Grace

One has to have faith in Grace. If we think that Grace is like a gentle stream of liquid, then we are mistaken. The mind will tell us that God's Compassion is like rain slowly falling into a bucket. Then we will have no confidence in God's Compassion, and we will feel it as something weak. We will say, "If I meditate for five hours, God's Grace will descend like a drop of honey." A drop of honey will be sweet, but it will not be powerful in our life.

If we feel that Grace is blind, we will think that it has no strength. And if we do not think Grace is strong, we will say, "How can Grace help us to fight against what is attacking us?" We have to feel God's Compassion as something infinitely stronger than that which is attacking us; then we will see what Grace can do. Otherwise, we will see Grace on one side fighting against some powerful undivine thing on the other side.

Grace is not like that. We must feel that Grace is many times stronger than an atom bomb. Only then will we have faith in Grace. When we think of it as an atom bomb or a hydrogen bomb, then we will feel that God's omnipotent Power is working, and naturally we will be convinced that we can conquer our enemies. If we feel that Grace itself is omnipotent Power, then only will we know that our weakness can be conquered. Otherwise, it will be impossible to conquer weakness. God's Will does everything, provided we know what Grace is, and what the capacity of Grace is.

All the progress that we make and that everybody makes is due to the Grace of the Supreme. Personal effort has no meaning here. What you call personal effort, for me is divine Grace. I have come to feel that there is no such thing as personal effort. It is the Grace that is asking me to speak to you and the Grace that is asking you to listen to me.

Perhaps we have brothers or sisters or friends who are not spiritual. Why, then, are we spiritual? We have become spiritual because the Grace of the Supreme has descended upon us. All our progress, in the sense of experience, is due to the operation of divine Grace.