First of all this saying needs to be understood correctly and qualified because otherwise the logical conclusion would be that all the evil and wicked things that happen in the world are because God has so willed them! Naturally here there is a gap in our understanding because between the highest Will of God and its actual manifestation here, there are several intermediary layers and beings known in all mystic literature as the gods and the titans. Man’s role is to chose between the prompting of these two types (broadly speaking) until he is ready to directly follow God’s highest Will. The choice being given to man is precisely the whole inner sense of the Law of karma. God does not want us to be robots in his hands but conscious and surrendered instruments. All these practices and several others are ways and means through which we prepare to make the right choices, the true choices and thereby evolve towards our higher divine possibilities. An automaton does not evolve, man does. If you keep a stone for a thousand years in a place dedicated to God, it is unlikely to change. But a man consciously visiting a physical space with faith and aspiration for realising the Divine possibility in himself may find himself changed by that experience.
However, such a soul that can completely surrender to God’s Will is very rare. Therefore in Indian culture there is provision for all layers of humanity from the most outer ritualistic to the inwardly conscious. Most human beings require several impressions upon their nature to bring out the true divine element in them, to awaken in them a Godward aspiration. These rituals are primarily meant for these people. Once the soul awakens it seeks the Divine directly through gyana, bhakti, works or other means. When it finds the Divine then nothing is required as it sees the Divine everywhere and in everything. In other words there is an evolutionary gradation that should be respected as people are at different levels and stages of their inner development. One doesn’t teach the same thing and the same way to a child of 5 as to a 15 year old. Truth is one but different people approach and experience it differently.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
