Ideal Expectations, Real Life Results and Divine Grace

We think and plan and harbor expectations as if we are the sole arbiter of what happens in our lives. We then judge the results from the standpoint of our ideal expectations and express either dismay or disappointment that what we hoped for has not come to pass. What we frequently fail to take into account is the interactive and complex nature of the world within which we live and act. There is a play of forces that adjusts, modifies and reacts to the energy we express, and in many cases, we find that those forces defect our intention into another direction entirely. We then bemoan our failure or the ‘catastrophe’ that has occurred, rather than looking beyond for a higher intention or even recognising that the idea we had was right, but the field in which it was being sown was not prepared to receive it at this time. In many cases, our own situation is not perfect and we are trying to accomplish something before we are truly ready to manifest it within ourselves. We thus are rebuffed and forced to address the weaknesses and developmental needs that block the full expression.

These issues occur every day in the daily life of people. A businessman reported that he had a serious conce
about the operations of the company under his operations manager. He did not have all the facts but had an inkling or sense of worry, so he called a meeting with that operations manager. The meeting was planned, but suddenly on the morning of the meeting, the operations manager advised that he had to deal with a family situation and would not be available. Since the businessman felt a sense of urgency about the situation, he was disappointed and decided to go ahead with the planned meeting, but call in the assistant to that operations manager who was himself supposed to be an expert in certain areas and was himself being compensated as a manager. The meeting confirmed the deep conce
s and at the end the businessman chose to terminate the employment of this assistant. Within hours the operations manager resigned by email. Later, the businessman was able to ascertain the reality of his fears in the matter, the ‘life and death’ consequences to the business, and felt that there was a saving grace that led to the termination of both individuals from their employment.

For a spiritual seeker the operation of what may be termed ‘Divine Grace’ is even more palpable. Essentially by definition, the seeker has a strong aspiration and will to develop his spiritual nature. Yet he is starting from the basis of a normal physical, vital and mental existence that is built up and conditioned based on his upbringing, the family, the society, the time-spirit within which he lives, and thus has many ideas, reactions, tendencies and desires that need to be addressed to truly liberate himself from the bondage these things cause in his exte
al ego-personality and nature.

Spiritual seekers frequently weep and decry the absence of the Divine, and they describe the dark night of the soul, when the Divine appears to have withdrawn and left them to their own devices to deal with the contradictions between their aspiration and the life they are living. When they look back later they frequently find that their struggles had led to substantial changes in the way they looked at life, their desires and their reactions. The ways of the Divine Grace are thus inscrutable and for the most part cannot be understood at the time, but only through the lens of present looking back at the past.

Hermann Hesse, in his short novel Siddhartha, illustrates the divine play. A seeker and his friend go to meet the Buddha who is teaching enlightenment. His friend joins the order, but Siddhartha feels he must gain his own inner experience and enlightenment. He returns to the city where he is smitten by a courtesan who advises him that she will only accept rich men. He had abandoned worldly pursuits and seeking after wealth as a seeker, but he is so smitten that he agrees to her proposal. He gains a position, becomes wealthy and takes up a relationship with this beautiful woman. He has a midlife crisis and departs from the life he had built, despairing and suicidal. He has an inward experience and joins a ferryman on the river who has spiritual insights gained during his simple life. What he was not ready to hear earlier as a seeker now came instantly to him and he gained a measure of enlightenment. His worldly life could be considered a setback, but in reality, it prepared him for a more complete and wider form of enlightenment and spiritual growth.

The Mother observes: “When you are in a particular set of circumstances and certain events take place, these events often oppose your desire or what seems best to you, and often you happen to regret this and say to yourself, ‘Ah! how good it would have been if it were otherwise, if it had been like this or like that’, for little things and big things…. Then years pass by, events are unfolded; you progress, become more conscious, understand better, and when you look back, you notice — first with astonishment, then later with a smile — that those very circumstances which seemed to you quite disastrous or unfavourable, were exactly the best thing that could have happened to you to make you progress as you should have. And if you are the least bit wise you tell yourself, ‘Truly, the divine Grace is infinite.’ “

“So, when this sort of things has happened to you a number of times, you begin to understand that in spite of the blindness of man and deceptive appearances, the Grace is at work everywhere, so that at every moment it is the best possible thing that happens in the state the world is in at that moment. It is because our vision is limited or even because we are blinded by our own preferences that we cannot disce
that things are like this.”

“But when one begins to see it, one enters upon a state of wonder which nothing can describe. For behind the appearances one perceives this Grace — infinite, wonderful, all-powerful — which knows all, organises all, arranges all, and leads us, whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not, towards the supreme goal, that is, union with the Divine, the awareness of the Godhead and union with Him.”

“Then one lives in the Action and Presence of the Grace a life full of joy, of wonder, with the feeling of a marvellous strength, and at the same time with a trust so calm, so complete, that nothing can shake it any longer.”

“And when one is in this state of perfect receptivity and perfect adherence, one diminishes to that extent the resistance of the world to the divine Action; consequently, this is the best collaboration one can bring to the Action of the Divine. One understands what He wants and, with all one’s consciousness, adheres to His Will.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and Circumstances, pp. 26-27