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Divine Grace and Cosmic Law · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The terms Divine Grace along with cosmic law and divine
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  compassion are transcriptions into human terms from our human
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  viewpoint of actions and events that take place from an entirely
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  different level of the divine manifestation and with a
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  viewpoint that far exceeds that of our limited human
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  understanding. For example, we tend to look at
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  the world of some kind of machinery that operates under
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  specific strict rules that we treat as inflexible rules
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  governed by an all powerful, all knowing ruler.
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  We then go about trying to understand and define those
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  rules and come up with things such as the speed of light, the
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  gravitational constant, the mathematical relationships that
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  lead to the structures we observe on the level of the life
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  energy. We describe the law of cause and
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  effect as the law of karma because we view these things as
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  a form of machinery we do not generally expect nor understand.
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  When things occur that vary from our preconceived notion of how
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  the law works, we then try to find explanations, facts, or a
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  new more refined understanding of the law involved in order to
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  justify to ourselves that the machinery is still in operation
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  as it should be. At a certain point in our
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  psychological make up, we find it difficult to accept that we
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  are alive in a fixed mechanical world that has no way to adapt
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  to circumstances. We thus bring in the question of
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  divine compassion, responding to prayer, thus providing a way for
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  us to petition the Supreme Ruler for intercession and remitting
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  of the Cosmic Law. In a specific instance, we may
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  not actually recognize that prayer and response to prayer
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  may actually be part of the evolutionary process of a
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  conscious being manifesting the universe.
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  And then we come to the concept of Divine grace.
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  This is the most inexplicable of all the variations from our view
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  of Cosmic law. In as much as it seems to defy
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  any rational understanding, it seems to shower down on unlikely
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  recipients at unlikely times and under unlikely circumstances.
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  The issue here is that as we try to appreciate these things from
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  the human standpoint, we are unable to see, understand,
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  appreciate or even recognize that these things occur from the
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  divine standpoint. We do not see the struggles, the
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  past lifetimes, the karmic sequences, the need of the
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  evolutionary developments taking place when we try to judge these
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  things from our limited understanding.
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  We also do not see the cosmic intelligence, the personal
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  aspect of the divine, at work in and through the mechanisms we
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  observe, Sri Orobindo writes. Quote.
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  I should like to say something about the divine Grace, for you
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  seem to think it should be something like a divine reason
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  acting upon lines not very different from those of human
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  intelligence. But it is not that.
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  Also it is not a universal divine compassion either, acting
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  impartially on all who approach it, and exceeding to all
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  prayers. It does not select the righteous
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  and reject the Sinner. The divine grace came to aid the
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  persecutor Saul of Tarsus. It came to Saint Augustine the
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  profligate, to Jagai and Madai of infamous fame, to Bill 1,
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  Mongol, and many others whose conversion might well scandalize
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  the puritanism of the human moral intelligence.
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  But it can come to the righteous also, curing them of their self
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  righteousness and leading to a pure consciousness beyond these
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  things. It is a power that is superior
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  to any rule, even to the cosmic law.
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  For all spiritual seers have distinguished between the law
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  and grace. Yet it is not indiscriminate
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  only. It has a discrimination of its
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  own, which sees things and persons and the right times and
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  seasons with another vision than that of the mind or any other
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  normal power. A state of grace is prepared in
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  the individual, often behind thick veils, by means not
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  calculable by the mind, and when the state of grace comes, then
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  the grace itself acts. There are these 3.
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  Powers 1. The cosmic law of Karma, or what
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  else? 2 The Divine Compassion acting
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  on as many as it can reach through the Nets of the law, and
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  giving them their chance. 3 The Divine Grace, which acts more
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  incalculably, but also more irresistibly than the others.
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  The only question is whether there is something behind all
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  the anomalies of life which can respond to the call and open
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  itself with whatever difficulty till it is ready for the
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  illumination of the Divine Grace.
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  And that's something must be not a mental and vital movement, but
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  an inner somewhat, which can well be seen by the inner eye if
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  it is there. And when it becomes active in
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  front, then the compassion can act, though the full action of
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  the Grace may still wait, attending the decisive decision
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  or change. For this may be postponed to a
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  future hour, because some portion or element of the being
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  may still come between something that is not yet ready to
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  receive. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
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  The hidden forces of Life, Chapter 7.
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  Spiritual Forces of Help and Succor, pages 168 to 169.