Continuing with the last three lines of the ‘Sadhana Karu Pyare’ series…

तुम अकारण करुण करुणा करहु मो पर प्यारे |

कृपा की नित बाट जोहो, कृपा होगी प्यारे |

कबहुँ तो लैहैं करि, सुधि ‘कृपालुहुँ’ प्यारे |

tum akāraṇa karuṇa karuṇā karahu mo par pyāre

kripā kī nita bāṭa joho, kripā hogī pyāre

kabahuñ to laihaiṅ kari, sudhi ‘kripāluhūñ’ pyāre

God has set a condition for gracing the souls. The condition is that we have to surrender ourselves to Him. Only when we surrender ourselves to God will He grace us. Our intellect disagrees with this point. It thinks, “O Lord! I don’t have trust in You, and I don’t believe You. Will you grace me only if I practice devotion and surrender myself to You? Is it not possible that you grace me first, and then I surrender myself to You? You grant me Your divine vision and help me relish Your divine Bliss first, then I will have faith in You, and then I will surrender myself to You.”

God says, “This type of clever thinking is not acceptable. If I first bestow My Grace and you don’t surrender yourself and return to the material world, what will I do then? So, first, you will have to surrender yourself completely, and then I will bestow my grace upon you.”

The mind says, “O Lord! How should I trust You? If I surrender myself to You, and You don’t bestow Your grace on me, then what will I do? I will neither be of this world nor Yours. So, kindly shower Your Grace upon me, and then I will surrender truly.”

God says, “Look, son, if I do like this, it will be against my rule. I go by My rules. For innumerable lifetimes, all the great Saints practised devotion, surrendered completely, received My grace and attained Me. How can you get everything for free? This is not possible.”

The soul says, “O God! You are causelessly merciful. You are benevolent and bestow Your Grace on everyone without any reason. If You say that we must surrender ourselves first to bestow Your Grace upon us, it will become a reason. If you are causelessly merciful, then why do You have a condition attaining Your Grace? Please shower Your Grace upon me without any condition.”

God says, “Ok, I agree. But you must accept the fact that I am causelessly merciful.”

The individual says, “I doubt You.”

God replies, “If you doubt everything, then how will you be the recipient of my grace? Accept this fact that I am causelessly merciful; at that moment, I will bestow My grace upon you.”

The individual says, “My intellect is not ready to trust.”

In the spiritual realm, we must develop trust and progress on that path. We must first build trust in God’s causeless merciful quality and then request His grace by saying, “O Lord! Please bestow Your Grace upon me.” Remember that Grace or mercy does not mean God should fulfil our material desires. It does not mean that we pray, “O God! You are benevolent. Please arrange 1,00,000 rupees for me. Please cure my diabetes.” This is not grace. Grace has many forms. When one experiences sorrow or pain, then that is the biggest grace of God. It helps an individual’s spiritual progress. The experience of happiness does not catalyze spiritual progress but the pain and sorrow a person goes through.

Once, a piece of wood visited a sculptor and said, “I have been cut from an ugly tree. Please make me beautiful.”

The sculptor said, “Of course, I am ready to make you pretty. But, are you ready for this?”

The wood replied, “Yes, Yes! I am ready to become beautiful.” The sculptor took out his tools and started to cut the wood. The wood screamed, “Aah! What are you doing? Stop, please stop! It is painful.”

The sculptor replied, “You want to become beautiful! Then you have to learn to tolerate pain.”

The piece of wood said, “Ok, never mind, but please cut me slowly.” The wood continued screaming. After some time, the wood said, “It is enough for the day.” But the sculptor kept on working. At last, the same piece of wood became a fine, beautiful idol and was placed in the temple. See how it was necessary to tolerate some pain to become beautiful. The same rule applies to our lives. If you run for material happiness in the present, you will get sorrow in the end. And if you bear sorrow and pain at present, you will be happy in the future. It means that in the end, happiness will result in sorrow, and sorrow will result in happiness.

Therefore, if you surrender yourself to God and experience misery and pain on the path, you should not feel forsaken by Him. Learn to have faith in God. Just like a mother sometimes loves her child, sometimes slaps the child, sometimes gives sweets, and sometimes punishes the child, a mother always wants the child’s benefit.

In the same manner, to progress in the spiritual realm, God gives us sorrow, sometimes takes away our wealth and makes us poor, sometimes makes us rich, sometimes gives us success and sometimes failure. But we should not get disheartened. We should always believe in God and His Grace, no matter what happens, and feel, “Whatever is happening, it is fine. Everything that is happening is by the Grace of God, which He is continuously showering on me at every step. He wants me to grow in the spiritual realm.” By keeping this firm faith, we have to keep progressing on the spiritual path.

This is the explanation of the last line:

कबहुँ तो लैहैं करि, सुधि ‘कृपालुहुँ’ प्यारे |

kabahuñ to laihaiṅ kari, sudhi ‘kripāluhūñ’ pyāre

This is an ocean of Maya; it has many waves, such as family sorrows, body pain, mental tension, and so on. Human beings get disturbed when these waves of Maya hit them. But, if a person works hard in accordance with the instructions of God and Guru, performing to his full capacity, then one day he will be able to attract God’s Grace. God will say, “He is doing his best. Now, I should help him. Yogi Shree Krishna Prem said: “The Divine grace intervenes when you are at the end of your tether, for then, feeling lost as you call out with every fibre of your being to save you from your shipwreck, his love answers your call, and your heart is flooded with love His light knelling the doom of centuries of darkness.”

It means God bestows His grace on a person when all other means of support are closed, and the soul considers himself to be humble and helpless. We must pray intensely and keep practising hard from within. One day, God will notice that this soul’s longing is from a true heart and will Grace immediately.

Once, a father was practising lifting weights. His four-year-old son came and said, “Father, I will also do it.” The father said, “Son, you will not be able to lift it.” The son insisted and said, “No, Father, I want to lift it.” The father replied, “Fine, son. If it is your wish, you may do so.” The son started lifting the bars and at the same time, his father lifted the bars from behind his back. The son thought, “I am lifting the bars; I am so powerful! I am able to lift these heavy bars.” The father pushed the bars a little, and they lifted upwards. The son realized, “It is not me who is lifting the bars. There is someone at the back who is doing it.” That means the boy thought he was the doer, but when the workload was beyond his capability, he understood that he was not the actual doer.

Similarly, the scriptures say that you are not the actual doer. The actual doer is God, and the source of power and energy is God. But we consider ourselves to be a material body, which is full of pride and thus think, “I am the doer of all actions.” Sometimes, we may get more success for our little efforts, and we think, “I did very little work, and I got so much success!” Sometimes, we think like the four-year-old boy, “I didn’t do it; God did it.” So, how can one realize that he is not the actual doer of the actions? This can be realized when we take up a task beyond our capability, have complete faith in God, and do our best to achieve that task. And when you achieve success, then you will realize, “I didn’t do anything. God did it and made it happen.”

Our goal in life is to attain God. Hence, we should apply the above philosophy here, too, and think, “It is beyond my capacity, but like that bird, I should apply my full effort and have full trust in God’s Grace.” Only then will God bestow His Divine Grace. And by His grace, the three modes of Maya will be destroyed forever. We will receive God’s Divine Love and will be spiritually wealthy for eternity.