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XII THE DIVINE GRACE AND LOVE The Mother says that there can be Love without Grace as there can also be Grace without Love, although the two are essentially one and the same. Grace means gift, it is a gesture of the giving of boon from the Divine. The Divine gives out of His Plenitude what we want, what we need, what we should have, naturally as per His choice. The most obvious, the most external, superficial and concrete form of gift is what meets our physical material need. And protection is the most appreciated and the most readily available treasure. Protection in its larger sense, includes all kinds and modes of welfare from the most physical to the utmost spiritual. When the aspirant prays: 'Lead us not to temptations, give us purity and peace and truth,' God's answer is His Grace. But instead of giving any boon,
any treasure physical or material or even spiritual, however precious, instead
of giving anything the Divine may give Himself to one who approaches Him; then
it becomes something more than the Grace, it is Love, the Divine's Love—His own
Self. It is His own substance, His own delight of being that He gives, not
anything external or extraneous. One remembers the story of Arjuna and
Duryodhana. Duryodhana approached Krishna and thought the utmost, the best that
he could secure from Krishna was Krishna's battalions, Page-47 for that seemed to him the most precious gift of all, for that is the thing he would need most in the coming battle. Arjuna asked for nothing else but Krishna Himself. Grace is of Maheshwari, that is to say, it is the special attribute, a particular emanation of her own self, it is a form of herself in an attitude that belongs particularly to her. Love is of Mahalaxmi, it is her own special form and gesture. Or, varying the image we may say Grace is Shiva, the benign white radiance on the supreme heights enveloping the creation in its calm immutable compassion; while Krishna is Love, the immortal delight dwelling in the heart of mortality.
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