Passage 5

You can hide it from others, but there is no hiding it from the Paramātma

‘Śṛṇvantu viśve amṛtasya putraḥ’: this is a saying of the Upaniṣad. My dear! You think of yourself as a man. You think of yourself as small. You think, ‘I am very weak.’ This is weakness. ‘You are greater than nectar. Before you, nectar has no taste. Such taste, such power, such greatness dwells in your heart,’ the Upaniṣads declare. We cannot properly recognise such a sacred divine power. We think we are committing sins and doing wrong without anyone knowing. ‘Even if others do not know, does Īśvara not know?’ We do it somewhere, in the bathroom; we do it somewhere, covered with a rug: so you think. You can hide it from others, but there is no hiding it from the Paramātma. Our own faults come back to us as reaction, reflection, resound. You forget the fault you committed. When hardships come, you cannot recall it. You think these hardships came to you through someone. There is no escaping the fruit of the karmas you have done.

Is it in your power to cross karma? O man, is it in your power to cross karma? Dip it in a little spring or fill it at the seven seas, the water is only as much as the pot holds; however much you want, no more will come. (Is it in your power …) Does a rich man not become a beggar in a trice? Does a scholar not turn into a beast in a moment? Can a stick not turn into a snake and bite? Karma is the cause; karma itself is the root. (Is it in your power …) However much strength of arm you show, though you exult, calling yourself a champion, it becomes a rope through your nose and drags you along: that nose-string is karma; though you read weighty lessons, though you worship the family deities, though you go off to the dense forests, though you do severe tapas. (Is it in your power …)

The grace of the Lord burns to ashes in a moment even sins as big as mountains

With the grace of God alone, you can cross any karma whatever. The grace of the Lord is the medicine that drives away karmas as big as hills.