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10. Grace

 

The Divine choosing to act on its own initiative is known as grace. Pity is the response of a person to another's suffering more because he is unable to stand the sight of suffering than for the sake of the sufferer. Sympathy is the feeling one has at the sight of another suffering more for the object of suffering. The word 'sympathy' itself means to have the same (sym) feeling (pathy). This is a response of strong nerves to a victim of cruelty or suffering. Pity makes the individual who feels it miserable and helpless. He will not be able to relieve the sufferer. Sympathy comes from a strong person who can help the sufferer but not without sharing the misery of the other. Compassion comes from the soul. While sympathy evaluates the rightness of the victim and helps because the other suffers unjustly, compassion extends its help and relieves the other without evaluating the desert of the sufferer. The victim suffers, he needs to be relieved. Whether he is right or wrong, he should be helped. This is the attitude of compassion. Grace comes from the Divine. It acts because it does not see any reason for suffering to exist. While sympathy and compassion aim at relieving the sufferer, Grace aims at abolishing suffering. This is a lower function of Grace. The highest function of Grace is to hasten--abridging centuries into months--man's elevation to the divine status. In between the abolishing of suffering and raising man to the Divine, Grace acts at various levels. Some of them are explained below.

  1. We often see a prayer is answered exactly as we have asked for. This is Mother answering prayer through Her Grace. When someone was short of Rs.2,700 for a particular work, the exact amount came at the exact moment. Mother has several ways of granting a prayer. When she does so through her Grace, the answer exactly meets our requirements. This is the least of all expressions of Grace.
  2. An impossible tangle of difficulties is resolved up to 99% or an incurable disease is relieved 99%. A man at the age of 65 got his arthritis relieved 99%. Mother acts from her Grace but through the faith of the devotee. I make a distinction between Mother acting through one of her powers, and her acting through a favourable circumstance around the devotee. In this example, Mother acts by her Grace through the faith of the devotee. If Grace had acted by itself, the relief would have been 100%. Faith moves mountains and in this case, it moved the Divine Power to relieve an incurable disease in an impossible condition. That is the greatness of faith. Still faith limits the achievement to 99%, whereas if grace acts on its own the cure will be 100%.
  3. We often say our prayer is over fulfilled. This is the characteristic of Grace. A boy who endeavoured to simply pass the examination rose to the first rank; the candidate who ardently aspired for a clerkship got an officer's job; property put up for sale for Rs.27,000 rupees fetched Rs.81,000; a devotee who longed to buy an acre of land bought 15 acres; the trader who moved heaven and earth to secure a district dealership became the director of the manufacturing company. These are all pure expressions of Grace, the presence of Grace indicated by the excess that comes.
  4. When Grace sails towards the devotee, there may be visible reasons from the devotee's side. Grace acts on its own, not in response to your prayer, your work or your desert. Still the devotee often finds an ostensible ‘reason' for the incidence of Grace.
    • Grace comes because one has by his long industrious work deserved it. A farmer worked on his 100 acre plot so intelligently and diligently that he was universally admired. When the farmer completed his programme on his 100 acre estate, things shaped up in an unexpected fashion so totally that he was able to buy the adjacent 100 acre farm. It came in such a succession that the huge crew of workers on the first estate could take over the reclamation of the next estate without their having to disband themselves.
    • Grace comes in answer to a specific prayer. Indira Gandhi came to Mother praying for 250 Lok Sabha seats and ended up winning 350 seats.
    • Grace comes without a prayer, without man knowing of the existence of it. It awaits entry, awaits for a token acceptance. At the end of 30 years of business, an American businessman on whom Grace decided to descend received as much business in one year as in all the 30 years before. Grace waited at his door, waiting for a token of gratitude. He flatly refused Grace and its gift receded.
    • Grace moves and GRANTS without one's asking for it or even knowing the power of Grace just because one is related to a centre of Grace. A man whose back was seriously broken was suffering intense back pain for 15 years. He was not interested in meeting Mother when he came to Pondicherry, but when he relented and had Her Darshan he was fully relieved of his pain in the back.
    • Grace moves on its own to convert a difficulty into an opportunity. Corrupt, dishonest colleagues of an honest officer foisted a false enquiry on him behind his back. The enquiry resulted in exposing everyone who conspired for it and raised the honest victim above the heads of the hawks.
    • Grace awaits us at all points of life as if it awaits the visit of a VIP when out of perverse foolishness one drags oneself into trouble. A perverse stupid man in his anger at the success of his only well-wisher foolishly handled some articles and severely damaged his hand. Just at the moment when everything required a vehicle, a driver, a doctor, etc., they were readily available. On top of that the doctor, after a second examination, found there was no fracture of the bones. Had one link been missing, the suffering of the victim could have been great, leading to complications.
    • Grace does answer after man persistently exhausts all perverse opportunities to ruin himself. A greedy fool resigned a secure government job to become a teacher and raise his academic status and later discovered his folly. A fortuitous chance got him back the same government job at a higher level, making up for the loss of seniority during the interim period.

It is a sure sign of Grace when something comes unasked. If there is a little extra than what is needed or prayed for, it indicates the presence of Grace. When Grace acts, unseen quarters offer help; long standing rules are changed in your favour; a new rule is made in an unbelievable way just to meet your precise requirements; the unheard of possibility happens; someone acts contrary to his nature to be of use to you; in spite of one's folly and utter perversity, one is not able to spoil the work and it gets completed.

Grace always acts unknown to anybody for the good of all as when the Chinese retreated from the Indian border.



book | by Dr. Radut