What is Grace
Q: Baba, …Which is the quickest way to reach the goal?
A: There are no shortcuts to truth. The shortcut is always long; it merely entices and deceives. There are only two ways that have been discovered by man and taught to man in all ages and all lands. (1) Expand the ego to infinity or (2) reduce it to nothing. The first path is jnana, where the jnani says I am the Universal truth. I am all this. All this is My mental image. The second path is bhakti [devotion], where the aspirant says I am nothing; God is everything. In both cases, the ego sense disappears. The bhakta denies himself and places himself ever under the guidance and protection of God.
Q: If it is God that motivates all acts in me, then whatever I do must be right, isn’t it?
A: Yes. Why do you doubt it? If you are conscious that it is God that acts through you, how can you ever do wrong? You fall into evil only when you forget God and feel that you are the doer. When the light of the God within you is guiding you, you will always walk on the path of truth and goodness.
Q: Bhakti is described as love of God. Tell us, Baba, how to love God and cultivate that love.
A: Truly speaking, you have no need to love God; nor is God in need of your love. What you have to do is to become aware that God, who is love and love alone, is seated in your heart and that your thoughts, words, and acts must reveal that He is there. His love must radiate through you; you would then see with love, speak with love, hear with love, give with love, receive with love. You would become dynamos of love.
Q: Should we pray to God to reside in us and radiate love through us?
A: Prayer is only another word for communicating with that embodiment of love. It is the channel through which His power, light, glory, and purity flow into you.
Q: Can we pray for specific boons?
A: Yes, but remember, the fickle mind of man cannot be permanently happy with the material things of the world. The more he gets the more he craves for. Gaining and losing, he involves himself more and more with the senses and the objective world. His vision is fixed on outer not inner values. What he likes at one moment, he starts disliking the next. So the only boon one should ask for is, “Feed me with Your grace, so that all wants cease.” Surrender to God’s will; leave everything to Him.
Q: How do we know that we have received grace?
A: As soon as you receive grace, your heart becomes free from greed and hatred; you will have no more ill will against anybody. You will be overflowing with love toward all beings. You will experience a rare joy, a unique stream of ecstasy.
Q: What exactly is grace, Baba?
A: Grace is the divine power that reveals itself in us and turns our mind toward God, in all beings. We feel His presence everywhere and love all beings alike.
Q: If God is love, why did He create suffering?
A: Suffering draws you nearer to God. It is a sign of His compassion. It is a bitter medicine given to man when he is ill with egoism or ignorance. It clears the mental obstacles in the path of the discovery of truth.
Q: What is truth? Many have failed to answer this very simple question. Volumes have been written on it, but yet the matter has not been made explicit. What, Baba, is truth?
A: Your own self is the truth. All the rest partakes of falsehood, unreality, modifications, change, and ephemeralism.
~From the Notebook of a Sri Lanka Devotee
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Sept. 1974
