Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 1

God Protects

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 ārtabhakta, 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 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 soul – na hanyate hanyamāne Sarire. 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.

Have life and property then no value in the eye of God? To the divine consciousness are these things mere māyā, 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

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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 for divine protection. Likewise the property placed at the service of the Divine, which is used as an instrument for the Divine's own work upon earth, the Divine will surely protect, for it is then part of his grandeur and glory, aiśwarya. Life and property become indeed sacred and inviolable when they are put at the disposal of the Divine for 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; for 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.

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, for 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

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more or less successfully according to the degree of the soul's wakefulness on the plane that needs and possesses the protection.

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.

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.

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