I had an ’AHA’ moment when I came across a very old discourse delivered by my Guru in 2013 on the topic of grace!
In that discourse, Bhagawan Sri Nithyananda Paramashiva (fondly known as Swamiji) revealed that there are four representatives of God in Vedic tradition:- 1) Nature; 2) the “Avyaktha” – Unmanifested Nature which we label as “Unknown”; 3) Individual Soul and finally 4) Guru. These are the four representatives of God we encounter in the life.
First of all, Nature is the first representative of God we face. But, if you look what human beings have done to the Nature, we are destroying the Nature at an alarming rate. Many scientists and environmentalists are seeing a rapid destruction of our natural habitat and we may not survive in the next 20 years.
Fundamentally, it boils down to the right cognition we carry when we relate with Mother Nature! See, the whole Western civilization is built on this cognition: You have to conquer the Nature whereas the whole Eastern civilization is built on the concept: You are here to enjoy the Nature, celebrate with the Nature. From the beginning, the people of the Eastern civilisation believe Nature is supporting life and it wants us to be here. The trust level between the people and the Nature was so high, even if they had to die in some natural calamities, they only felt that this body was getting cleansed and evolved so that the soul will come back with another body. The whole cognition was different and life-positive. But, unfortunately, in the Greek civilization, the whole cognition was rooted on: Conquer the Nature, master the Nature and go against the Nature. So, naturally, that cognition replicated in the other relationships with human-beings and everything.
The click was – my relationship with the Nature establishes the pattern how I am going to relate with God, Guru and my own Self. The truth is Nature celebrates our success and it wants us to be successful. The first root-cognition we need to have is – the whole Nature is waiting for us to be successful and win the game to celebrate with us. The whole Nature is constantly supporting us to have our life as we want. If we want to be healthy, the Nature supports us to be healthy. If we want to be wealthy, the whole Nature supports us to be wealthy. If we aspire to be enlightened, the whole Cosmos supports our enlightenment process and celebrates our enlightenment. Everything we want in life; the Nature wants us to be fulfilled with it. If humanity can get back to the right cognition of relating with the Nature of co-existence and celebration, we can save planet earth from all the abuses and pollution we’ve done to it.
Next click I got – till we meet our Guru, we will not meet our real Self. Till you meet the Guru, you will not meet the real YOU. Only when you have met the Guru, he introduces the real YOU and God both simultaneously to you. Right now, most of us are like a confused child in the mall. When a confused child goes to a mall, he runs here to the candy shop and runs there to the toy shop, then he runs to the clothes shop. He is confused about what he wants. Even then, God just sits in the lounge and watches you play the game and tells you, ‘Please take what you want; it’s all yours.’ But, unfortunately, we are so confused, all the twenty floors of the mall, we race up and down, up and down, and each counter, by the time we decide what you want, we are dead due to old age! Having an enlightened Guru to guide us in navigating the path to enlightenment is the greatest blessing any individual soul can ask for! He shows us the real Self and gives us an experience of God!
The final click I internalized was – Grace is there forever on us but are we aware of it? The sage, Patanjali explains it beautifully: ‘You don’t need to bring water into the land; the canal is there; just remove the obstructions.’ You don’t need to bring Kundalini energy (inner potential energy) into your body; it is there with the whole circuit; just remove the blockages you created in your body through unconscious lifestyle, diet and thought patterns. Incompletions are the blockages we created that stop us from receiving the grace of Divine. The only solution is complete with all wrong cognitions and get back to the original state of complete completion! Namaste 😀