Grace is God choosing to act on his own, for his own reasons, unknowable by human reason. Man too is God in his depths. Sri Aurobindo says that Jivatma is Paramatma against the traditional belief that Jivatma has no innate reality and has to dissolve in Paramatma. God, in his infinite wisdom, knows MAN is Himself and fully honours the freedom of choice of the Individual who chooses to act on his own. Often we ask why God did not save me, why did he let me down. It is so because in our depths we are GOD with the fullest freedom of Brahman. The Upanishads say Sarvam Brahman. Hence that extraordinary story of this exact TRUTH. Shiva, like an obliging husband threw a gold bar on the path of a poor man prompted by Parvati and the MAN exercised his prerogative of freedom by closing his eyes till he crossed the golden bar!
Very few people realise the full spiritual value of completely discharging their duties. Man acts freely as long as he is not checked by social pressure. If you are spiritually perceptive, take a list of every one of your works that stalls, stalls for week or years. Exercise your memory painstakingly. You will come upon the exact act you have done to someone. Almost all the details will tally. Now regret having done it. At once the present block will be removed. Hundreds of devotees have this experience. Only that they do not like it even after getting the result. Acts have life. Willful acts have virulent life. Mind, if it is understanding or good, has the capacity to reverse the old movement.
A family was ruined. They had a few hundred creditors. Imagine the daily harassment. Eight years ago they came to Mother. New comforts arise, but old tortures remain. It took them time to realise this rule of the effective past life. They understood, but were incapable of fully reversing in their minds the old acts. Vast opportunities arose on the horizon. But they stand outside the door. Much of their gruesome suffering is relieved. But creditors, their calls, their visits, their harassment are a nightmare. Mother has reduced the hundred events to ten. Even one is enough to shatter a man. Many good things happened in the family, but the little tortures remain unremoved. The boy got a job on a good salary. The family needs every rupee urgently. But from his first salary, he voluntarily sent the bank an installment of his educational loan. It is spiritual wisdom.