Sathya Upanishad - Pt. 1

HUMAN EFFORT AND THE GRACE OF GOD

Bhagawan visited Kodaikanal in April 1992 along with students of MBA and selected devotees of Prasanthi Nilayam and Whitefield campus.  In the beautiful premises "Sai Sruti", Swami used to give discourses two or three times a day.  These were mostly in the form of dialogue proceeding in form of questions and answers as in the Upanishadic  tradition.  Swami answered the questions below: 

Q1: What is the role of human effort and how is it related to the Grace of God?  Which of these two is more important?

A:  Those who had Western education are under the feeling that anything can be achieved through human effort coupled with a firm belief in it and that God's Grace is not necessary.  Take for example - a chapati and kurma in a plate.  They cannot be gulped as they are nor can they enter the stomach on their own.  There is work for the hand and the mouth.  The hand puts them into the mouth and then only does eating start.  Mere chanting the name of food will not do.  (By this Swami has conveyed that putting the food into the mouth by hand is human effort and digestion of the same is God's Grace).

Another example: Sowing a seed in the field is human effort.  Timely showers and good climate for the sprouting of the seed and the growth of the plant are God's Grace.  Yet another example is a bulb, switch and electric current.  The switch should be in the "on" position for the current to flow and the bulb to glow.  Here turning on the switch is human effort and the glowing of the bulb is God's Grace.

(To be continued)

From the book "Divine Directions" by Prof. K. Anil Kukar)