God's Grace Cannot be Won by Being Idle

SAI RAM. THE COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT OF THIS DIVINE DISCOURSE IS UNAVAILABLE AT THIS POINT.

NOTE: Swami explains the Gita Sloka, "mat-karma-kṛin mat-paramo mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ, nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣhu yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava" (Ch 11, Sl 55) and the concept of "jñātuṁ draṣhṭuṁ cha tattvena praveṣhṭuṁ" (Ch 11, Sl 54) in this discourse.
Below is an excerpt from the discourse:

Today even wisdom appears in the world in many different ways. Knowledge is of various kinds. The knowledge may be of either the scriptures. Knowledge may be of the subject of music, of sculpture. Knowledge may be of worldly matters and sciences. But of all these types of knowledge, the one that is exceedingly superior to everyone else is the knowledge of the spiritual aspect. If therefore, you want to promote spiritual knowledge, an amount of courage and adventurism is necessary. Man has such courage and adventurism, but he is putting these qualities in the wrong direction.

One devotee expressed this feeling in a beautiful poem. The poem says that we, most people, spend a considerable amount of their life in thinking of their children, of their grandchildren. In thinking and counting how to accumulate wealth, how to use the wealth for obtaining material pleasures and so on. Out of this enormous amount of time which we spend in the thought of material desires, and in the thought of our children, grandchildren and other members of the family, even if we can spend a minor, small fraction of the time in the thought of the Lord, then you can place yourself at the feet of the Lord. It is not difficult through such devotion, by spending such a small amount of time, for any individual to get the most difficult doors open and to reach the Divinity and to merge with Him. 

Out of the time that you have, you may spend 23 hours and 55 minutes in selfish matters like what has been said before. But even if you spend five minutes in that day in the name of the Lord, it is quite enough and this will take you to the most difficult position of salvation. For the reason that God has given us this body, we must be able to, so long as this body lasts with us, take part in sacred things, to do sacred work. But if we develop the feeling that God will take care of everything, God will do everything for us and not use any portion of the strength which God has given us, that is not going to be of any use at all. We will not be able to obtain God's grace.

There is a small example for this. If we want to clean our hand, water is necessary. But the kind of grease which we have on our hand is something which has accumulated over so many births and that grease is not going to be removed with a small amount of water. We have to use some external aid like a soap or a shampoo or one of the soap nuts, or something like that. Then you can remove the grease more easily. Our devotion is just like water.

Japa, dhyana or yoga (recitation, meditation or such spiritual practices) are like the various auxiliaries, soap, shampoo and so on. It is by bringing these things together that we will be able to clean our hand. Without practice, without Sadhana if you are like an idler, and sit down telling yourself God will do everything, 'God has given me birth, won't He find the necessary food and fulfil my needs. He will do everything.' That is not the right attitude. We must at least do what is useful to others, that is the service to society.

There is a small story for this. There was a music teacher. He used to give tuition to a few children and teach them music in a very good way. But the examinations came close. He used to go in the morning at 7 o'clock and return at 12 noon. One day, because he had to take some special classes and give some special tuition to the students, the husband did not return home at 12 noon. It became, 1, 2 and then 3 o'clock and he didn't come. As his wife in the house prepared the food, expected the husband to come at noon as usual, but he did not come at 12 o'clock, he did not come at one, he did not come at 2. So she got anxious. She was thinking that on the road he may have been hurt, he may have got into an accident with a car or a motorcycle or a scooter and so on. He came home at 3 o'clock. He was very hungry. And the wife also did not eat food and she was hungry too. But if she is like one of these modern wives, then she would've already taken her food and would be resting. But that lady was not like that. She would not eat until she gave food to her husband. That was the custom and tradition in those days. The husband came, and the wife told him, "Oh you have come so late, I am also hungry. Go to the well, have a bath and come back quickly. We shall eat our food.”

He went to a well which was in the backyard, he removed his clothes, he put the bucket into the water, drew water and put it on himself and applied some soap. He applied the soap on his face. To draw water, he put the bucket into the well with closed his eyes and the bucket along with the rope fell into the well. He closed his eyes and standing at the well. He started singing, and the meaning of which is, 'all the responsibility rests on You, the responsibility for everything is Yours.' The wife went into the house, prepared food and put it in the plate, but heard this man singing so she thought what was the matter and she came running to the well.

She said, "What is it? You are still indulging in music, why don't you come quickly to have food?" He would not give any reply. He continued to sing the same alapana saying, 'O Lord, the responsibility for everything is Yours.' She was worried that he has lost his mind. She went near her husband and she gave a pat on him and asked what is the matter. The only reply was for him to sing the same song saying, 'O Lord, the responsibility is Yours for everything.'

She went inside, brought a vessel of cold water, poured that water on his face and asked him, "What is the matter, what is the trouble with you?" Then he said, "The bucket has fallen into the well, what is it that I can do now?" Then the wife advised him, "You idler, you have been just spending your time here. That the bucket has fallen into the well is something that you could've told someone, who would've come and helped you to take the bucket out. Instead of that, you do not do your duty and you are simply asking God to help you out. This is wrong! You must attend to your work and do what you can first of all, before anything else can happen.

Therefore, so far as we have the strength to do our work, we must do our work. While we have the strength to do our work, if we simply become idlers and tell God to do everything for us, it is only a symptom of laziness in us. Fulfilling our duty, doing our work, thinking of God - that is how we must spend our time. That is a sacred way of spending our time. Even if we do not utter the name of the Lord in any other manner at least to think of Omkara is something which is sacred. 

Embodiments of the Divine Atma! I hope that with the necessary devotion, and with understanding the inner meaning of all our great sayings in our culture, you will be able to conduct yourself in a manner to earn God's grace. We are entering a New Year. I would suggest that you forget the past. Whatever may have been done in the past has gone. Think of the future. Fill the future with good ideas. Have a clean heart. Not only that, develop friendliness with everyone with whom you come into contact and thus wish that you make our country Bharat to acquire a great name and fame. I bless you, and I hope that you will be distant from difficulties and you will be close to happiness and bliss in the New Year. These are My blessings to you! And I hope you will have all the good things in life in the next Year!

-Discourse delivered the day before Ugadi, Mar 26, 1971