Divine Grace and Cosmic Law

The terms ‘divine grace’, along with ‘cosmic law’ and ‘divine compassion’, are transcriptions into human terms from our human viewpoint of actions and events that take place from an entirely different level of the divine manifestation and with a viewpoint that far exceeds that of our limited human understanding. For example, we tend to look at the world as some kind of machinery that operates under specific strict rules that we treat as inflexible rules, governed by an all-powerful, all-knowing ruler.. We then go about trying to understand and define those rules and come up with things such as the speed of light, the gravitational constant, the mathematical relationships that leads to the structures we observe. On the level of the life energy we describe the law of cause and effect as the ‘law of karma’. Because we view these things as a form of machinery, we do not generally expect, nor understand, when things occur that vary from our preconceived notion of how the law works. We then try to find explanations, facts or a new, more refined understanding of the law involved, in order to justify to ourselves that the machinery is still in operation as it should be!

At a certain point in our psychological makeup, we find it difficult to accept that we are alive in a fixed mechanical world that has no way to adapt to circumstances. We thus bring in the question of divine compassion responding to prayer, thus providing a way for us to petition the supreme ruler for intercession and remitting of the cosmic law in a specific instance. We may not actually recognise that prayer and response to prayer may actually be part of the evolutionary process of a conscious being manifesting the universe!

And then we come to the concept of divine grace. This is the most inexplicable of all the variations from our view of cosmic law, inasmuch as it seems to defy any rational understanding. It seems to shower down on unlikely recipients at unlikely times and under unlikely circumstances.

The issue here is that as we try to appreciate these things from the human standpoint, we are unable to see, understand, appreciate or even recognise that these things occur from the divine standpoint. We do not see the struggles, the past lifetimes, the karmic sequences, the need of the evolutionary developments taking place when we try to judge these things from our limited understanding. We also do not see the cosmic intelligence, the personal aspect of the Divine, at work in and through the mechanisms we observe.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “I should like to say something about the Divine Grace — for you seem to think it should be something like a Divine Reason acting upon lines not very different from those of human intelligence. But it is not that. Also it is not a universal Divine Compassion either, acting impartially on all who approach it and acceding to all prayers. It does not select the righteous and reject the sinner. The Divine Grace came to aid the persecutor (Saul of Tarsus), it came to St. Augustine the profligate, to Jagai and Madhai of infamous fame, to Bilwamangal and many others whose conversion might well scandalise the puritanism of the human moral intelligence; but it can come to the righteous also — curing them of their self-righteousness and leading to a purer consciousness beyond these things. It is a power that is superior to any rule, even to the Cosmic Law — for all spiritual seers have distinguished between the Law and Grace. Yet it is not indiscriminate — only it has a discrimination of its own which sees things and persons and the right times and seasons with another vision than that of the Mind or any other normal Power. A state of Grace is prepared in the individual often behind thick veils by means not calculable by the mind and when the state of Grace comes, then the Grace itself acts. There are these three powers: (1) The Cosmic Law, of Karma or what else; (2) the Divine Compassion acting on as many as it can reach through the nets of the Law and giving them their chance; (3) the Divine Grace which acts more incalculably but also more irresistibly than the others. The only question is whether there is something behind all the anomalies of life which can respond to the call and open itself with whatever difficulty till it is ready for the illumination of the Divine Grace — and that something must be not a mental and vital movement but an inner somewhat which can well be seen by the inner eye. If it is there and when it becomes active in front, then the Compassion can act, though the full action of the Grace may still wait attending the decisive decision or change; for this may be postponed to a future hour, because some portion or element of the being may still come between, something that is not yet ready to receive.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch.7 Spiritual Forces of Help and Succour, pp.168-169