Are You Within The Ambit Of God’s Grace? Know What Adi Shankara Says In Vivekachudamani

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Do you have God's grace? How do you know if you are qualified for his grace? Explore the three signs that Adi Shankara reveals if you are gifted with God's grace in his Vivekachudamani.

The three signs that determine that you have God's grace

Adi Shankara in his Vivekachudamani reveals three qualifications that are symptoms of God's grace. If you have them all then you are considered very fortunate. He says, "These are three things which are rare indeed and are due to the grace of God - namely, a human birth, the longing for Liberation, and the protecting care of a perfected sage." (Vivekachudamani 3) Let's elaborate on these three for a clearer view.

Human body

Hinduism believes in reincarnation. The scriptures say that it is very difficult to attain a human body. It is due to one's past merits that one acquires a human body. What is the purpose of acquiring a human birth? The purpose of acquiring a human birth is to get liberated from the continuous flux of birth and death cycle.

To be born, undergo suffering with intermittent fleeting pleasures of the ephemeral world, to die and be reborn again is rather painful. How is one to be free of the birth and death cycle? Only by knowing one's true self and abiding in it can one be liberated. So to start with, if one has taken a human birth, one is indeed fortunate.

The thirst for liberation

Even though one is endowed with a human body, one hardly has the longing for liberation. One wallows in the pleasures of the world, though they are fleeting and has no thirst for liberation. Without the longing for liberation, one doesn't have an iota of what one's true nature is, which alone will lead one to moksha.

One wrongly identifies oneself with the body mind complex and goes about in this transitory world. While one is in a human body one ought to develop a thirst for liberation with the deep discriminative understanding of the fleeting nature of the pleasures one pursues in his life. Hence to know the truth a deep longing for liberation should be developed. Adi Shankara says that one is indeed a fool if one neglects to achieve the real end of this life. Hence one is indeed fortunate if one possesses a human body and has harboured a thirst for liberation.

The protecting care of a perfected sage

Having acquired a human body and harbouring a longing for liberation, one is truly blessed with God's grace when one comes under the protecting care of a perfected sage (a true spiritual master). It is only the master or the Guru who can show one the way to liberation by revealing to the disciple his true nature and not what he wrongly supposes it to be his body and mind.

Adi Shankara points out, "Let people quote the Scriptures and sacrifice to the gods, let them perform rituals and worship the deities, but there is no liberation without the realisation of one's identity with the Atman, no, not even in the lifetime of a hundred Brahmas put together."(Vivekachudamani 6).

Realising one's identity with the Atman can only be achieved by the Guru's grace. He further states, "Therefore the man of learning should strive his best for liberation, having renounced his desire for pleasures from external objects, duly approaching a good and generous preceptor, and fixing his mind on the truth inculcated by him." (Vivekachudamani 8).

These are the signs that reveal God's grace in one's life. It is of prime importance for us as humans to strive for liberation and attain it by the grace of the Guru, who is bound to appear in the life of a true and mature seeker.