All progress – whether in spiritual or secular matters – is actualized through self-effort.
The Sanskrit word kripa, or grace, derives from kri, or do, and pa, or achieve.
Nothing happens by itself; everything requires effort.
A deer does not walk into the mouth of a lion.
The groceries we buy do not turn themselves into dinner.
The light of the sun cannot enter our rooms until we raise our window shades and let it in.
The light of the sun cannot enter our rooms until we raise our window shades and let it in.
Shankaracharya says: ‘As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the Self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation, and so forth.’
Intense effort is necessary to demolish the walls of our ego, our desires, attachments, and the like – walls that have imprisoned our soul and subjected it to the endless chain of birth, death, and suffering.
Swami Adiswarananda - Source - Prabuddha Bharata May 2008 Issue
Swami Adiswarananda - Source - Prabuddha Bharata May 2008 Issue