The Bhagavad-gita concludes by indirectly urging us all to harmonize our will with the divine will (18.73). Some people fear that such surrender may mean having to do something unnatural, as we might be forced to do if we surrendered to a mundane master.

To address such fears, we need to understand the concept of doing God’s will from a holistic philosophical perspective. At our core, we all are souls, who are parts of God (15.07). We are meant to play our part in his plan for the world. That divine plan centers on raising human consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level – and making the necessary social arrangements for facilitating the raising of consciousness. If we don’t act as parts of God, we are pulled apart from him by our mind and senses. They make us slave for various worldly indulgences that simply end in disappointment, entanglement and bereavement.

To do God’s will, do we have to suppress our mind and senses – and our overall material nature? Not at all; we just need to restrain the destructive worldly urges that sometimes arise in our mind and senses. These urges can blind us not just to our spiritual nature but also our material nature. That is, they can infatuate us with professions that are glamorized in the world, even if those professions are not compatible with our God-given material nature.

When we strive to do God’s will by connecting devotionally with him, we gain access to his divine grace that silences the inner clamor of our destructive urges. Thereby, we gain a better understanding of our material nature – our natural areas of comfort and competence while functioning in the world – and a greater freedom to align our life with our nature in a spirit of service to our Lord.

One-sentence summary:

Doing God’s will doesn’t mean doing anything unnatural; it means freeing ourselves from the urges that obstruct us in acting according to our nature, both spiritual and material.

Think it over:

  • How is doing God’s will natural for us spiritually?
  • How can our destructive urges stop us from acting according to even our material nature?
  • How can doing God’s will enable us to better act according to our material nature? 

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18.73: Arjuna said: My dear Krishna, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy. I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions.

Does doing God’s will mean doing something unnatural?

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