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<p align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><b>
<font size="4">God Protects</font></b></p>
<p align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">&nbsp;</p>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>THE
protection that man naturally needs and asks for is that of life and
property. It is, in the ordinary course of things, the duty of the
State and society to give this protection. But sometimes the State or
society is unable to do its duty as it should. 'In revolutionary
epochs, when storm and turmoil are almost a natural occurrence, the
individual has to turn upon himself, and it is then that many turn to
God – they have been called <FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT><I>rtabhakta,
</I>those who become devotees through affliction. Now the first
question that comes up is why on earth should God care for the life
and property of <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">any individual. Life and
death, loss and gain are dualities that form the warp and woof of
human existence: God is not more partial to one limb of the pair than
to the other. From God's standpoint, so also from the standpoint of a
God-lover, the soul is immortal, as indeed the Gita says, and even if
the body dies, the soul remains for ever, the body can be killed but
not the </FONT><I>soul – na hanyate hanyam<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>ne
Sarire. </I>And as regards property, it is the ignorant who are
attached to it; the man of God has no need of it, not only so, it is
an obstacle in his way to meet God. Did not the Christ declare that a
camel could pass through the eye of a needle, never a rich man enter
the kingdom of Heaven. And Nachiketas too, a heroic boy that he was,
flung back into the face of Yama himself all the riches offered to
him by the Lord of Death.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Have life and property then no value in the eye of God?
To the divine consciousness are these things mere <I>m<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>y<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>,
</I>transient objects of ignorance, ties that bind the soul to earth
and have to be cut away and thrown behind? We at least do not hold
that opinion. We hold that life and property are valuable, they are
significant: they become so in reference to </FONT>
<BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 381</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>the individual who has them. The life that is dedicated
to the Divine, the life that is in some way connected with the higher
consciousness, through which something of the world of light and
delight comes down into our mortality acquires a special worth and
naturally calls <I>for </I>divine protection. Likewise the property
placed at the service of the Divine, which is used as an instrument
<I>for </I>the Divine's own work upon earth, the Divine will surely
protect, <I>for </I>it is then part of his grandeur and glory,
<I>ai<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ś</FONT>warya. </I>Life and property
become indeed sacred and inviolable when they are put at the disposal
of the Divine <I>for </I>his use in the fulfilment of the cosmic
design. As we know, life and property under present conditions upon
earth are possessions of the undivine forces, they are weapons
through which God's enemies hold sway over earth. Therefore life and
property that seek to be on God's side run a great risk, they are in
the domain of the hostiles and therefore need special protection. The
Divine extends that protection, but under conditions – for his rule
in the material field is not yet absolute. The Asura too extends his
protection to his agents, and his protection appears sometimes, if
not often, more effective; <I>for </I>the present world is under his
domination and all forces and beings obey him; God and the godly have
to admit his terms and work out their design on that basis.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The conditions under which the Divine's protection can
come are simple enough, but difficult to fulfil completely and
thoroughly. The ideal conditions that ensure absolute safety are an
absolute trust and reliance on the Divine Force, a tranquillity and
fearlessness that nothing shakes, .whatever the appearances at the
moment, the spirit and attitude of an unreserved self-giving that
whatever one is and one has is God's. Between that perfect state at
the peak of consciousness and the doubting and hesitant and timid
mind at the lower end-that of St. Peter, <I>for </I>example, at his
weakest moment – there are various gradations of the conditions
fulfilled and the protection given is variable accordingly. Not that
the Divine Grace acts or has to act according to any such hard and
fast rule of mechanics, there is no such mathematical Law of
Protection in the scheme of Providence. And yet on the whole and
generally speaking Providence, Divine Intervention, acts</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 382</FONT><BR>
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<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>more
or less successfully according to the degree of the soul's
wakefulness on the plane that needs and possesses the protection.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>And yet there is another aspect of the thing that is to
be taken into consideration. For in the supreme and ultimate view the
world or creation is not divided between God and Asura : the Asura
cannot be outside God's infinity, he is there because permitted by
him, indeed forms part of him and serves the divine purpose. Asura
represents the hard dark passage through which the ignorant human
soul cuts out its forward march: it is the crucible in which the
growing consciousness is purified of its dross in order to regain the
fullness of its divine quality and nature.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Finally, it must also be understood that because the
divine protection is there upon whosoever belongs to the Divine, this
protection should not be taken to mean exclusively the preservation
of the individual's physical life and its accessories. Divine
protection, in its true and real sense, means the soul's welfare so
that nothing can bring harm to it or be an obstacle to its happy
growth and divine fulfilment. Protection gives the maximum of this
welfare, the soul's. self-increase and passage into perfect union
with the Divine. And if death and privation – the giving up of a
particular body and deprivation of life's possession – are
necessary sometime or other for that growth and well-being – the
contingency is not ruled out – well, that destiny too has to be
accepted as part of the divine purpose, as protection itself. For
after all life and life's powers have no intrinsic' or absolute value
of their own, their value depends upon the soul's need of them for
its divine well-being.</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 383</FONT></P>
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