Self-Effort, Surrender and Divine Grace
The scriptures seem to hold conflicting views regarding the role of self-effort on the mystic path that leads to Self-realization. While some passages of the scriptures speak highly of self-effort, others emphasize the need of total surrender to the Divine Will, thus giving up all personal efforts.
However, those who delve deep into the study of scriptures realize that these apparent contradictions are due to the fact that the human personality is constituted of various layers, called sheaths. An interesting episode from the Ramay ana illustrates this point. When Lord Rama asked Hanuman how Hanuman was related to Him, Hanuman replied, "O Lord, from the point of view of the body, I am your slave. From the point of view of the mind, I am a ray of your Divine effulgence, but from the point of view of the innermost spirit, I am Thyself." Therefore, while it is important to exercise self-effort with relation to the outer part of your personality, you must at the same time follow the teachings of surrender With relation to your inner personality—your mind and the ego-self. However, when there arises the intuitional knowledge of the Self, there is neither the need for self-effort, nor surrender. You discover your innate identity—"I am That"—and become free from the world-process.
Self-effort on the path of Yoga consists of selfless service of humanity, study of scriptures, repetition of Divine Name, meditation and Vedantic inquiry under the guidance of a spiritual preceptor. Seeking good association, cultivation of divine qualities, and perfecting the eight limbs of Raja Yoga are also included in self-effort.
A sincere effort on the part of an aspirant leads to the promotion of inner surrender to the Divine Self, and surrender draws Divine Grace. As the gentle breeze of Divine Grace begins to blow, you begin to practice various disciplines effortlessly. The rigor and tension that were associated with your spiritual disciplines are now replaced by Divine Love and joyousness. Thus, surrender to God does not imply giving up your self-effort and taking recourse to a life of inertia and dullness. Rather, in the mystic plan, self-effort leads to surrender, and surrender, having drawn Divine Grace, intensifies the process of self-effort until the goal is reached.
The confusion that exists in the mind of a beginner centers on the following points:
1. God is omniscient, therefore He already knows all that is to happen in this world. This concept of predestination deprives the individual of the joy of exercising his self-effort. Why should he turn to self-effort, when he cannot do or undo anything in this world?
2. The scriptures say, "He who is chosen by God, he alone becomes the recipient of Divine Knowledge." Therefore , an aspirant feels that he must remain inactive until, by divine accident, he is chosen. Why should he exert himself when he knows that his personal effort is of no value in the cosmic scheme of things?
3. If the Divine Will rules even the fluttering of a leaf in the wind, why should an aspirant be considered responsible for his negative karmas? Why should God have allowed the jivas (individual souls) to enter into karmic entanglements in the first place? And having allowed them to do so for a strange Divine Sport, why should He inflict them with sorrow and sufferings? Why did God place some jivas in prosperous conditions, while others in miserable conditions?
4. Many begin to condone their evil actions by asserting that this world and all its movements are dependent upon the Divine Will, and an individual has no freedom of his own. A classical example of this is presented in the Mahabharata through the evil-minded Duryodhana, who was constantly devoted to sinful deeds. When he was asked to give up his evil ways, he replied, "I know dharma, the nature of righteousness, but I cannot practice it. I know ad-harma, that which is unrighteous, but I cannot refrain from it. The Indwelling God in me leads me to actions, whether they are good or evil. I am merely a puppet in His hands."
To these and many related confusions arising in the mind of a beginner, Vedanta presents the following insights:
1. God is Omniscient, but this attribute of omniscience exists in the realm of Maya (cosmic illusion). Just as the sun may be said to know all the clouds and their formations, in the same manner, the Divinity (the Indwelling God in one's heart) is said to be the knower of the clouds of desires and illusions that drift in the unconscious of the individual. It is the sun that allows all seeds to grow, whether they are of thorny bushes or of luscious fruits, yet it is not the sun that is responsible for their external characteristics. So too, it is the Divine Self Who allows different types of karmas to operate in different individuals. The individuals, like farmers, sow seeds of either thorny bushes of entanglements and misery or of luscious fruits of goodness and prosperity, and the Divine Self allows these seeds to grow and flourish. The fanners are responsible for what they grow, and the Sun is the sustainer of all forms of growth. In the same manner, while the jivas. are the sowers of their good and evil karmas, the Divine Self is the sustainer of karmas and their fructifications. It is the jiva who must consider himself responsible for his good and evil deeds, and thus endeavor to turn away from evil and direct his steps towards what is good.
2. With a deeper insight it will be easy to understand that God or Ishwara, the Divine Ruler of the universe, is not a being totally separated from the individual, but rather is the inner reality of the individual. Ishwara is Brahman reflecting in Maya (Cosmic Illusion), while jiva is Brahman reflecting in avidya (ignorance, which is a limited mode of Maya). Ishwara controls Cosmic Illusion, while jiva is controlled by it. But it is possible for the jiva to turn to Ishwara and partake of His innate freedom and power, and thus overcome Maya or avidya.
Being "chosen" by God, therefore, implies a movement towards your deeper reality, and allowing your personality to be dominated by the light of your own inner truth. If you fly beyond the clouds, you allow yourself to be chosen by the sun that illumines you; but if you remain veiled by clouds,you are deprived of the sun's luminosity. In the same manner, when you exercise your self-effort, you remove the clouds of delusion from your mind, and your personality receives light and grace from the innermost source—God within you. Thus, you should not give up your effort by waiting for that blessed day when God may choose you and lead you on to the highest Goal. If you do so, you are following the path of ignorance and delusion.
3. As a jiva, you are responsible for your negative as well as positive karmas. By your self-effort you should try to move away from unrighteousness and become increasingly involved in righteous actions. As long as you have not discovered your essential nature, your mind is conditioned by ignorance. Due to the fact that there is innate freedom in every individual, you have led yourself to different conditions, whether positive or negative. And it is you who must move away from that which is negative and pursue a positive course of life. Thus, led by karmas that have their source in beginningless ignorance, you have brought to yourself varying conditions of pleasure and pain in this relative world. God did not afflict you or any other individual with sorrow and misery.
4. Jiva's movement towards Ishwara is responded to by Ishwara's movement towards the jiva. In a grinding wheel, the grains that are away from the center are powdered with greater vehemence than those that cling to the center. So too, thc jivas that come closer to God or their inner Self experience less grinding from the world-process than those who remain at a distance from God through egoism, selfishness, greed and pride.
In other words, those who promote virtue in themselves, who develop humility, sincerity, and purity of mind, begin to discover that they cannot be affected by the world, that they are sustained by the Immutable Self. Instead of increasing helplessness and reliance on external objects, they discover boundless freedom and increasing strength of the spirit.
Movement towards Ishwara is the fountain source of self-effort. Surrender to God is not contradictory to the teachings of self-effort, but is rather the secret key that unlocks the Divine powers that are hidden in the individual.
In the light of such insight, you should not condone negative actions in the name of predestination, or Divine will, or the spirit of surrender to God. Rather, you must follow the path with increasing self-effort. You are inwardly linked to the inexhaustible resources of the Divine Self.
A wounded bird will crawl up a tree, and after recovering the health of its wings, will soar into the vast sky. In the same manner you begin to crawl by exercising your self-effort, and gradually discover your inner spiritual wings of devotion and expansion of the Self. Your self-effort turns into surrender. Surrender draws grace, and you are led to your Divine destination — Self-realization.
“International Yoga Guide”, Vol. 49: NO. 11, July 2012
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