Efforts important

Trying sincerely seems more crucial to achieveing our legitimate goals than ritual worship or blind faith in God's Greatness. Ofcourse, there's no discounting the importance of action or "gati" or movement in the fulfilment of life's objectives. Think,plan,act,accomplish-this is the route. But while gati is movement, without which there is no life, gati is also salvation.

Nevertheless, to be conditione to move on the right path we have to be endowed with a certain element of divine inspiration and grace. Whether this comes from past karma or present punya, we cannot say for sure! Yet there are hundreds of hapless souls who remain frozen in inertia because somewhere, the inspiration-producing factory is on lockout.

There are times when we do all that we can and yet results elude us. The hyperlink between karma and phala appears wobbly. The devout would attribute it poetically to God's writ since we have no way of deciphering all those Great Inexplicables. Moreover, we are conditioned to be self-depriciating and not say,"I did it". We are mentally conditioned to present our own achievements to God as an offering, and say, 'It is all due to You,God!' This does not detract from the accomplishment, it embellishes the feat with the most beautiful ornament of all: humility.

Here's when the role of past karma, acts of piety and sincere prayer kick in to make us receptive. It's not just that God's bounty is constantly being showered on humnakind. It's also about our ability to receive it! This receiving is called paatra, used in many Indian languages from the Sanskrit original, for 'vessel'.It means both 'kitchen utensil' and one who is eligible or qualified. (If you loved someone who loved someone who couldnot appreciate you, for instance, it was 'apaatra-daanam', giving to the wrong vessel. 'Ku-paatra' means 'bad vessel' and 'su-paatra' means 'good vessel').