GRACE AND EFFORT

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--- On Sat, 6/2/10, Swami Sadasivananda <sadasivananda wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Grace is always there, it is only you who have to make yourself receptive to it." Bhagavan's close disciple, Arthur Osborne, clarified the meaning and tradition of this statement saying: "To do this constitutes the effort of which the teachers and scriptures speak. The mind has created the obstruction; the mind has to remove it. But merely to recognize this, to recognize, that is to say, that the ego is (according to the Advaitin or non-dualist) an illusory self or (according

to the dualist) a creation of the Spirit, to which it should be totally submissive and passive, is far from constituting the full effort required. Indeed, it increases the obligation for total effort and therefore, so to speak, the guilt in not making effort." Though grace is always there, it is natural and simply human to pray to Bhagavan for a physical support of grace. We know that in Bhagavan's physical presence a glance was enough. Though many have come to love him, there are those who feel “born out of timeâ€, lacking that heartfelt devotion produced by the power of his presence even though he assured us that: "They say that I am dying but I am not going away. Where could I go? I am here." Through our abhyasa, vichara (enquiry into one’s true Nature) and devotion we will experience him and thus know that he is eternally with us. He is for all a jagat guru (world teacher) who even

today for many, through their love of him, is still a physical support of grace. He declared that if we "put his teaching into practice" our qualifing ripeness would be even his very embrace! For those of us whose love for him is still ripening we live with the assurance he gave: "Mount Kailas is the abode of Siva but Arunachala is Siva Himself.He saw the sacred hill as the form assumed by pure Spirit for the support and guidance of men. Now that the physical body of Bhagavan - the most precious of all supports of Grace has been withdrawn from us, the Hill emits power and Grace for his devotees even more than before." Following in His Footsteps Perhaps even more assuring will be that through "the crown of our achievement" Bhagavan will declare to us when we come away from his Ashram and Arunachala the very same words he spoke to Arthur Osborne when he once left for

Madras: "He is taking the Swami with him." For through our seeking with patient perseverance in transformative abhyasa and vichara and our heeding Bhagavan's call to “think of the feet of the Lordâ€, we will discover the abode of those divine feet. Even though physically for us there is:"No more the beloved face, no more the sound of his voice; (but) henceforth the lingam of polished black stone, the symbol of Siva, over the samadhi (as our) outer sign; inwardly (there will be) his footprints in the heart." -- Spiritual Teachings of the Masters from the East and West web site: http://www.spiritual-teaching.com