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The Action of the Higher Grace · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We normally judge things based on our own individual egoistic
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  standpoint, basically how a particular event or circumstance
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  affects us in the moment. We build up expectations and
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  plans, and suddenly something gets in the way and destroys or
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  diverts those plans. We naturally become
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  disappointed, potentially even angry, about what happened.
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  With the benefit of hindsight, however, we may frequently find
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  that what took place at that time actually was an enormous
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  act of grace that helped us move into a direction that we
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  otherwise would not have seen or would have actively avoided.
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  There is the case of an individual who was poisoned and
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  upon recovery he recognized that there was a divine existence in
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  the world and he had been given back his life to serve that.
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  He promptly gave up his career plans and set off to learn about
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  and practice a spiritual discipline.
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  There's the case of a man struck by lightning and pronounced
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  clinically dead, who returned to life with a new focus and
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  mission and switched from being a hired mercenary to someone who
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  founded a Hospice care organization.
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  Many such anecdotes can be reported to show that what
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  appeared to be a tragedy was actually a positive turning
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  point in someone's life. This is particularly true for
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  those who take up and follow a spiritual path after some
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  traumatic event that they had at the time considered to be a very
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  unfortunate circumstance, the mother writes.
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  Quote If you are in a state of conscious aspiration and very
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  sincere, well, everything around you will be arranged in order to
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  help in your aspiration, whether directly or indirectly.
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  That is either to make you progress, put you in touch with
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  something new, or to eliminate from your nature something that
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  has to disappear. This is something quite
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  remarkable. If you are truly in a state of
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  intensity of aspiration, there is not a circumstance which does
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  not come to help you to realize this aspiration.
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  Everything comes, everything, as though there were a perfect and
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  absolute consciousness organizing around you all
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  things. And you yourself, in your outer
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  ignorance, may not recognize it, and may protest at first against
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  the circumstances as they show themselves, may complain, may
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  try to change them. But after a while, when you have
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  become wiser and there is a certain distance between you and
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  the event, well, you will realize that it was just what
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  you needed to do to make the necessary progress.
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  And you know it is a will, a supreme goodwill which arranges
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  all things around you. And even when you complain in
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  protest instead of accepting, it is exactly at such moments that
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  it acts most effectively. If you say to the divine with
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  conviction, I want only you, the divine will arrange all the
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  circumstances in such a way as to compel you to be sincere.
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  Something in the being. I want only you, the aspiration.
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  And then one wants 100 odd things all the time, isn't that
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  so? At times something comes, just
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  usually to disturb everything. It stands in the way and
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  prevents you from realizing your aspiration.
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  Well, the Divine will come without showing himself, without
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  your seeing him, without your having any inkling of it, and He
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  will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that
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  everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the
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  Divine will be removed from your path.
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  Inevitably then, when all is removed, you begin to howl and
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  complain. But later, if you are sincere
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  and look at yourself straight in the eye, you have said to the
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  Lord, you have said, I want only you.
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  He will remain close to you, All the rest will go away.
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  This is indeed a higher grace. Only you must say this with
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  conviction. I don't even mean that you must
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  say it integrally, because if one says it integrally, the work
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  is done. What is necessary is that one
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  part of the being. Indeed, the central will says it
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  with conviction. I want only you even once, and
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  it suffices. All that takes more or less
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  long. Sometimes it stretches over
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  years, but one reaches the goal. But one has all kinds of
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  imperfections, eh? The more the imperfections, the
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  longer it takes. The more the attachments one
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  has, the longer it takes, but the goal is sure.
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  End Quote reference. Srioro Bindu and the Mother,
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  Looking from Within, Chapter 1, Looking at Life and
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  Circumstances, pages 21 to 23.