All spiritual traditions
speak about the 'Divine Grace', its power, its importance and value
in the spiritual path. The pure rationalist and materialist doubt
its efficacy, often deny its very existence.
Deep within, most of
us feel that there is something like a 'Divine Grace'. Sometimes
we catch a glimpse of it, or experience it intervening in our lives
and making things happen which appeared to be absolutely impossible.
But its nature and functioning is too mysterious for our understanding.
We also wonder how we can invoke its descent or action.
We give here excerpts
from two very beautiful, even practical, letters of Sri Aurobindo
on the 'Divine Grace' and its working, as answers to some questions
we have received.
Question: What is
the Divine Grace? How is it different from the Divine Law or the
Divine Compassion? Does the Grace come only to the virtuous? What
is its role in the spiritual and the material life?
"I should like
to say something about the Divine Grace - for you seem to think
it should be something like a Divine Reason acting upon lines
not very different from those of human intelligence. But it is
not that. Also it is not a universal Divine Compassion either,
acting impartially on all who approach it and acceding to all
prayers. It does not select the righteous and reject the sinner.
The Divine Grace came to aid the persecutor (Saul of Tarsus),
it came to St. Augustine the profligate, to Jagai and Madhai of
infamous fame, to Bilwamangal and many others whose conversion
might well scandalise the puritanism of the human moral intelligence;
but it can come to the righteous also - curing them of their self-righteousness
and leading to a purer consciousness beyond these things. It is
a power that is superior to any rule, even to the Cosmic Law -
for all spiritual seers have distinguished between the Law and
Grace. Yet it is not indiscriminate - only it has a discrimination
of its own which sees things and persons and the right times and
seasons with another vision than that of the Mind or any other
normal Power. A state of Grace is prepared in the individual often
behind thick veils by means not calculable by the mind and when
the state of Grace comes, then the Grace itself acts. There are
these three powers: (1) The Cosmic Law, of Karma or what else;
(2) the Divine Compassion acting on as many as it can reach through
the nets of the Law and giving them their chance; (3) the Divine
Grace which acts more incalculably but also more irresistibly
than the others. The only question is whether there is something
behind all the anomalies of life which can respond to the call
and open itself with whatever difficulty till it is ready for
the illumination of the Divine Grace - and that something must
be not a mental and vital movement but an inner somewhat which
can well be seen by the inner eye. If it is there and when it
becomes active in front, then the Compassion can act, though the
full action of the Grace may still wait attending the decisive
decision or change; for this may be postponed to a future hour,
because some portion or element of the being may still come between,
something that is not yet ready to receive.
But why allow anything
to come in the way between you and the Divine, any idea, any incident?
When you are in full aspiration and joy, let nothing count, nothing
be of any importance except the Divine and your aspiration. If
one wants the Divine quickly, absolutely, entirely, that must
be the spirit of approach, absolute, all-engrossing, making that
the one point with which nothing else must interfere.
What value have mental
ideas about the Divine, ideas about what he should be, how he
should act, how he should not act - they can only come in the
way. Only the Divine himself matters. When your consciousness
embraces the Divine, then you can know what the Divine is, not
before. Krishna is Krishna, one does not care what he did or did
not do: only to see him, meet him, feel the Light, the Presence,
the Love and Ananda is what matters. So it is always for the spiritual
aspiration - it is the law of the spiritual life."
*
"There is nothing
unintelligible in what I say about strength and Grace. Strength
has a value for spiritual realisation, but to say that it can
be done by strength only and by no other means is a violent exaggeration.
Grace is not an invention, it is a fact of spiritual experience.
Many who would be considered as mere nothings by the wise and
strong have attained by Grace; illiterate, without mental power
or training, without "strength" of character or will,
they have yet aspired and suddenly or rapidly grown into spiritual
realisation, because they had faith or because they were sincere.
I do not see why these facts which are facts of spiritual history
and of quite ordinary spiritual experience should be discussed
and denied and argued as if they were mere matters of speculation.
Strength, if it is
spiritual, is a power for spiritual realisation; a greater power
is sincerity; the greatest power of all is Grace. I have said
times without number that if a man is sincere, he will go through
in spite of long delay and overwhelming difficulties. I have repeatedly
spoken of the Divine Grace. I have referred any number of times
to the line of the Gita:
'I will deliver thee
from all sin and evil, do not grieve.'"
- Sri Aurobindo
