Grace is a very important factor in the practice of bhakti yoga. It is inherent faith which is responsible for the realization of grace. It is said that Nature is always benevolent; that the higher laws are always trying to help us in every possible manner. Man in his ignorance violates these higher laws.
Grace is a higher law or the law of higher Nature. It is present everywhere, in everybody and in order to experience this grace, one has to open his mind, his heart and his spirit. The greatest obstacle to the experience of grace is one’s limited ego. Human beings are guided by ego. When one loses one’s innocence, he loses touch with grace.
In order to experience grace, one should be as innocent as a child. The mind, the ego, is very critical. It always tries to prove differences. It will try to like one thing and dislike another. Anyone, even yoga aspirants, who have likes and dislikes are far from grace. For example, the mother is full with love but the child is insane. He cannot experience her grace or love. If he is to experience her love, he has to improve his mind.
The same way the higher Nature is always full with grace and compassion for all living beings, but man has lost his innocence. He has become intelligent, but this intelligence which man has developed is not divine intelligence. It is crooked intelligence. It is the intelligence of an evil-minded being. This is precisely the reason why everyone is unhappy.
If you conduct an opinion poll of all human beings throughout the world, you will not find one happy person. There will be something which will be causing him unhappiness. Even if he is deeply religious, he will be unhappy. A priest is unhappy; a clergyman is unhappy; a yoga teacher is unhappy; yoga practitioners are unhappy; a person who is living in the mountains is unhappy; a person who has no desires is also unhappy. Only one person is happy: he who has no ego, he who is innocent, he who has a very simple heart, because such a person is in direct contact with the transcendental grace.
Grace is not like a beam of light; grace is not something which comes to you; grace is not far from you. It is closer than your breath. It is closer than your own mind. It is so close to you that you can’t even think about it, you can’t even understand it.
In fact, you exist because of grace. Not only you but your earth which is suspended in space, exists just by the grace of a higher Nature. But how to experience it? I don’t think and I don’t believe that people have experienced grace. Once you have experienced grace, you have no fear. Those people who realize grace in their lives become fearless. What will happen to my son? What will happen to my wife and husband? What will happen if I have no money? What will happen if I do this and he will criticize me? These kinds of thoughts come to one who has no faith and therefore he has no grace. If you can experience grace even for a split second, you will become a different person.
When I go to holy men, I hear from them about grace. When I go and see priests, they always talk about grace but they are so worried about their affairs. Therefore, do not talk about grace, instead try to feel it. Try to become like a child, without taboos, without prejudice, without definitions, without categories. Try to be spontaneous in your expressions, your actions and feelings.