LORD’S GRACE
The Lord, life of this Universe, is playing His wonderful game of love in the presence of everybody in so many hearts and forms, but no one has the power to realize or perceive it because our thoughts are not centered around Him. They have not established His presence in their hearts. From eternal bliss we came and to it we must return. One has to lose the body feeling which is separating us from Him and see all as one Atma, Paramatma. Once we see Him in all things around us we serve Him in them.
Jivas are in truth the Lord,the Master of the body, who enjoys the world of senses. From this enjoyment the Jivas fall into ignorance, start holding the body for the self and become attached to it, suffering the torments of Samsara , embroiled in Karma, wander in transmigration from body to body, life to life, death to death and reap the fruits of their actions. Men whose desires rule them can never attain to the condition of bliss that those who serve the Lord. We have to set foot on the path to God before we are ensnared helplessly in the wide net of Samsara. As long as we depend on our own exertion, individual power, we live under the Ego-spell which is worthless. We are Atma, not body or mind. Immerse in this awareness! Any effort comes from the Ego; because it is limited its capacity is limited. Those who don’t seek God will not find true Atma-awareness. They will continue to identify the soul with the body and be ensnared by every kind of desire and attachment. As long as this lasts the operation of divine Grace remains suspended.
His Grace comes in infinite and unlimited measure, in fact we are merged in an ocean of His grace. Our Lord is always ready to call us His own, to shower benedictions on us from all sides and judges only by what is within our hearts. Once we learn to love the Lord Maya will fly from us and will become rather a help than an obstacle on our way to Him. Life is precious; it should not be wasted by doing things mechanically without love. His pleasure, not ours should be always in the mind. We have to give up all ideas of agency to Him, who alone acts. Why should we have any useless worries when it is He who performs all actions? Who knows Him to be always near commits no evil act nor feels disturbed in any way.
His Grace is always there – only our Egos prevent us from taking advantage of it. Until the heart is full of love the Lord will not come. Thakur Haranath said:”The very fact that you are alive proves Lord’s love for you. Realize that God is Love and you are His beloved “.(ex Divinity of Haranath the Crazy). The day we can love Him for His own sake – that day we bid good-bye to the miserable cycle of births and deaths. How anxious is the Lord to see that this may be the very last earthly life for us!
He moves about those always who think of Him alone. These alone are good thoughts. He consoles us in so many ways. Invisibly He strokes our body, brings excellent food from Sadhus and Mahapurushas and sais: “ Attain soon puberty, eat all these nourishing articles. Then I shall make you my Queen and wont go anywhere else. Thakur wrote to a devotee:” When you feel tired in the evening after hard tasks my work will commence, I will attend to your needs and help you pick up energy for the next days work (P.H. Part III, Letter 3) and to N.C. Ghosh He wrote: “I am watching your life birth after birth and know you but you cannot recognize me.”
The devotee Ramaprasad Ghosh realized that it is Lord Haranath Himself who utters His own Name. Body, mind and soul which we possess belong to Him only. He is the Lord of all bodies and manifests Himself in every heart performing Kirtan of His own Name in order to sanctify our unclean hearts and thereby make us fit to engage in His Seva. One of His ways is that He manifests Himself in every heart in the form of Name. Nobody can understand His Tattva unless He makes us realize the same. This life of the Universe is playing His wonderful game of love in the presence of everybody in so many hearts and forms, but no one has the power to realize or perceive it because their thoughts are not centered around Him. They have not established His presence in their hearts.When we feel and are aware that it is the Lord within us who eats, sleeps, thinks, we get rid of the Ego, which separates us from Him. He wants to see our yearning, intense longing. God cannot remain even for a moment away from His devotees. He makes His nearness felt in them, moves around those who always think of Him alone. The more we desire to get Him the more will He pull us up.
The secret of reaching Him is to go on increasing our ardour. He must come when the bait of ardent desire is thrown (Kaviraj Goswami). Such is the relationship between Him and a devotee that He is prepared to render service to the insignificant devotee by dint of his sincere and unalloyed devotional service (ex Chaitanya Caritamrita).
As long as we work with the attitude that we do all the work we can’t expect His grace, for then Egoism comes in and the free flow of divine Grace is blocked. Self-surrender comes as Love grows. Surrender means giving up one’s individuality, one’s likes and dislikes. Without complete and intense emotion of surrender how can any heart be purified? Total surrender destroys the Ego and once this happens the Lord begins to act through him. He said in the Srimad Bhagavatam: “ Surrender and you shall find my Grace and pass beyond fear forever. A mind which thinks constantly of Me dissolves into Me. Renounce every desire for My sake.” There is no true Bhakti without the heart melting, flowing of tears of joy, hair standing on end from rapture .Bhakti dawns on those who want nothing from the Lord, not material or worldly gain or even Moksha. If He is pleased there is nothing that can’t be achieved. His love for us comes every moment as in a flood. He leaves us not a moment apart from His sweet soft touch. He chooses His people and the time He wants to disclose who He is. We are only puppets with limited understanding.
Nama Japa makes our consciousness come to the heart plane. The mind will never become weak when it is always kept in the Lord’s Name, the heart acquires indomitable strength. So let us see that His Name issues incessantly from us. The more we take His Name the nearer we come to Him. Once we taste the nectary incomparable sweetness of NAME our spiritual progress will be marvelously speedy. Self-forgetfullness will come of its own accord, but necessary is to be devoid of self-esteem, imperative to make the heart tender. A devotee who ceaselessly experiences the Lord’s nearness never falls prey to birth, death, hunger, fear, greed, lust, weakness and other failings. He has no arrogance of birth, accomplishments, no feeling of I and Mine, you and yours, no sense of differentiation about his body or his possessions but feels the Lord’s presence everywhere. Who works for His pleasure serves the world in its truest sense for he has no personal interest. Actions are poisoned only by selfishness. We are God-centered, not Ego-centered.Such a humble and loving man is dearest to Him.
Who utters His Name continually has attained liberation while living. The Lord has made His Name so potent that constant repetition purges the Jiva of all sins, unloosens all Karmic bindings and facilitates his return journey home. Just as storms blow away clouds so does His holy Name disperse the cloud of worldliness.When the Lord’s Grace descends one can never forget Him even for a second. Constantly feeling His Nearness is supremely pleasant, it gives highest bliss and supreme joy. Is it a wonder that a Bhakta, who binds himself with thongs of love to His Lotosfeet never find the Lord missing from his heart?
Sarveshu keleshu man anusmara
At all times think of me (Bhagav.Gita VIII-7)
9 August 2016
R.B.
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