4-1-46 Morning

Among the letters etc., received was a small pamphlet
called Divine Grace Through Total Self-Surrender by Mr. D.C. Desai. Bhagavan read out to us a few extracts from it, viz., the following quotation from Paul Brunton: "I remain perfectly calm and fully aware of who I am and what is occurring. Self still exists, but it is a changed, radiant Self. Something that is far superior to my unimportant personality rises into consciousness and becomes me. I am in the midst of an ocean of blazing light. I sit in the lap of holy bliss"; and also the following: "Divine grace is a manifestation of the cosmic free- will in operation. It can alter the course of events in a mysterious manner through its own unknown laws, which are superior to all natural laws, and can modify the latter by interaction. It is the most powerful force in the universe."

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"It descends and acts, only when it is invoked by total
self-surrender. It acts from within, because God resides in the heart of all beings. Its whisper can be heard only in a mind purified by self-surrender and prayer."

Paul Brunton describes its nature as follows: "Rationalists
laugh at it and atheists scorn it, but it exists. It is a descent of God into the soul's zone of awareness. It is a visitation of force unexpected and unpredictable. It is a voice spoken out of cosmic silence . . . . . . . . . . It is cosmic will which can perform authentic miracles under its own laws."

Afternoon

Dr. Syed read out to Bhagavan a Sufi story from this
month's Vision whose moral is that there must be implicit, unquestioning faith in and obedience to the Master's direction.

When all others would not obey Muhammad Ghazni's
command to destroy a precious gem of his, one servant unhesitatingly destroyed it and, when taken to task for it by the others, said, "Nothing is more precious to me than my master's command." I was reminded by this of the following incident in Ramanuja's life and so related it to Dr. Syed and others. It seems God Ranganatha was being taken out in procession in Srirangam and Ramanuja called out to a disciple to come out and see the procession. The disciple was boiling Ramanuja's milk and would not come out however often he was called, and later explained to his Master, "Ranganatha is your Master and he is important to you. You alone are important to me and I couldn't leave off your service, i.e., boiling milk for you, to go and see Ranganatha."

With reference to Bhagavan's answer to Mrs. Desai's
question on the evening of 3-1-46, I asked him, "Are only important events in a man's life, such as his main occupation or profession, predetermined, or are trifling acts in his life,
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such as taking a cup of water or moving from one place in the room to another, also predetermined?"

Bhagavan: Yes, everything is predetermined.

I: Then what responsibility, what free will has man?

Bhagavan: What for then does the body come into
existence?

It is designed for doing the various things marked out
for execution in this life. The whole programme is chalked out. `@Y]u? JW??m @?NV??' (Not an atom moves except by His Will) expresses the same truth, whether you say @Y]u? @?NV?? (Does not move except by His Will) or LoU?u? @?NV?? (Does not move except by karma). As for freedom for man, he is always free not to identify himself with the body and not to be affected by the pleasures or pains consequent on the body's activities.