God’s grace showers without restraint on everyone and everything at all times. You don’t have to deserve it. A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi
Podcast First Words
Student: Would you talk to us a little bit about opening to grace?
Shambhavi: Sure! Somebody wrote on Facebook, basically, you have to earn God’s grace. And you have to practice really, really hard. And God doesn’t give their grace to everyone. That only those people who practice really hard get God’s grace. This is just so not true. (Laughter)
There’s a beautiful poem by Abhinavagupta, and one line in it says—Shiva showers grace without any restraint.
Thus, there is always the presence of the supreme reality, everywhere, for everyone, in every condition, unearned.
Now of course you’re thinking—I’m not feeling any grace! (Laughter) And that’s not because it’s not there. It’s because your senses are not open to it.
There’s a sort of a standard metaphor for that, which is being like a bottle or a cup with a lid. In order to feel the grace that’s everywhere, you have to take the lid off. That’s what sadhana is for.
So sadhana, aka spiritual practice, helps us to open our senses, open our mind, open to our hearts, so that we can feel the grace that is always coming—always, always, always—within and without.
