27. Question: Are man's will and God's Will always in opposition?

Sri Chinmoy: To some extent it is true. Man can unconsciously stand against God's Will and, again, man can consciously stand against God's Will. Sometimes it happens that we know what God's will is. Our conscience tells us, but we don't pay any attention to it. We feel that if we listen to the dictates of our conscience, then we will not be satisfied. Here, satisfaction means gratification, our ego will not be satisfied. So we don't listen to our soul. Naturally, then we are standing against God's Will. Again, many times it happens that we are not diametrically opposing God's Will, but we don't know what God's Will is. We know what our will is, but we don't know what God's Will is. At that time, we are not consciously standing against God's Will. We cannot say that at that time our will is in opposition to God's Will. But we have to know that either consciously or unconsciously, if we do not fulfil God's Will, then we enter into ignorance and we delay our progress. A child may not know what fire can do to him. But if he touches fire, then the fire will burn him. I know that fire will burn me. But in spite of knowing this, I touch fire and I get burned. So the result of unconscious opposition and conscious opposition is the same. But if somebody does it unconsciously, then he is helpless. In that case God's Grace descends sooner than otherwise. If somebody knows the after-effects of his action, but in spite of that he does something wrong, then God's Grace will not come down immediately. It will take time. The individual has to aspire again most sincerely and devotedly to bring down God's Grace from above. Then, naturally, God's Grace will descend.

From:Sri Chinmoy,A God-Lover's Earth-Heaven-Life, part 1, Agni Press, 1974
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