The Mercy of God and Humble Devotion

So here's a saint who's saying that, 'I'm feeling all this boredom, distraction, prayer is going terribly, but I want Jesus to rest because He must be tired after a full-on day.' I love that innocence and that love in that statement. But if you look at it deeper, I feel like she's also trying to say that doesn't God know that this is happening to us? He knows, and we can trust Him that even in this, there must be something good for us that will come out of it.

So there's an Indian sage called Hanuman Prasad Poddar Ji. He said that God knows only mercy. He knows only mercy; He doesn't know anything else. And we'd be in big trouble if He knew anything else, isn't it? So because He knows that I set aside this time in the morning to spend with Him, but instead of being able to spend that time with Him, this mind is coming strongly, this Maya is presenting all kinds of distractions, but I am, as much as I can, carrying the intention to keep returning back to Him. And if He knows that, that is more than enough for me, you see what I'm saying?

So just that the Father knows. For the more we remain inward-facing, most likely we will find that our love for Him deepens more and more. And the more that love deepens, the easier it becomes to remain inward-facing. So it's a virtuous circle. But many times—there was another sage who found a japa, he found that just the prayer was happening for him on its own. He didn't have to do anything at all. And then after many years of sadhana, he had this, and then he lost it for fifteen years. It never happened that the prayer was happening on its own in this way from the heart. Fifteen years he lost it, and then when it came back, he was so grateful. But it was very important because he shared all this experience with everyone.

So God's ways are always mysterious, and to remain faithful to God is always an act of faith. You will not understand. So it's a very fine balance. So I'm trying to relieve a lot of the spiritual pressure while not making it a complacency. Because very easily we can get into that: 'But I'm not the doer. If He wants it to happen, it'll happen. I'm just going to sit and watch TV all day. If He wants me to pray, He'll make me pray.' That is a misunderstanding of Advaita, and it is a serious misunderstanding of God Himself.