(Apr 29,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Testing Our Spiritual Life by Swami Atmaswarupananda

 Testing Our Spiritual Life

Divine Life Society Publication: - Early Morning Meditation Talk by Swami Atmaswarupananda

It is normal in human life that if we put a lot of time and effort into any endeavor, we want to be able to measure our progress. Whether it is studies, professional life, or business, we want to know in some way what our score is, how well we are doing. The same seems to apply to the spiritual life. After we have put in sufficient effort, sufficient time, there is a factor in us that wants to know whether we are getting proper results.

Normally that inclination is discouraged in the spiritual life, and it is discouraged for three reasons. The first reason is scriptural. "Yours is the effort. The result is up to God. Leave it to Him." The second reason is a very practical one. There is no practical way that we can judge whether we are being freed from egoism, lust, greed, hatred, anger and jealousy or whether divine virtues are developing in our heart. If we try to keep score, it will normally be a matter of self-deception. Rather, as Pujya Swami Chidanandaji once said, "From time to time you discover what changes have come about. Sometimes, this can be a pleasant discovery. Sometimes it can be rather a shocking one—some negative factor that you thought had long ago disappeared suddenly comes to life again. Therefore, any judging we do on our progress should be left to discovery rather than to analysis.

But there is a third reason that we’re discouraged from trying to keep score on our spiritual life. And that is that the ultimate spiritual life is at a level deeper than virtues and vices. One teacher has said that there are only two things, finally, in this universe: one is love; the other is fear. This love, of course, is not the normal type of love, but rather a divine love that has no object. It is just love or perhaps more correctly, it is described as universal goodwill. The other factor, fear, is also not fear with an object, but rather an underlying sense of fear that at any moment can light upon an object such as death, old age, ill health, loss of money, security etc. Therefore, in the final analysis the only way our spiritual life can be judged is to the degree that universal goodwill and trust has replaced that nagging feeling of uncertainty or fear in the depths of our being. 

How do we bring about this ultimate change? There is no other way than a total letting go and trusting in God. That is why Lord Krishna told us that the only way we can cross samsara is by taking refuge in Him alone. And even more specifically, in the last teaching verse of the Gita, He tells us to abandon all dharmas and take refuge in Him alone. 

Therefore, we cannot really judge our spiritual life by normal measurements. Ours is to make the effort; the results are in God’s hands. From time to time we discover whether we have made progress or not, and ultimately the only real test is the degree of total surrender in the depth of our heart, which means that universal love has replaced all fear.

Excerpts from:

Testing Our Spiritual Life - Early Morning Meditation Talk by Swami Atmaswarupananda

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(Mar 17,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Some Light on Yoga Practice (Part II) by Swami Krishnananda

Some Light on Yoga Practice (Part II)

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 6 The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda

“Yoga is union with the ultimate state of things, not with things as they appear.”

(Click here to read Part I)

If The Absolute is everything, what am I withdrawing myself from?

Sometimes doubts arise in the mind. “From what am I withdrawing the mind? If Brahman is everywhere, if the Absolute is everything, whatever I think in the mind is the Absolute only. So what is it that I am withdrawing myself from? If I think of some object, it is a shape of the Absolute. It is a form taken by Brahman. So am I withdrawing the mind from Brahman itself, while my intention is the realization of Brahman? What is self-control?” These doubts may come to the mind of even experienced sadhakas or seekers.

It is true that the Absolute is everything. The Supreme Being is manifest as all these things. The Absolute, or Brahman, is the Atman; it is not a vishaya, or an object of sense. So when we look upon this wall as an object outside, it has ceased to be the Absolute, though it is true that ultimately, in its essence, it is that. The mistake is not in the substance of the object as such, or the astitva or existence of the object, but in the nama and the rupa, the name and the form of the object, which is the effect of the externalization or the separation of the object from our consciousness.

Name and form

Name and form have to be distinguished from the existence, or pure being, of the object. This shape of mine has risen on account of the space and time factors interfering with the being that I am. When I say there is a vessel or a pot, what I actually speak of is the shape which the substance has taken; it is not the substance itself that I am referring to, because that substance is elsewhere also, not only here. This particular shape, pot,  is the space-time factor involved in that substance we call clay. So the entire problem is due to space-time. It is not due to the substance as such.

Thus, the interference of the so-called factors of space-time in the substance of the Absolute is the cause of the manifestation we call this vast universe. Therefore, self-control, control of the senses, mind control, yoga practice, whatever it is, is not a withdrawal of the mind from the substance of the object, which is the selfhood of things, but from the name and the form which are the external characters of the object.

Space-Time

Space and time are part and parcel of our experience itself and, therefore, we cannot say anything about them. They are expressional habits of the mind, they are the factors which pull consciousness in a particular direction called externality, and yoga practice is nothing but the subdual of the character of the mind from its movement in terms of space and time.

So the control of the mind, or withdrawal of the senses, is a very difficult task. We are always told by religions that we have to renounce things and the world in order to reach God. But we renounce the substance itself, together with the name and the form. This is a mistake arising on account of the incapacity of the mind to distinguish between the name and form, and the existence as such.

It is not the world that we have to reject. The worldness in the object, the externality in the object, and the non-selfhood, anatmatva, in things have to be thrown off. We think that to leave the house and to go to a forest is renunciation. Even in the forest, we are in the world; the world has not gone out of us. The idea that there is a world outside us is to be abrogated. A little closing of the eyes, a little japa and a little breathing will not make us a yogi. The intellect is a terrible hindrance; it will never allow us to grasp the truth of things.

Yoga proper is an internal psychological technique

It is the most difficult of things to conceive because the mind thinks of an object even in the act of rejecting the object. The objectness does not leave us, just as when we love a person or thing, we think of that person; and when we hate that person also we think of him. Merely because we hate a thing, it does not mean that it has gone out of our mind. So, even renunciation may be a bondage. The problems are not outside. They are not in the world; they are not caused by people; we are our problems.

This habit of thinking in terms of non-self, anatman, externality, space and time has to be removed. Then the world becomes something not intended to be rejected but absorbed into our Self, because the astitva, or the being of the world, is the Atman of the Absolute, which is the same as ours.

The ultimate Purusha is supposed to be realized by an internal movement, which is not a movement towards a place or some object. The movement to God does not mean movement in space; it is a conscious transfiguration that is taking place inwardly. It is a universalisation that is taking place gradually, which looks like an inwardness on account of the Atmanhood present there. This is yoga.

Grace of God

We are in a world of great complexities, diversities and misconceptions which sidetrack us every moment of time. Every thought that arises in our mind is a wrong thought. Correct thought very rarely comes to us, because we have no time to think correctly, as we are always moving in the same old groove of traditional thinking. The actual reoriented thinking is unknown to us. We are always busy—and that has engulfed us in such an intensity and to such an extent that we are immersed in it. And in that immersed condition we are crying for God, and He does not come. So it requires ultimately the grace of God Himself.

By some mystery of the workings of nature, as it were, divine hands begin to operate and grace descends, and we are brought in contact with a proper Guru or a teacher. Contact with a proper Guru is really coming in contact with God Himself. This is a great achievement, and again this is the work of God.

Excerpts from:

Some Light on Yoga Practice – Chapter 6 The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda

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(Mar 14,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Art of Receiving Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda

The Art of Receiving Knowledge

Divine Life Society Publication: The Art of Receiving Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda

“By God’s grace alone is the tendency towards the Absolute explicable.”

Precondition of the reception of knowledge

In the art of the reception of knowledge, we have to be prepared in the same manner as any good artist would equip himself or herself for the execution of the task. The precondition of the reception of knowledge is the capacity to receive. The process of the receiving of knowledge is an art which demands of the seeker an uncanny preparation and a suitable disposition of the mind. Overenthusiasm is not a virtue because anything that is beyond its limits is likely to come back to its original state, and when the heat subsides there will be no enthusiasm and no energy to move forward. The prejudice of the emotion and the intellect has to be avoided very carefully when we are eager to receive the knowledge that can save us from the pains of life.

Wisdom is different from learning

Learning does not save us, though it can help us in a limited purpose. The knowledge which we are really after is to bring our mind to a permanent state of composure. Just as when a distinguished guest comes to our house we are eager to make the place clean, sweep the cobwebs, dust the floor, decorate the seats, and so on, a sort of preparation is demanded of us for the reception of the higher illumination, the knowledge that we are seeking.  If we are already filled, we cannot be filled again with something else. So empty thyself, and then only I can fill thee, not before that.

If we study the lives of sadhakas, it is seen that in the end, years of effort appear to go in vain because while the effort was there, it was not properly directed.

The practice of yoga, the living of the spiritual life, is the ultimate task upon which we are now to embark. But before we enter into any field of activity, it is very essential to know what our powers are, what our strength is. Any work needs a proper instrument for working, and here the instrument is our own self. Our instrument in the reception of knowledge is our own body, our own mind, our own intellect, our own feeling, our individuality, our personality. Have we the needed powers, the equipment to tune ourselves to those conditions which are amenable to the entry of knowledge into our personality?

We must be very humble. The might of the cosmos, the majesty of the universe, is such that before it our personality pales into insignificance. We can be blown away like a dry leaf by the wrath of nature.

There is a difference between learning and physical enlightenment. The learning of colleges is information about an object – knowledge of the structure of things, knowledge about something. It is not knowledge of being.  But knowledge that is en rapport with the object is spiritual knowledge.  Intellectual and emotional preparations are more important than the studies that we have to make subsequently.

Search for Knowledge

We cannot be called a good person as long we have not got this virtue of humility, because humility comes by the knowledge of our true nature. When we know what we really are, we automatically become humble. As we do not know what we are, as we have a wrong idea, a wrong notion of what we are, we become vain, audacious and arrogant.

The search for knowledge is a search for the facts of life, which include facts of our own self. The primary object of investigation is not some distant thing or entity, but that which is nearest. That which is nearest to us is our own self. When we are going to use the instrument of our personality in knowing the facts of other objects in the world, our efforts will be a failure if the instrument is not up to the mark.

The essentialities of life are identical in all the ages, so the principle approach prescribed for the reception of knowledge cannot change. It flows from the Master, the Guru. “A Guru is one,” says the Upanishads, “who is a Brahma-srotriya and a Brahma-nishta – one who is well versed in spiritual lore, and one who is also practically and personally established in the experience of spiritual truth.”

Knowledge is the opposite of ego

Knowledge is the condition where the ego completely melts like camphor, without any residuum. So where there is even a trace of ego, there is no knowledge. Where one becomes one’s own Guru and thinks there is no one equal to oneself, knowledge is far.

We should be very simple and very humble. You should not think that you possess all the knowledge. Knowledge and words of wisdom may come even from a child, and good conduct even from an enemy.

The universe is vast, beyond the ken of our perception and understanding. The object of knowledge is infinite. It has no limits; therefore, we can never be fully possessed of the entirety of knowledge at any time in the world. There is always something over and above us, beyond us.

The search for wisdom

Difficult is the search for wisdom. Difficult it is to find a Guru. Most difficult is God-realization. But one of the qualifications expected of the disciple is tenacity. We have always to remember that the object of our quest will not come at the very outset. It is mud and dust and dirt and thorn and trouble that we see in the beginning. So is knowledge, a difficult thing to acquire. It requires persistent effort, humility of attitude, and the readiness, which is rare to find in people – the readiness to gain knowledge from wherever it is available.

That which we are searching for, that which we are asking for, that which is the answer to our questions is behind the question itself, is at the background of our minds. It is the presupposition of our very existence. This is why the search for knowledge has become so difficult. It is the I of the I, the understanding of the understanding, the mind of the mind, says the Upanishad. The eyes through which these physical eyes behold objects, that eye behind the eye, is the object of our quest.

Ordinary effort does not bring success in spiritual life

What is needed is a different type of effort altogether. It is a forward movement, towards that which the eyes cannot see, the senses cannot grasp, the objects cannot exhaust in their confinement. This knowledge is limitless expanse, and therefore, it cannot be observed as the observed things of the world.

You cannot be a big person in the world and also a big person in the eyes of God. That would not be possible.  Every gain in the realm of the spirit looks like a comparative corresponding loss in the realm of nature and of the world, which we are not prepared to accept. We do not want to lose anything from the world of nature or the world of our personal lives. Therefore, we have received nothing of the divine life, and God seems to be far away from us yet, almost an impossibility still.

Be ready for the grace of God

When you are ready to receive the higher knowledge, the Guru will come to you. While it is our duty to keep ourselves ready for the reception of knowledge, the entry of it into our personality is God’s business. We can plough the field, sow the seeds, allow the water to flow, but we cannot create the harvest. The harvest shall take care of itself, provided we have properly done everything that is within our capacity.

Again, the primary precondition of the reception of knowledge in spiritual life is goodness of conduct and humility of behavior. In the light of the majesty of the Almighty, the dignity of the cosmos, the vastness of knowledge, and difficulty of attaining the Immortal, it is very important.

He that is on the ground fears no fall. Be small, be humble, be good, be the most unknown and unbefriended. Let there not be any misconception that importance in the eyes of people or status in society and the world has anything to do with spiritual life. It has to be made clear before your mind’s eye so that your search may be an honest asking and not merely a duplicity or self-deceit of the heart.

With prayers to the Almighty, the Supreme Being, may we tread on the path of this supreme attainment which is God-realization, the realization of Truth or the Self, which may, we hope, come to us by the grace of God in this very life.

Excerpts from:

The Art of Receiving Knowledge by Swami Krishnananda

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(Feb 22,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Yoga of The Infinite by Swami Krishnananda

The Yoga of The Infinite

Divine Life Society Publication: The Secret of The Katha Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

“By God’s grace alone is the tendency towards the Absolute explicable.”

The grand destination, this wondrous structure of the Universe, the goal of life is not easy of an approach. Do not be under the notion that you can get this blissful experience in a trice. Awake! Arise! Stop not till the goal is reached! Seek refuge with men of wisdom. Know it then, by surrender to them.

Subtle is this path, difficult is this way. It is invisible, and hence hard in every sense of the term. You cannot see the track of birds in the sky nor can you see the track of fish in water. So is the path of knowledge. It cannot be seen, though it is there. Inasmuch as there is no reaching or attaining to it in the physical sense, there is also no movement towards it; therefore there is no path leading to it. Thus, the whole of the difficulty is placed before us. When there is no way to it, how will we attain it?

By intellect or mere intelligence this goal cannot be reached. By mere human effort it is not to be attained. Sometimes it looks that the whole thing is absolutely impossible. “How does this knowledge arise in the Jiva?” The great Acharya Shankara merely said, “It is Ishvara’s Sankalpa—grace of God.”

Any disturbance of any kind in any part of the personality of an individual will be a disqualification for this path. Any type of agitation is to be avoided. We have agitations of various kinds in our personality. There is bodily disturbance, pranic disturbance, sensory, mental and intellectual disturbance. All these urges have to be subdued. This is described in a single word, 'self-control'.

The disturbances within our personalities are mostly due to our disagreement with the circumstances outside. This resentment is sometimes expressed in speech and action, but oftentimes it is hidden in the mind itself. We are always in a state of resentment. We put on what Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to call a castor oil face, always. We are not pleased.

The assumptions of our personality may be regarded as the main obstacle to yoga. Our whole life is one of pre-conceived ideas. We are not and we cannot be free from these weaknesses because this defect is ingrained in the very root of our personality. We are born with it. Misconception, wrong understanding, not knowing the truth of things before us is designated as ajnana, which is supposed to breed aviveka or the mistaking of one thing for another thing. Aviveka gives rise to ahamkara or egoism, the sense of importance of one’s own self. Due to ahamkara there is the rise of raga and dvesha, or love and hatred. This pair, love and hate, like and dislike, breeds action, karma, of a selfish character, to gain what is wanted and to avoid what is not wanted. This karma, this selfish action, gives rise to future births and deaths in a series of transmigratory lives. This is the sorrow of life. This is called the chain or the linkage of the bondage of the individual.

The subdual of these impulses from within, leading us the wrong way, is called self-control. Our soul within may be compared to the Lord seated in a chariot. This body of ours, this individuality, this personality, may be regarded as a chariot in which is seated the soul- consciousness. The chariot is driven by a charioteer, a driver. The intellect in us is the charioteer. The reins are the operations of the mind. The horses which pull or drag this chariot are the senses—the eyes, ears, etc. The roads along which this chariot is driven by the charioteer with the help of the horses are the objects of the senses. All this is made possible by a joint activity of the Atman, the senses and the mind. This is a very concise and beautiful description, symbolic, dramatic, full of meaning and profundity given in the Katha Upanishad. This chariot is to be driven right to the Abode of Vishnu—tad vishnoh paramam padam.

So, the charioteer, the intellect, the understanding, the rationality in us is the primeval faculty which determines the extent of our progress in this effort, called the practice of yoga. What is required of a seeker is the strength of integrity and character. Strength of the body is the capacity to endure hardship—that is called strength. To what extent can you bear the pairs of opposites? From that you can know the strength of your personality. Now, the personality is not merely the body, but the entire vesture of the personality, the pancha-koshas—annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya, and anandamaya. The chariot should be systematically built, harmoniously constructed, strong in its make and fit to bear the wear and tear of the motion towards the ultimate goal of life. For this purpose, we have to observe what we call the golden mean of conduct, which is beautifully described in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Moderation in our conduct, balance in our behavior, harmony in our activity, is a pre-condition to yoga.

The objects of sense appear as impediments on account of our wrong approach to them. They become friends when our understanding of them is perfect. Even snakes are charmed and controlled by snake-charmers. Even lions are tamed. What to say of other objects in the world!

The Atman is your friend. The Atman also is your enemy. How could Atman be an enemy? All law is a terror when we do not want to obey it. But law is a protector when we participate in its requirements. The world is the law of God. God speaks to us through the various things of the world. When we gaze, we gaze at the face of God. There are no objects of sense. They do not exist. The objects are nothing but Spirit, projected in space and time. God sensualized is the world. The Absolute specialized and temporalized is this creation. There is no separate world. There is no separate creation. There are no separate objects of sense. The world should neither tempt us nor reject us.

Many of us, seekers, aspirants, have not the goal of our life clearly pictured before our minds. We do not know whether we have to realize God first, or serve the world first. Many seekers think that service of humanity is to come first, and realization of God afterwards. Sometimes we think that mankind itself is God, and service of man is service of God, and so we begin to identify the goal of our life with the activities of our daily life. We appear to be pursuing the goal while we are actually pursuing what is pleasant to the deeper needs of this bodily and ego-ridden personality. It is impossible to truly aspire for God from the entirety of our being. But to understand what God is and what love of God is, God’s grace alone is necessary. The Guru has to bless you. It requires much effort.

The concept of God, the notion of the goal of life before us, is the ultimate determining factor in the success of our practice of yoga, and the Kathopanishad, in this passage on self-control—atmanam rathinam viddhi, etc.—makes it clear that this chariot of the body can go hither and thither if the charioteer lets loose the reins and allows the horses to move according to their whims and fancies. Our intellect can be blurred and clouded by the force exerted upon it by the senses. The senses are very powerful and their power is such that their activities can produce an impact on the mind and the intellect to such an extent that the mind can think and the intellect can understand things only in terms of the senses. The Upanishad warns us against this fall. The Atman, the mind and the senses should be in unison— atmendriyamanoyukta. They should not work in their own way, independently. That is, the activity of the senses, the thoughts of the mind and the needs of the Spirit should be in conformity with one another. They should not be at variance with each other.

The Atman wants nothing. It has known everything. Therefore to desire anything through our actions will be contrary to the requirements of the Atman. Though the actions are directed outwardly, their aim is the inward realization of the Atman. The movement is outward through action, but the goal is inward which is the Self. The Atman has, really, no within and without. When you move to the Infinite outwardly, you reach also the Infinite which is inward. This yoga of the Katha Upanishad is not jnana yoga, bhakti yoga or karma yoga. It is the yoga of the Infinite.

Excerpts from:

The Yoga of The Infinite - The Secret of The Katha Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

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(Feb 20,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – God’s Grace, Karma, Self-Effort by Sri Swami Sivananda

God’s Grace, Karma, Self-Effort

Divine Life Society Publication: May I Answer That by Sri Swami Sivananda

The Lord’s grace will do everything for me. Why should I do any Sadhana?

God helps those who help themselves. God’s grace will descend only on those persons who exert. The Lord’s grace will descend in proportion to the degree of surrender. The more the surrender, the more the grace. You cannot expect the Lord to do self-surrender for you. Be up and doing. Strive. Plod. Persevere. The Lord will shower His grace upon you.

How to make the mind subtle and pure?

Do Japa. Do selfless service. Pray to God from the bottom of your heart (Antarika). Have Satsang. Meditate. Read the Gita and the Upanishads. Live alone. Live in seclusion for six months. Take Sattvic food. Give up meat, fish, eggs, liquors, chillies, oil, black sugar, onions and garlic.

Why does not the benevolent, kind and all-merciful God help the righteous man and give him happiness? Why does He leave him to the mercies of his Purva Karma?

Karma is likened to the wheel. It has to work out; because the force that set it in motion has to be spent. It is a cycle of action and reaction. Just as the arrow once discharged from the bow cannot be withdrawn, even if the hunter feels that he has aimed at a wrong target, Prarabdha Karma, the fruit of those Karmas performed in previous births that have come up for experience in this present birth, cannot be annulled.

How then does God help His devotee? The all-merciful God does help His devotee by strengthening his will-power, his power of endurance, to bear the Karma-Phala with a cheerful countenance. The devotee is certainly not left to the mercy of his Purva Karma; he is beautifully clothed in the protective shield of His grace. Just as in the worst winter and violent storm, you remain unaffected in your own house and in your warm clothing, the devotee (though to the onlookers he is poor, sick or suffering) does not feel that he is suffering at all and is ever happy and blissful in His remembrance.

A man doing a wrong thing argues that he is doing it because of his Karma; and he does not even try not to do it, because it gives him immediate happiness. How to impress upon him not to do it?

Karma does not compel a man to do wrong actions. Samskara does, to a certain extent. But God has bestowed free will on man, with which to make or mar his career. Man has no Bhoga-Svatantrata or the freedom to enjoy or suffer, which factor is governed by Karma. But, he has got Karma-Svatantrata or freedom to do good or evil. He can substitute good Samskaras in place of the old vicious Samskaras by Vichara-sakti, will-power and continued practice of good actions.

That, evil seems to give immediate happiness is the greatest temptation and the greatest obstacle to the cultivation of virtues; and it can be removed only by discrimination and experience. Contemplation over the ultimate and permanent damage done to the very soul of man by the evil actions, and the harm he is causing to the entire society itself by his evil, ought to compel a man to desist from evil action— however pleasant it might appear superficially. Constant association with the wise and spiritually evolved persons alone can remove these wrong notions from the mind of the wicked one.

When the grace of Guru and God is there, why is the mind still not controlled?

There must be Purushartha also. Only when you do Purushartha, the grace will come. A professor will not answer the questions for you and make you pass. The Gita says, "Uddharet Atmanatmanam". One should raise oneself. Grace only helps one to raise oneself. Everybody should work out his own salvation. You may ask, "What is grace then?". If good books are available for Svadhyaya (study), it is grace. If one enjoys good health for doing Sadhana, that is grace. If God so wishes, He can give Mukti to the whole world in an instant; but He does not do so. Grace descends only when there is Purushartha.

There is such an expression as "the flight of the alone to the Alone".

How will you get God’s grace? When you discipline yourself. How will you know how to discipline? By observing others that had walked the path successfully to the goal of perfection. These men who had walked to the goal are known as Gurus. So you need their help, their personal example, their encouragement and their grace. Thus, we have come round to the answer that a Guru is necessary as well as his grace. Everything is necessary— Atma Kripa, Guru Kripa and Isvara Kripa.

How to free ourselves from Karma, Swamiji?

Feel, as you do your daily duties, that you are only a witness of all that goes on around you, of even your own actions. This is called Sakshi Bhav. You should inwardly realize that you are different from the active principle in you. This is the method of Vedanta.

There is the other— easier, but equally potent method of Nimitta Bhav. Feel that the Lord alone is the real doer of all actions and that you are an instrument in His hands. Your actions will be transformed into worship of the Lord, and you will not be bound to them. Work without expectation of any reward and without egoism. Root out the idea of agency; feel, "I am not the doer". You will be freed from the shackles of Karma. You will not accumulate new Karma. Allow your Prarabdha Karma to work out; and you will attain liberation.

We see a very good man suffering too much. Why? The answer may be: "Because of his previous Karma in his previous Janma". This we can trace back to the day of creation.

The law of Karma is inexorable. Every one reaps the fruits of his previous births. A good man only will suffer a lot, because he is hurrying up in the spiritual march. Many of his evil Karmas have to be worked out and purged out quickly to hasten his salvation in this very birth. But, God gives him extraordinary power of endurance through His grace. An aspirant or a good man gets many difficulties and sufferings. But he rejoices even in sufferings and destitution on account of the descent of the Lord’s grace. He voluntarily welcomes these sufferings. The only best thing in this world is pain or suffering, because it is the eye-opener towards God.

This creation is the result of Isvara’s Eshana-Matra. Nothing less than or beyond that Eshana can happen. Isvara is not ordaining things all the time; else He would be too busy. This means determinism which leaves very little scope for individual effort.

The notion that Isvara ordains things only sometimes and not always and that He would be too busy if He ordains things all the time is a puerile one. Isvara can look to everything at one stroke of His Being. There is no such thing as His ‘being too busy’, for He is not like man, using his senses for the purpose of acting. Isvara does not act with a changing mind as man does, for Isvara’s action is inseparable from an undivided, ever-vigilant, all-powerful, all-pervading Consciousness which neither sleeps nor takes rest. Isvara is essentially this sovereign Consciousness itself. The whole universe is determined by Isvara’s creative Will. But this is no determinism in the sense of a denial of free will to man. Man has a comparatively clear consciousness of himself and of others related to him outside, and he is possessed of the power of discrimination and willing. Isvara is the basis of cosmic activity as well as individual action, and yet, He is not involved in the actions of the individual. To Isvara, everything is determined. The past, the present and the future are all Isvara’s Being alone. But from the individual’s own limited standpoint, there is, in spite of the fact of a changeless universal law, a sort of apparent freedom of action imposed upon himself by his own individuality. Though the individual’s freedom of thought and action is not the final truth about it, it assumes a relative importance and begins to affect the individual with its reactions, as a result of the individual’s notion of the reality of a limited personality and its thoughts and actions. On account of this self-created bondage the Jiva suffers and this suffering comes to an end the moment the Jiva realizes its identity with Isvara in consciousness, in activity and in its very existence itself.

If we are tools in the hands of God, are not men free?

Man becomes free only when his individual will becomes merged in the Divine Will. By becoming a tool (Nimitta) in the hands of God, the Bhakta destroys the egoism or the little false ‘I’, but gains all the Divine Aisvarya or the Siddhis of the Lord. He becomes perfectly free. He has become one with God now.

Excerpts from:

God’s Grace, Karma, Self-Effort - May I Answer That by Sri Swami Sivananda

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