Receiving His Grace

An Explanation by Maharaj Charan Singh

We are helping ourselves when we are in meditation day and night. His grace will also be there. If we refuse to meditate and are always expecting his grace, we do not deserve it. If a beggar is not going to knock at the door, how is the owner of the house going to give anything to him? If a child does not weep, the mother also does not pay much attention. For example, in our country, generally we have maidservants, and one takes the child out to play so that the mother can do her work. If the child weeps and cries for the mother, the maidservant tries to humour him. She tells him fairy stories, or she may give him toys to play with, or she may give him some sweets. She tries to engage his attention. But if the child refuses everything and just weeps for the mother, and wants only the mother and nothing else, the mother cannot resist it. She runs from the house and embraces him.

Similarly, we are all children playing in this world with the material or worldly faces and all that. We are so attached to them and absorbed in playing with them that we do not even think about the Lord. We are away from him. But when we have real longing and devotion for him alone and want only him, we withdraw our attention from everything else. Then he cannot bear it, comes to meet us with open arms and embraces us as he receives us.

Mostly we do not try to meditate for his sake. We meditate for worldly possessions. Even if we meditate, we do not pray to him for his grace, but we pray for worldly things to satisfy our worldly desires and cravings. We want him to fulfill our desires and nothing else. We do not want him for his sake. In Sant Mat we are just to pray to him for him, to merge back into him. When we do our duty with love and devotion, he will also help us. When we are helping ourselves, we will get his help, too.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II}