“The dilemma of choosing between self-effort and surrender to God as destiny crops up often.They are not mutually exclusive and wisdom lies in their coexistence..
Yoga Vasishta is one scripture that extols self-effort most explicitly, and it ascribes all failures to sloth and idleness in efforts.It regards fate or destiny as the result of lack of self-effort in the past, and states that it can be overcome by striving sincerely .
Man is the maker of his destiny, says Swami Vivekananda.
Bhagavad Gita,also lays stress on self-effort and it and asks one to be one’s own savior and calls for uplift of oneself by controlling the lower self with the higher self. (VI-5)
Self-reliance also teaches the art and science of surrender to the Supreme will of the Divine and to follow the path of ‘not I but Thou’.Giving recognition to that source of all power, all force, all dynamism is the soul of surrender.
Self-effort and surrender to the Lord are not contradictory but are continuous processes and are inseparable. Self-effort and surrender to the Lord should not only coexist but should be coextensive in our life.
What is required is not giving up self-efforts and the will to play one’s part in the play of divine but surrender of ego, the sense of doership. and placing oneself under the will, direction and supervision of the Divine.This makes it possible for activity and surrender to coexist without any essential contradiction or mutual exclusiveness”
(Tattvaaloka-Oct.2024)
The glory of self-effort is also highlighted in Viveka Choodamani, Verses 51-52-53.People struggle to get their thoughts focused because of lack of Sraddha on their part and also suffer from self-imposed limitations.
Examples: ‘The ocean does not put a ban on the quantity of water that you can carry from it; the limitations are the limitations of your own pot.’
‘The river flows: everything depends on the canals that you can cut to take the waters to your land.’
By
Admin
CovaiCare Retirement Communities.