all the gifts we have received and continue to receive. So, the awareness of Grace already present plays an important role in developing gratitude. Being unaware of the Grace that is already present, is like a wealthy man who believes that he is poor. All the beauty in nature, the music, the sunset, the flowers and the birds, all of this is the manifestation of Grace. If we don’t recognise it, we miss it completely. It is the same as not having it. Expression of gratitude is an important part of positivisation. We can do this every day by looking around and observing all that we have received and thanking God for every bit of it. The problem is, we do not notice the Grace that is already present. We are usually preoccupied with what we want or we are too busy in life to pause and notice the Grace around in all the things that we have, all the facilities and conveniences. Even if we don’t have all of the luxuries of life, even if we are very poor, we can be thankful for our existence and our awareness. Recognising God’s Grace in every moment is an essential part of living life fully. When we recognise all the Grace that we have received and acknowledge it in gratitude every day, it gradually dissolves any feeling of unworthiness and strengthens the faith in God’s Grace. This should lead to more Gratitude, which in turn leads to more Grace. So, ultimately, gratitude leads to abundance. HERE WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT ABUNDANCE IS NOT HAVING TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING; IT IS HAVING ENOUGH TO MEET OUR NEEDS. VAIRAGYA OR NON-ATTACHMENT IS AN ASPECT OF TRUE ABUNDANCE. The conscious practice of expressing gratitude also removes the belief that we are unfortunate. So, we need to develop an attitude of gratitude. A strong ego comes in the way of expressing gratitude, and hence it blocks the Grace from reaching us. Another simple way of receiving anything is to give it to others unconditionally. For example, if we want to receive Grace, we must give it to others. This is not Karma because it is done without expecting anything in return. We already know this in the context of Light Channelling. When we channel Light to the world, the Light must flow through us. Which means, the one who channels also receives the Light. In the same way, when we shower our Grace on others, we become a channel for Grace and hence, we also receive it. In simple terms, if we want to receive anything, we must learn to give it. I will illustrate this with a real life example. A person who was very lonely and suffering from depression, was feeling very dejected. He then decided to commit suicide. But before attempting it, he fortunately called a friend and told him that he had made up his mind to give up his life. He was also crying with a lot of sadness. His friend on the phone who was experienced in dealing with such individuals, said, “I suggest you to do something for me. Just go outside your house, look around and see if there is anything that is out-of-order, anything that needs fixing. I will wait on the phone.” So, the person goes out and looks at his neighbouring house where an old lady would be staying, and notices a lot of dry leaves and piles of dirt lying in front of the main door. Seeing this, he returns to his phone and describes it to his friend. The friend says, “Take a broom and thoroughly clean up the area in front of that house. Take as much time as you need. Once you are done, come back to the phone. I will be waiting.” As directed, this person goes out and cleans the area in front of the neighbours house. He then returns to his friend waiting on the phone. His friend asks, “How do you feel now?” For this the person says, “I don’t want to commit suicide anymore. I want to live.” How did this sudden turnaround happen? What replaced his wish for suicide with a desire to live? I understand this as follows. When he cleaned his neighbour’s front yard, it was an act of selfless service. It was an act of Grace on his neighbour. When the Grace flowed through him, he also received it, which healed him at his core and gave him a sense of purpose in life. So, by the act of giving, he also received. The same works for many other things. For example, if we want to be happy, we should make others happy. If we want to experience peace, we should let others have peace. Another way to receive Grace is through Spiritual Transformation. Guruji had explained that when we make a serious mistake, we attract Karmas. Guruji had said if we deeply regret this act and seek forgiveness from the Universe, and not repeat the mistake, it will clear this #Karma. Guruji said, this is how God’s Grace works. Such deep and sincere regret transforms us. When we transform, we get aligned with the Divine. When we are aligned with the Divine, Grace flows automatically. My last point is about the Guru’s Grace. Just like God’s grace, the Guru’s Grace is also unconditional and ever flowing. We require the Guru’s grace till our Sadhana ends. The Guru’s grace is necessary to reach the highest #Spiritual state. But whether we are able to receive it or not depends on us. Once, a person wrote to Guruji and asked him this. He said, “Can you please push me into Samadhi like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa did to Swami Vivekananda?” In reply, Guruji humorously said, “I cannot do it because I am not Ramakrishna and you are not Vivekananda!” But as I understand, Guruji did have this capacity and I believe he helped many to experience Samadhi. But he never spoke about it. He did not push everyone into #Samadhi because we were not ready to receive the grace. We were not pure enough to move to the next level. So, the Guru waits and continues to guide. This means that the amount of grace we receive from the #Guru depends on our level of readiness to receive. So, it is something that is in our hands. Guruji had said that when we truly surrender, the grace flows fully. So, whether we #surrender or when we surrender is left to us. What we need to surrender is our ego. I close my speech by quoting Guruji Krishnananda. He had once said, “When we realize that every breath we take is #God’s #Grace, our #Sadhana ends.” Thank you.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:17:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015