"We must never be disappointed of the Divine Grace" 

(Silence Speaks, Second Edition, pg 313)

Sri. R. Sharath

My Dear Rev. Guide, Dear Brothers and Sisters,

With my humble Salutations to the eternally present supreme Masters of the Order, I would like to share a few thoughts on this topic on this auspicious occasion of the Birthday of our Beloved Master.

The topic of the day is a very important statement made by our beloved Master. This statement is directly related to several attitudes of a sadhaka such as Dependency on Master, Moral Courage, Acceptance of everything as the Will of God, Surrender etc.

What is Grace? In my point of view, firstly, the very existence itself is by HIS Grace. We are happy and enjoying the Divine Company at all times. That is the Grace. We are following the Natural Path and directly guided by our Revered Master. That is due to his Grace. We are all feeling peace, freedom, joy, bliss, happiness, balance, love and devotion to Master and that is all due to HIS GRACE.

Then what causes disappointments? What could be the reason for the human mind to even remotely attribute the disappointments to the Divine Grace? Why and when does one do so?

The dictionary definition of disappointment goes as "defeat or failure of expectation or hope". This leads to believing that the main cause of disappointment is when one expects something and then the expected result does not follow. Even, when one does not get what he expects, he does get something. Someone once remarked, "Experience is what we get when we do not get what we want". It is because mind always looks for what did not happen rather than observing or analysing what actually happened. One of the main cause for disappointments is also a lack of acceptance all the things that happen to a Sadhaka in his life as a result of his own actions.

To understand this, it is necessary to understand the Karma theory or the theory of Cause and Effect. It is important to note that any situation, good or bad, in which an individual finds himself is the result of his own actions only and not because of anything else. There should not be even an iota of disappointment with the Divine Grace as to that extent the Surrender of the Sadhaka to the Master, to the God and the extent to which he abides by the Divine Will suffers. If we notice, Master, in the sentence that follows the title of the seminar categorically states that "God is the supreme Master and His will must be carried out in every respect."  This, according to my understanding, means that "The Master GOD" is the Ultimate. GOD is Just. GOD's Will is final and all the entities of creation have to carry out everything or rather everything in the Universe will happen according to HIS will only. This doesn’t seem like God is just orchestrating things as per his will, rather seems like he has laid down the rules for us humans and we form the equations according to these rules. When one understands that the situations and circumstances, mostly adverse, that he finds himself in, is mainly due to his own actions and is also able to accept that gracefully, there is no scope for disappointments whatsoever. If not, it makes the mind unregulated as balance is lost and mind seeks explanation or goes into self-denial mode as one is not able to accept the circumstances surrounding him.

In this regard, the Karma theory plays a significant role in how the equations are formed. Rev. Sir has given a very good explanation of the Karma theory and how one can abide by the Divine Will in his article “Whatever act you do, do it in the thought ‘It is the Divine’s command and therefore it is my duty to do so’”. He states that our actions are motivated by our Ego, relationships, and bondages. We are constantly creating Karmic debts that lead us to new bondages and attachments. To mention briefly, Rev. Sir talks about the various types of Karmas namely, Sanchita Karma (Total accumulated Karma), Prarabdha Karma (Fructifying Karma), Kriyaman Karma (Current Karma) and the Agami Karma (Future Karma). When one adheres to the concept that everything he does is in accordance with Divine Will and dedicates every action of his to the Divine, then he will be able to successfully address the Kriyaman and Agami Karmas as stated by Rev. Sir. Understanding of all these helps a Sadhaka to develop acceptance of everything as a result of his own actions past and present and motivates him to follow the practices which in turn will prevent the formation of further samskaras.

Master, in this article, also refers to the unregulated activities of the mind as barking of dogs and that one should not disheartened by them. He further states that the dogs will never stop barking and that one has to either train them so that they do not disturb the Puja or adopt proper means to mend their irregular habits.  Most of the times, these thoughts which disturb us seem to be directly related to our attachments and bondages, our relationships, our ego, our problems, or some trying circumstances that one finds himself in. Rev. Sir once told me that problems will come on their own and also get solved on their own, but it is our attachment to problems that cause the real trouble in our mind. But sometimes, though all this is understood, in the real situations, it does not seem to be all that easy to control the barking. To admit honestly, the last two years of my Sadhana has been dealing with the barking dogs. It has been a tough ride mentally and I have been trying to do many things to overcome them.

Sometimes, the emotions related to these mental activities are so high, that it really gets tough to deal with them as mind is in such an unbalanced state there is little inclination to do Sadhana by setting these aside. It also frustrated me a lot as I was not able to overcome it even though I was regular in participating in satsanghs and sittings and in spite of all these, I was feeling that I am not able to do my Puja in a committed manner and that my efforts were very poor. Anytime I sit for meditation, these thoughts used to bother me and any time of leisure these thoughts used to overpower me and taunt me. As the thoughts are related to the near and dear, it becomes very challenging to deal with them.

At one point I started to get thoughts that I am no longer fit to do Sadhana as I am not able to be unmindful of these thoughts, but mind refused to yield to it and apparently, there seemed to be an internal struggle going on. There were thoughts like perhaps it is time for me to give up all practises as I am only cheating my guide and my trainer as I am not living up to any expectations and time seemed to be passing in the speed of light. How long will I take to become regular? How long will it take for me to overcome these petty troubles, and instead of delving in these thoughts, I rather spend my time in the thought of Master and his works? Should I call it quits as I am no longer feeling fit to participate in such spiritual practises? 

At times, when the inclination to do Sadhana and motivation was very low, I was trying to take solace in watching TV in order to escape from these thoughts and involving in unnecessary things.  There were also thoughts that in spite of knowing that this is the Final Destiny of Mankind and that the Master is the Special Personality in charge for the next millennia and in spite of having the guidance of eminent person like Rev. Sir and the assistance of trainers, if I am unable to do my Sadhana properly, then what a big Loser I am! This feeling became so heavy in my heart that I felt that it would have been better if I had not known any of these facts at all and I would have been better off leading a life like any other normal human being. 

But then Master’s Grace is infinite and his love and kindness is immeasurable. An internal courage and confidence was still present in the background and Master’s thought and thought of Rev. Sir was backing me. I felt that this is the Grace and the assurance of the Great Master and that is the greatness of the system. How can I ever leave this? How can I ever feel disappointed with anything! I felt an urge to maintain positivity and always be in the Remembrance of the Master and Rev. Sir. I generally have the habit of thinking as to what Rev. Sir will do in my position or what will Master do in my position? This helped me a lot to take correct decisions. There always seem to be two choices to make at any given situation, one leading to a positive outcome and other leading to a negative one. Someone once remarked, “You think you can or you think you can’t, either way you are right”. How true! This provoked my thinking and I felt that I cannot fail in anything in thought level at the least. My actions may fail today, my practises may not be up to the mark today, but one day I will surely succeed. This was the thought that I started to maintain consciously as I felt that one can fail in action or execution but if he fails in the very thought itself, then the Will is lost and the thought will never become an action. Therefore the onus is on the Sadhaka to maintain an incorrigibly optimistic and positive attitude in order to succeed in Sadhana. The key to all this for me has been being in the Remembrance of the Master and Rev. Sir.  Rev. Sir has mentioned a lot about Remembrance in his seminar paper "The remembrance of everything should merge into the remembrance of One” which was very helpful to me.

Master says in this article that the Goal is Realisation and that should be the only impression in the heart. He also says that one should go on without paying any heed to the barking dogs. In the third Commandment, he describes the Goal as "Complete Oneness with God". If we notice, he does not say that we have to become one with the God or Divine. He is very precise and uses the word "ONE-NESS" with god. All are already one with it. All are Divine expressions. One has to only to start living in the awareness of the Divine more and more so as to secure "Complete Oneness".

As Master has said, the first step in our Sadhana begins with Meditation. We begin our meditation with awareness of many things which include awareness of our insignificant status, awareness and belief in GOD and Master, and awareness of our defects and limitations which slowly get revealed during our meditations. When one becomes aware of his own defects, it becomes his duty to acknowledge and accept them and further adopt the practices sincerely in order to overcome them. One must have confidence that with the Grace of Master and HIS continuous Support, he will successfully overcome all the difficulties. To this effect, Master has also said that "I will not call him a Man who after knowing his defects is not able to overcome it". I am sorry that I am not able to provide the exact reference but I remember having read this in one of his works.

As we begin to develop love and devotion to Master, we soon begin to feel Nearness to the Master/Divine and the awareness of the presence of the Divine in us gets established and becomes stronger as our Sadhana proceeds. From nearness, as our love matures and faith becomes stronger, we begin to feel oneness with the Master/Divine. We feel that all are ONE or all are inter-connected. We also feel that MASTER IS ONE AND ALL. Faith matures further and we begin to have an Ultimate Dependence on the Ultimate or the Master. The Greatness of the Master etched in our hearts, we feel so happy to be in the company of our beloved Master and begin to realise the abundance of Love HE has for the entire humanity.

As one begins to feel such oneness with Master, Oneness with "HIS PURPOSE" develops. In other words, thoughts of Service to Master and desire to participate in Master's work of transforming Human Consciousness develops and the sadhaka takes up the tasks of Universal Prayer and participation in Satsanghs and sittings very seriously. And as sadhaka proceeds further, he begins to experience the awareness of Nothingness where there is no idea present and only the presence or awareness of the non-being Being.

Now that we understand that the goal is "Complete Oneness", what needs to be done in order to achieve it? What is there in us that making it difficult to secure Oneness. It is the EGO of the individual or the Self that has to be totally annihilated for this purpose. Though one understands and acknowledges that he is a Divine Expression and feels all the high states during meditation, things seem to get forgotten after the meditation is over and EGO surfaces again. It seems to be extremely difficult to overcome as the sadhaka, firstly, has to acknowledge that his actions are perhaps reflection of his EGO and then seek to overcome it. EGO seems to be like an iceberg, only a small part of it visible above the surface, the unknown part which is much bigger, seems to be lying underneath. To overcome EGO is not the goal itself, however, it is a must if one wants to achieve the final goal. The unknown part is revealed to us in our meditations and our real life circumstances we experience day in and day out including the adverse circumstances. 

Not only is the individual Ego a problem, but also ego clashes with other individuals that becomes an obstacle.  Relationships and undue attachments only pull us down more into the mire of indiscipline and an uncomfortable situation. When two or more individuals interact, there is an imminent danger of a clash of ego. The famous psychologist and philosopher William James stated that “Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.”  We can see how complex it becomes when more than one individual is involved in anything and how difficult it becomes to extricate oneself from the various prejudices that colour him.  This is due to the fact that Perception of reality is very different from reality itself. Rev. Sir has mentioned many times that when reality is expressed, it gets distorted. Reality cannot be imagined, it cannot be expressed, it can only be felt and experienced and imperienced. Remembrance of Master and Remembrance of the Mission will help in overcoming the Ego feeling very significantly.  The Universal Prayer and Point A and B meditations are highly useful in this regard as they help us to develop the fraternal feelings.

One also has to put sincere efforts in Cleaning and Bed-time Prayer to overcome his defects and follies in order to dissolve his EGO completely. One needs to earnestly develop the Moral Courage and stick to Truth at all costs in every situation even it is not beneficial for him. This will only be possible when he develops what Master calls as God-Consciousness.

Being in the realms of Silence and staying engrossed in the Thought of Master also helps us greatly to sideline our Ego initially and dissolve it slowly. Surrendering to the Master and to the external events or circumstances that happen beyond the scope of our control with utmost humility is essential in this regard. The beauty of the NATURAL PATH is that everything happens so naturally when there is sincere yearning complemented by regularity in efforts by the Sadhaka to reach the Divine. It can be safely said that everything is only due to HIS GRACE and all the states and stages of progress in this path are only granted to the discerning aspirants and cannot be earned. A question may arise that if everything is only granted by Master and nothing can be earned, then what is Sadhana for? In my experience, in order to even maintain a balanced living completely devoted to Master, Sadhana as prescribed by the Master is the only way and the various stages of progress are not really my concern.  One has to only resort to Prayer to the Supreme Master at all times so that one can remain in a state of devotion and may become more and more deserving. That is why our Rev. Sir has characterized the path itself as “The Path of Grace”.

The Natural Path has been rightly called as "New Darsana" by Pujya Dr. KCV and as Rev Sir points out, it cannot be compared to any systems of the past. That one is bound to face difficulties while treading the path is not reason enough to be disappointed with the Divine Grace. The Path of Truth is a path laden with difficulties as today’s circumstances had become very difficult to exhibit the noble virtues and lead a principled life. But in following such a path lies meaning for life. I would like to quote a small stanza from the poem "The Road Not Taken" by a famous poet:

           I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Due to grace of the Master Supreme, we have all taken the road (Path) which may not be the popular choice of the humankind and may not be traveled by the majority today. But that will not deter us from travelling and will have certainly made a huge difference when we look back at our life after arriving at the goal. Master’s mission will succeed and the path will soon be taken by many.

My humble Pranams.