What is the role of grace in spirituality?
Sadhguru: If anything has to happen, right kind of atmosphere is very crucial.
If this plant has to flower, the soil should be right. The seed may be great.
But if the soil, the temperature, the air, water, if it’s not right, this great seed is not going to get anywhere.
So creating an appropriate atmosphere for anything to happen is most important.
Life happens because of ambience (Laughs).
It is the ambience of your mother’s womb, which made you who you are right now (Laughs).
It is the ambience of the family and social situations which slowly shaped you the way you are.
This is something that people have not taken enough care about.
When you were born as a helpless little baby or an infant,
the lap of your mother, the comfort, the security, the nourishment of your mother’s lap was crucial.
Can I not grow up without it? You can. But it could be a struggle. It wouldn’t be a joy to grow up.
And it is possible that you could be physiologically or psychologically impaired in the process of your growth
simply because you did not have that lap. Can I not grow up in a crib? You can. But it wouldn’t be the same.
It would mean a lot of struggle. So even for your physiological and psychological growth,
what kind of ambiance, the lap of your mother, the maternal lap becomes very important.
For one’s spiritual growth, for one to flower spiritually, the lap of grace is most important.
“Can I not grow without it?” You can. It would be improper to say, “You cannot.” You can.
But it would be lot of struggle. Lot of struggle.
I don’t see many here who would be capable of that kind of struggle. They would only give up,
because it takes almost inhuman attitude towards yourself if you have to grow without grace.
You have to be literally inhuman to yourself, very hard upon yourself.
Otherwise, simply you will go in circles not knowing what you are doing.
Is it the cruelty of the inhumanity of it which makes you grow? No.
This cruelty and inhumanity makes you that you don’t go the wrong way.
So people who choose very hard ways of doing things, they have chosen that way, because
they are orphaned seekers. Without the lap of grace, they’re trying to grow.
I know the pain of this better than anybody (Laughs). Two lifetimes of heartbreaking sadhana, really.
Body anyway breaks, you know. For some people, their hearts break before their bodies break.
But there are some others, they won't let their hearts break, because they made themselves like stones.
So body breaks first. But slowly, that also begins to break. Fortunately, he arrived.
But probably, it took so long because I made myself like this, even if God appears, I cannot bow down to him.
I filled myself with such sense of pride and hardness that even if God appears I cannot bow.
It took two lifetimes of softening up, full time softening up, not part time, I want you to know full time,
to become overwhelmed, to allow somebody to overwhelm you, and once you genuinely bow down,
now can bow down to anything. You show me a pebble, I’ll bow down, not just to the mountain.
I bow down to the mountain every day, but you show me a little pebble, that also I will bow down,
because it takes so much to realize that you actually do not even know what this blade of grass is yet.
Even if you are a great scientist or a biologist, you still do not know what even this blade of grass is. Yes?
Hmm? You still do not know. Forget about the mountain, forget about the existence.
Forget about the creator all together (Laughs). Even this blade of grass, you still do not know it.
You do not know an atom in this existence. You do not know an atom of this physical self.
When you realize the magnitude of your ignorance, then you’re willing to crawl at everything.
When you come from an assumption, because of the bits and pieces of information that you have collected,
when you come from the assumption that you know, your spine becomes like a steel rod,
and you cannot bend (Laughs). You cannot bow at anything. Spent two lifetimes like steel.
Steel is not strong (Laughs). Only a fool thinks steel is strong. Steel is strong if you want to do menial jobs.
But if you want to do the highest thing that a human being can do, you will see steel is not strong.
That’s not the kind of strength it takes. So to be in the lap of grace,
and doubly to be in the grace of such a large establishment, it’s a fortune.
We can set up an experiment (Laughs) for you to experience what is the difference.
If I make you walk, just walk away a kilometer or two and with your eyes closed… we will help you,
we will make sure that you don’t walk into anything, with your eyes closed,
maintaining a certain level of awareness you walk, you will see a distinct difference taking you… taking you up.
A distinct difference happening within the very physical system as you move closer to this space.
To set up such a lap of grace, many have contributed.
But now, around the world, all kinds of things are happening in the name of spiritual process.
And this has caused immense damage to the very seeking in people,
because if there is no trustful ambience, there will be no spiritual process as such.