دار بيبليون
Joy and Divine Grace in Yoga and in St. Teresa of Avila (T A) Lecture by Dr. Lwiis Saliba on Zoom Wednesday 22/12/2021
Joy, its place in Bhakti and in St Teresa of Avila
The yoga of piety is, in essence, the yoga of joy. One of the most prominent examples of Bhakti and its faces is Chaitanya (1486-1533), the worshipper and lover of Krishna. This saint was famous for his unusual devotions in general: he sang and composed love songs to Krishna, walked the squares, sang and danced in the name of the Lord his beloved. He often fell into ecstasy while singing or dancing and made the crowd go wild with worship of Krishna. His life was a constant and continuous joy in the omnipresent divine presence.
Teresa of Avila, on the other hand, despite the excruciating torments and pains that marred her life, was the saint and teacher of joy. She repeated before her daughters her slogan: “As long as joy prevails, the spirit of monasticism remains dominant”.
The criterion for the correctness of the spiritual path is therefore joy. Joy emanates from the experience of the eternal presence of God, during and outside of meditation.
And how often we have seen her, as her biographers tell us: “She was eclipsed by spiritual ecstasy while working, and she testified, as she spoke to God with a passionate heart, holding the frying pan, moving it…”.
T A tells us a story of song and rapture, similar to those of Chaitanya, the patron saint of bhakti yoga. She says in one of her reports (15/1 on 16/04/1571): “And last night, when I was with everyone, we sang a song whose content was the heavy weight of enduring to live without God. … The song affected me in such a way that my hands began to go numb and my resistance was useless, but I remained as when I came out of myself with joy, in ecstasies.
Here she enters into ecstasy by singing a hymn of love for God, thus experiencing the joy of presence at its height.
Thus, in the words of T A in her autobiography: “The soul finds everything already cooked and ready to eat, so it only has to enjoy it.
Life, in spite of its difficulties, is a pleasure that God gives us, and we enjoy these pleasures with Him. The inner voice once said to T A: “Enjoy the good I give you, for it is a great good. My Father rejoices with you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. “
Divine Grace in Bhakti
The question of divine grace, which many consider to be the main difference and centre of contention between Yoga and Christian mysticism, is in fact a common denominator as well as the centre of an encounter between the Yoga of Piety, or Bhakti Yoga, and Christian spirituality, especially the mysticism of Teresa. In Bhakti Yoga: “Divine grace plays an essential role”.
In his commentary on the Yoga Sutras, Vyasa, Patanjali’s most eminent commentator, speaks of Pranidhana, which in his definition is ‘a type of bhakti, whereby the grace of the Lord touches the yogi, blesses him and fulfils his desires’.
One of the most eminent contemporary teachers and practitioners of Bhakti Yoga is the sage Swami Ramdas (1884-1963). He says of Grace: “The saints who have had the highest spiritual experiences have proved that grace comes first, for without grace we cannot believe in God. The true worshipper is the one who says: “I remember you, my God, because you are the one who remembered me first”.
Ramdas emphasises that every spiritual seeker needs God’s grace first, for without it he remains powerless: “We need his grace from beginning to end. Through grace, the worst sinner becomes godly, since grace is not a prerequisite for obtaining grace.
Ramdas shows that grace is often undesirable, and has no rule of which man is aware: “We do not receive blessing because we deserve it, or as a reward for our spiritual practices, but rather as a favour from God. He who receives grace never considers himself worthy of it. Its ways are strange, sometimes it does not come despite many attempts, and sometimes without any attempt it comes. It is governed by Him who is above all laws, and who is not bound by any law or condition. We are surprised when it descends on people who do not live according to our spiritual standards, while the one who is thought to deserve it, waits for it indefinitely.
Swami Chidananda says: “The key to divine grace is to be attentive to it. He adds that the aspirant must open his heart and conscience, and in this he says: “The grace of Almighty God is always available and abundant (…) but it cannot penetrate you and change you unless you open yourself to it (…) and it cannot do anything against your will, or without your cooperation”.
How to obtain divine grace? What to do so as not to block it! Swami Chidananda answers these questions by saying: “You get divine grace if you always face the Lord. If you desire grace, you must face God. To place yourself in the Divine Presence (…) and as long as your attention is on other things, you are depriving yourself, not Him, of His Grace.
Bhakti Yoga teaches: “The worshiper must always be in a position of gratitude, seeing the hand of God behind every event in his life, and then he can say: ‘Thank you, my Lord’.
Divine Grace in Teresa’s teaching
We do not need much effort or research to highlight the essential role of grace in the teaching and spirituality of Teresa of Avila, for this role is present in everything she wrote. We therefore limit ourselves to a few examples.
In her biography she speaks of meditation and its impact: “When we want to begin meditation (…) we think we realise that He hears us through the effects that occur and the spiritual feelings that are experienced, which are feelings of great love (…)”.
Teresa of Avila continues: “These effects are a blessing from God, so let the one who has received it from God really appreciate it, because it is a very high degree of meditation, and let him understand that God is there, thanks to the effects He brings into the soul”.
In the reports, the Carmelite reformer affirms that the miraculous powers are only a gift from God, so the receiver should not have any illusions: “The one to whom God grants this grace considers herself humbled because she sees that it is a simple gift, and that she cannot add or subtract anything from it, which makes her more and more humble”.
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