There was a time
When I loved you,
O my thought-world.
But now I love
The beauty of a silence-mind
And
The purity of a gratitude-heart.
Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 9, Agni Press, 1981
/Would you speak to us about grace?/
The Supreme is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. He has various kinds of power, but His greatest adamantine power is His grace. The moment the Supreme uses His grace for an individual, He offers His very Life-Breath to the seeker, for the Supreme and His grace cannot be separated. Whenever we think of the Supreme, if we feel that it is through His grace that we are approaching Him, then we can be most successful in receiving Him.
The divine grace is constantly descending upon us. Those who are sincerely aspiring are conscious of this divine grace, but those who are not aspiring are keeping their heart's door permanently closed. If we feel the Supreme's grace, then we shall see that His infinite qualities, peace, Light and bliss, are already in the process of entering us, ceaselessly flowing in and through us and becoming part and parcel of our inner and outer life. We have only to follow the flow of grace to carry us into the Source which is the Supreme./
How important is God's grace in our spiritual progress?/
Before realization we think that our personal effort, our aspiration alone is responsible for our spiritual progress. At that time there is no such thing as grace for us. But after realization, we come to see that there is no such thing as aspiration. Our progress is all due to divine grace.
/Can God's grace change fate?/
Fate can and must be changed. For that, what is required is God's grace plus personal effort. There are some seekers who feel, "If I care for God's grace, what necessity is there to make personal effort?" But they are mistaken. Personal effort will never stand in the way of God's descending grace.
/Am I correct in saying that we who are believers in God must grow in grace daily?/
You are absolutely correct in saying that the believers of God must grow in God's grace daily. A true believer of God feels that his very existence on earth, his inner and outer achievements and fulfillments are entirely due to God's grace. Also he is truly fortunate to see that his so-called personal efforts too are an act of God's grace. At every moment he feels that without God's grace, he is nothing and with God's grace, he is everything.