What God's grace means to you?

According to Hinduism, everything is by God’s grace. The ability to do good karma, having a sense to do so comes when God’s grace is on you. That’s what Gita teaches you- the concept of Akarta, when you realize that God is the doer and once you do that you have attained Moksha, because there is no ‘I’ that remains. God’s grace can alone help achieve moksha, without a doubt. We do not have the yogic capability to confirm this for ourselves in which case we can rely on yogic saints of the past like saint Nammazhvar. It will help a lot to read about his life history.?

The saint has composed thousand verses in Tamil language called “Thiruvaimozhi”. The first four verses of the composition answers the question in hand which I will reproduce below - who is the person with the most beneficial qualities ? - answer is Avan - He - referring to god and who blesses us with knowledge to understand his essential nature? - who is the overlord of all the celestials?) - answer is Avan - he, In the fourth verse he tells us how to attain moksha from this world - establish relationship with god”s divine feet which will have the effect of a laser cutting all your troubles and bondages away and this you should achieve by worshipping the divine feet.

Moksha is obtained when we do not have any karma in our account - both good and bad. When we surrender ourselves to the lotus feet of the lord, he accepts our plea that we are not able to work on our good and bad karma all by ourselves ( and this also makes sense because we do not know our past karma and we are not so perfect that we can abstain from any present of future bad karma ) and that we are totally dependent on him to work them out. Once he accepts our request our good karma is distributed to people who have been good to us and bad amongst those who have been bad to us.

Even for us to surrender ourselves to him we need his grace for such action on our part.Do you remember what is that Karma theory? Yes, it's Bhagavan's causeless mercy that makes us eligible for moksha and nothing else because we are not capable of making it happen by our own efforts. Getting free from the bondage to karma=moksha. Punya and Paap are the two results achieved through karma. Again, both papa and Punya are bondage. One should perform his/her duties, perform nitya, naimittika karmas as service to Bhagvan (since Bhagvan himself commanded to perform them) without expecting anything other than the pleasure of Bhagvan. Doing so, Punya will not be deposited into our account. (Please see Shrimad Bhagavatam 1.2.28–28, 2.5.15–16 and 2.1.6).

Bhagvan Geetaachaarya in Bhagavad Geeta 18.66 assures us that if we simply surrender to his feet by giving up our self efforts, he will get us rid of all the paps. So, by the grace of Bhagvan, if no Punya and Paap remains in our account, we achieve moksha. To attain kaivalya moksha, one does not need God’s grace. This is achieved by practicing gyAna yoga for long, understanding the nature of the self and dwelling upon the self. Thus practicing gyana yoga, the yogi gets Kaivalya prapti at the end of a life when his karma evens out.

Vaikuntha prapti is possible only with the grace of the god. If The Lord decides to give moksha to someone it does not matter if there is karma left out, things get auto balanced and the person reaches the param Padma at the end of the current life. Kaivalya is like having bread, butter and Jam. Vaikuntha moksha is life having a grand fulfilling meal. Now let's see what our revered Jagad Guru Adi-Shankaracharya says~ Among the means and conditions necessary for liberation, devotion (bhakti) alone is supreme. A constant contemplation of one‘s own Real Nature is called devotion. ||31|| One who has deep devotion to the Scriptures (seeking that absolute truth) and is firmly established in one‘s own duties (swadharma)—for these actions alone contribute to the purity of his mind—and is of pure mind realizes the supreme Self. By this knowledge alone is samsara destroyed, root and branch. ||149||

Neither by weapons, nor by wind, nor by fire, nor by millions of actions can this bondage be destroyed. By nothing save the wonder-sword of Knowledge which comes from discrimination given by the grace of the Lord, can we end this bondage. ||148|| Actions (karma) help to purify the mind but they do not, by themselves, contribute to the attainment of Reality. The attainment of the Reality brought about only by Self-Inquiry and not in the least by even ten million acts.||11||

Therefore, a true seeker of the Self should proceed with his inquiry after duly approaching a Master who is established in the experience of the Self and who is an ocean of compassion.||15|| A teacher is one who is well-versed in the scriptures, pure, unafflicted by desires, a perfect knower of the Supreme, who continuously abides in the Supreme, who is as calm as the fire that has burnt up its fuel, who is a spontaneous ocean of mercy that needs no cause for its expression, an intimate friend to all good people who surrender to him. || 33 ||

With reference to the above text, without Knowledge ignorance never goes & without God's Grace this knowledge is too difficult to comprehend, no doubt there are only few available in this world who seek truth, who have devoted only for the truth without any sense to material enjoyment. Only by their Grace we can over come this difficulty to cross this vast ocean of whirlpool. Approach self realized Guru as mentioned in above verse. Once you are established in your own true self by his divine grace except Prarabdha all other Karma will start nullifying. Jay Shri Krishna