Grace means approval of kindness ,especially kindness that is freely given by Lord to all mortals .Grace also means Anugraha,Blessings and Kripa.Masses use the word Grace ,it is very habitual in India to state , “It is all
his grace ,it is your grace.Western culture also frequently avails the word Grace .
The source of Grace is always assumed to be the Lord ,the one who is beyond Emperical purview.Even though folks dont get the hang of Lord,or God or Ishwara is ,that person is accepted as the begetter of blessings
by those who ring a bell that there is elegance in one’s entity.In Indian heritage there is lot of pondering about this blessing .We dont simply welcome duds without inquiry i.e Vichara .Our whole ethics is a tradition
based on study.Everything is interconnected the culture ,religion ,religious forms all these ar based on wisdom which is born of questioning i.e vichara.Vichara is the inquiry into the source of books i.e sastra vichara as
a means of enlightenment i.e pramana-vichara .
Grace :
Have you ever thought from where Grace comes,Suppose Grace comes from Ishwara i.e Lord ,How is he going to choose to whom he has to endow grace today.Maybe everyday before Sunrise he has to consult
Lakshmi about whom to bestow grace ? Maybe he should choose a rote ,a lucky-dip perhaps.
Most of us think Grace comes from somwhere ,sometimes asked and sometimes unasked now and then.Really speaking Grace is the result of our Karma.
But we do not know the result of karmai.e we earned grace in the present or it maybe by our past actions.
Karma:
When we are unable to pinpoint which Karma is responsible for this desireable thing which is with us right now we can welcome felictously that it is grace .Karma is the result of our action i.e Karma-phala it can be
reaped by us either in this birth or in the prior birth that yield grace is definitely not a simple karma which is self centered .
We do not sweep grace when Karma is confined to ourselves or a small family ,we can only earn grace when we reach out to help others ,other community ,other living morphon in this cosmos such a karma is called
purta –karma,earns grace .
In Bygone days ,people rooted things for public use like a pond,well ,holy place or where rabble can go and relax all these karmas are called purta –karma which helps to earn grace ,but we do not know which karma
yielded grace ,alike our daily prayers,sacrament and so on also wins grace .
Source of Grace :As we confer prior grace is not something which God assigns to mortals ,it is something that we procure as of result of our actions. The Lord of course is very much present in it as he is the one who
gives the fruit for our actions .The laws which harvest the fruit is not seperate from Ishwara.
The maker and material being identical and the world being not seperate from the Lord,the laws which are also the Lord produces the result of action.Most of the mandate is unknown and partial to us ,we dont even
understand in-laws,let alone natural laws.
But one thing we fathom laws dont Err nor they tansgress themselves,therefore we can relax in the awareness that decree cannot cheat us and keeping with the mandate ,for all those special actions that we have
done,we have to draw some favourable fruits which is called punya.
We don’t know whether it is true, but definitely we all reckon that being in America is being at the right place. Some of the new-comers, however, think they are not here at the right time—unless they are engaged
in an internet startup company and can sell it for a windfall. Others always think that they have come a little late. We are at the right place, but at the wrong time. To be at the right place at the right time is not in our
hands. It is very ludicrous strategy how we have a lot of plans. If you want to make God laugh—because he is a serious guy—all you have to do is tell him your plans for the future. Between the cup and the lips there are always slips.
Therefore, to be at the right place at the right time is not in our hands. We don’t call all the shots. One’s whole life is a percentage game, like baseball. We don’t call the shots. When this kind of human predicament is
there, the self-conscious human being recognizes his helplessness. When one recognizes one’s helplessness and then one finds oneself in a favorable situation, the pragmatic, objective human being cannot but
recognize and acknowledge something unknown which shaped this situation in his favor. One has to accede that fact.
Earning Grace—Exercising Free Will :
We earn grace by actions which are deliberate, not by our reactions. Actions that reach out, actions of prayer, earn grace. Most of us are busy day after day, with our time consumed by our reactions and reactions to
reactions. First we react in anger and say things which are inappropriate then we regret what we said,that is another reaction. It is through actions alone that we can express ourselves.
What really makes us different from any other living being on this planet is our capacity to choose. That capacity to choose is what is called free-will. If a cow is a vegetarian it is not by choice, but if we are one, it is by
choice, that is will ,we choose, and this freedom that our will seems to have is an inhibited freedom. It is not total freedom because we are always in a situation where you are called upon to do something appropriate to the situation. We may not like to do it, but we have to do it because it is our duty.
Grace is something we have to tap, It is not distributed by God. It is like underground water in that we have to tap it, and the tapping is done by action alone. Grace is always there, It is a possibility like any other
possibility. There are many things that are manifest, surfaced, in this universe and there are also many potential possibilities lying there for us to tap. Every piece of software is a possibility,every piece of hardware is a
possibility. This grace is another possibility. Nobody prays simply because he or she is under pressure. People think that when we are in trouble we will pray.
No, When we are in trouble we hit our head on the wall. We phone somebody and cry. Or we go on a buying spree and purchase a lot of things we cannot use. We need not pray. Prayer is the only action where the
will is totally free, because we need not pray. It is an action, karma. It is a physical, oral or mental action (kayakam vachakam manasam karma). Mentally we pray, deliberately; orally we pray, or ritually we pray. Prayer is
a deliberate action where the free-will is totally free—an uninhibited free-will. It is that kind of action that wins grace.