Role of God in our life


A common question often asked is what is the Lord’s role in our life. This query becomes more acute when we are faced with adversities or at the times of natural
 calamities. We arrogantly ask “What is God doing?, Why so much injustice?, Why me?, etc.” My guru Haribhai Kothari often said that the Lord Himself has given out explicitly his role in our life in the Geeta verse 22 of chapter 13. It is extremely interesting and can bring clarity to our understanding. The Lord begins by saying that He is just a “upadrasta”(witness) in the lives of people whose only pursuit is eat, drink, be merry. They don’t really need the Lord and yet the Lord does not disown them. He remains a witness/watcher. The majority live this life, completely satisfied with their material acquisition and enjoyments. Next come the people who live a moral life. They too purse their worldly goals but do not transgress the moral code of conduct. They live an honest life and do not cheat others to attain their goals in business or personal relationship. Now the Lord becomes “anumanti” (permitter). He supports their endeavors. But these moralist stop at not doing anything wrong, and may not extend themselves in doing a positive good for others. When they climb this ladder of being helpful to others financially, emotionally by giving their time, attention, money, emotions to others in the time of need, the lord becomes their “bharta” (supporter). The Lord gives them an assurance that he will in his own way reimburse multi fold what they have offered to others. Through unknown ways and in incomprehensible routes, these “givers” are taken care of by his unseen hand. They are bailed out of situations which seemed impossibly difficult. Next comes the Lord’s bhaktas (devotees), who surrender the fruit of all their actions to their beloved Lord. They do not need anything in return for anything they do, not even a word of gratitude. They get all the return from the smiling face of their Lord. Their attachment is in their Lord, and yet they fulfill all their duties in the role assigned to them in the world. They have no worries anxieties since they feel that they belong to the Lord who will take care of them come what may. Here the
 Lord becomes “bhogta” (enjoyer) of all that is offered with love and sense of surrender to him. As these devotees evolve further in their love, they reach a level where they surrender even their “sankalp” (thoughts) to the Lord. Normally, we do the ‘sankalp’ of what we need and pray to the lord to fulfill it. But these souls offer even their sankalp, wishes, desires, goals efforts to the Lord. They become a mere instrument through which the lord can fulfill his divine mission. “Let thy will be done” is their constant state of being. They see no need for their personal intervention in his benevolence. They have complete faith that whatever happens is accurate, as per their Lords will, and ultimately for their highest good. When their surrender is complete the lord finally becomes “maheshwara “ (ordainer) of their life. He takes complete charge of their protection and wellbeing, giving them what they lack and protecting what they possess (yogakshaman). To give up this sankalp to the Lord is not easy at our level of
 evolution, and we cannot mimic these evolved souls who have attained this highest state after many lifetimes of spiritual practice of surrender to have earned for themselves the Lords grace. Till we attain this highest state, it is fine to have sankalp/goal/desire/effort/wishes to give a definite direction to our life and enhance our mind power. Many tend to speak the words of a Meerabai without attaining her sense of total surrender and state of being. The evidence of this is in fact that their mind is still filled with regret of the past, anxiety, fear and worry of the future, envy, although they say that they have surrendered totally to the Lords will. Faith and fear cannot coexist in our mind, can they?

In conclusion, we decided what role the Lord plays in our life depending upon wether we want to just eat, drink, be merry or climb the ladder of evolution step by step and attain a higher level of consciousness. His grace is proportionate to our degree of surrender. He keeps saying to us “main hoon na” but we don’t seem to listen.”

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