Questioner:
How can I attune myself to God’s will?
Swami Premodaya:
So anytime you question and wonder, that is a good thing. Because if followed in a sincere and correct way—if your questioning is true and right, if your pondering is a total effort, if your consideration is sincere and not ego based—it will lead you closer to the conclusion that it must be God’s will.
And at the same time anything that leads you closer to that, it is leading you towards a whole host of other understandings at the same time. One of which is: Who am I to understand, judge, question, or in any way comprehend God’s will? Who am I to know the whole truth? I can know the piece I can know, I can give myself to it. To know it as fully as I can and beyond that I cannot do more. If I am doing all I can do in that way, then that is it. There is nothing more for me to do. There is nothing I am capable of doing beyond that, if I am already doing that. And if I am not already doing that, and something is important to me, then the question is: How to more do that? And the other, of course, major implication that goes along with anything that takes you closer to accepting the will of God, is the hand-in-hand increasing understanding that you cannot do anything with that other than surrender to it. Other than allow it to be so. Other than accept it. There is no other position possible. Any other position you attempt will cause you confusion, suffering, anguish, or all of the above. So by that understanding, a human life is nothing more, nothing less, than an opportunity to attune yourself to God’s will.
Everything you do, everything you have ever (I swear to you!) everything you have ever done, good or bad—no matter what you thought about it or why you thought you were doing it—was your attempt to attune yourself to God’s will.
It may have been twisted. It may have been a very misguided attempt. It may have been going in the opposite direction, you may have been doing something bad, something even evil. But even that is a twisted attempt to go closer to God’s will. You cannot do anything else. It is the nature of what we are capable of. We are not capable of anything else. That is the good news. Everything good, everything bad, you have ever done was God’s will. And your attempt to be aligned with God’s will.
The worst thing you have ever done, the most horrible sin you have ever committed, was you trying to get to God. You just didn’t do it real good. Next time do better, learn from it. That is why things feel bad, so you will not do them again. So you will try something better next time.
“All is God’s will,” isn’t convenient. On the surface it sounds like a convenient way to excuse everything. Once again, it is the exact opposite. If you really live, if you really see for yourself that all is God’s will, if you delve into it in such a way that it becomes clear to you that that is absolutely true, if you see it with your own eyes and feel it with your own heart, then it is just the opposite of an excuse. Then you feel tremendous responsibility to get it right, to do the best you can. Because, after all, “Who you be representing?” as they say. If you really get it, if it penetrates to the point where it is involuntary, where you see the truth of it whether you like it or not, then you don’t excuse anything ever again.
Then it is never a question of laziness; it is never a question of taking the easy way, because why would you ever choose the easy way out if you are truly aware that you are operating within the sphere of God’s will? Then you try your best. It doesn’t mean you are perfect, it doesn’t mean you don’t screw up, it doesn’t mean sometimes you don’t take the lazy way—but it means you are aware that your responsibility is higher than you used to realize, when it was not clear to you. You know you are taking a little bit of a half step when you should try to take a whole step. It doesn’t mean turn yourself inside out—you have to meet some superman, superwoman ideal. It just means you are no longer confused about the nature of things. You have gotten to the point of understanding, where you are able to ‘give God his due,’ so to speak. And not see yourself as the author of all. If you really get it, you will see you are the author of none of it—nevertheless you are responsible for every bit of it.
That’s why it works, from a practical standpoint—if you can’t take on the idea that ‘all is God’s will,’ take on the idea that ‘all is your responsibility.’ You end up in the same position. God doesn’t care how you get there. Just get there. You know, if you are going to France, it doesn’t matter if you are taking a boat or a plane or a balloon. It will all get you there. The point is get to France.