A friend shared with me a delightful remark she’d heard recently. She was reading the Bhagavad Gita when another devotee walked by and commented, “That’s a really good book. It’s a mystery, you know, but I’ll tell you how it ends: God did it!”
In talking with others, we’re often asked the question, “I hear that we should feel God is the Doer, but how can I actually do that?” This is a subtle concept to grasp, for it seems as if we are the ones who need to make the decisions, and put out the energy to accomplish our goals.
Interestingly, however, men and women of outstanding accomplishments often have a sense that a greater power is working through them. Swami Kriyananda is a good example. The sheer amount of his productivity—books written, music composed, lectures given, communities founded—hardly seems humanly possible.
Yet everything he did was produced in such a flow of energy and grace that he really had no sense of personal achievement. The secret of his creativity was an intense self-offering of his life and abilities to his guru, inner non-attachment, and a humble appreciation for what God had done through him.
Once we were showing a visitor, Swami Shankarananda from Rishikesh, around Ananda Village, and he commented, “At first I couldn’t see how Swami Kriyananda was able to accomplish all this. Then I realized he didn’t—God did it!”
How do we transfer the sense of “I am doing this” to “God is doing this through me”? Here are two points that may help you.
1) To feel God acting through you, be willing to give more of yourself than you have before. Jyotish and I recently returned from an intensive five weeks of travel, sharing Master’s teachings throughout India. It often happened that we had big public programs with little time to prepare or rest beforehand.
All we could do was meditate and inwardly pray that God give us something meaningful and inspiring to share with those attending. Invariably, the inspiration and thoughts came in our moment of need, and we became aware that God was giving us what needed to be said.
2) Try to offer all of your thoughts and actions up to God. The more we can surrender self-will to God’s will, the more we will feel His grace and power flowing through us.
While in India, we had a weekend program for Master’s Mahasamadhi at a beautiful retreat center outside of Bangalore called “The School of Ancient Wisdom.” The grounds were filled with lovely gardens and inspiring quotations posted throughout. One particularly caught my eye:
“Speak each word, perform each action, face each situation before an inner altar where you kneel in uttermost adoration and self-surrender, under the sign and seal of your highest Self.”
The more we offer our lives wholeheartedly, the more we will feel, as Master put it, that God is “the sole activating power.”
In divine friendship,
Nayaswami Devi
19 Comments
Thank you . And for being a channel for Spoken word of God. May you always be blessed by His Love and Light.
Pranam Dear Ji,s
With Your Inspired Lectures and Writings We feel the Love of God and Peace. Aum.
With Gratitude
R Sundararajan
Dear Nayaswami Devi Ji,
Thank you :). Timely , This was needed very much :) . Inspiring
Jai Guru
Prem
Thank you for your continued inspiration
thank you very much…
lovely and inspiring. Thank you.
Thank you for this timely reminder. It is so easy to take all the burdens of this incarnation on one’s own shoulders. Thinking one is acting alone, is the definition of ego delusion with its ego delusion of separation. Your article is a call to awaken to this eternal present moment, in which we are an inseparable, indivisible part of the Infinite Cosmic Consciousness.
Thank you. These words will keep us aware of god’s presence in every action and result.
Dear Deviji,
Thank you for this beautiful reminder that God is the Doer.
When we can remember that all of our actions, words and thoughts are sourced from the Divine, the higher part of ourselves,
and when we choose to give all, surrender all, and be all for God, for each other, & for humanity, then we begin to tap the source of infinite resources, (energy, power, light, joy, peace, love, inspiration…) and can accomplish anything!
“I am a child of God, my playing small doesn’t serve the world.”
We are called to be bigger than the small self, if we are to accomplish our Divine Mission.
Again, Thank You & Blessings!
~~~Peace, Josette
Thank you
Thank you, Devi, for the reminder of how to let God do it. So often it feels like I’m effort ing so much that I get out aheadof God and feel like I’m doing it all myself, which does not work! It’s when I can do it with God, or as God would do it, that things flow. And trusting that God will show the way when things are difficult is key as you point out.
Thanks, as always, dear Devi. Interesting timing: Just last night in bed I was pondering this very reality…and that I don’t have to figure everything out myself, just turn my will and attention God-ward…and answers, clues, helpful inclinations and ideas come to me, and always have.
Bless you.
Perfect timing! we have been serving five elders 24/7 for some time now with one other great soul. Our normal staff woud be 4 people plus Mari and I to fill in. It has put a great amount of pressure on all of us. To add to this, there is a very nasty bug going around that I caught and put me out of action for a week. I have a strong constitution and rarely get ill. This morning Mari was saying that she thought she may have the bug now too.
We started Ananda House because it was what Master asked of us. But at times like this I begin to lose hope and wonder if the purpose was to serve our current residents and at the end of that time to close Ananda House unless Master gives us the people required to run it and the devotees looking for a conscious assisted living alternative.
In either case “God is the Doer” and the more I give it all to Him the less stress and suffering experienced
Dear Hanuman,
Swamiji once said to us, “Nothing is ever created without someone’s tapasya.” What you and Mari are doing to create a new paradigm for eldercare will be over time a huge contribution to Ananda’s work worldwide. Try to remember that Babaji and our Masters have a plan for the upliftment of society and that the service and self-sacrifice that each of us offer is part of their divine drama. Play your part with inner freedom and joy, and feel that you are a part of a much larger picture.
With love in God and Guru,
devi
So beautiful ! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Devi so clearly stated!
I can so relate to what Hanuman has said. I actually feel emotional thinking about it. When I start to feel defeated with my thoughts about how unappreciated We all feel, the Master seems to remind me how insignificant My thinking really is. His strength is what keeps me going forward and the realization that my services to Him and to God (one in the same), are all that matter. and that he is the one in charge of the results. My role is only to attune to him. He will do the rest. His touch is appreciation enough. This is quite the topic!
I wonder wether you’re aware who I am. My name is Dominic Lagae. I am a psychiatric patient and a bit of A clearvoyant. I feel,as an Intuïtive Therapist put it, the subconscious thoughts of people,wich are often everything but beautifull. I wonder why I have this gift. Could you clarify my mind.
Love, Dominic
“The secret of his creativity was an intense self-offering of his life and abilities to his guru, inner non-attachment, and a humble appreciation for what God had done through him.”
So, going by what the article espouses – God did it!
Even the act of kriyananda’s “self offering” is an act of God. God did it for him.
So in my case, or anyone else’s, only God can do it if HE/IT wishes to.
Thoughts?