As long as you have an ego, you have to assert your willpower

 

Sri Sri Bhajan Brahmachari

(from "Living with My Himalayan Master: Sri Sri Bhajan Brahmachari"):

One of the devotees broke the silence with a question to Thakur on willpower.

"Since nothing happens without the wish of the Lord, is it only when Grace happens that true willpower or aspiration to attain comes to a seeker or a devotee?" Assembled devotees were eager to hear what would flow from the Master in response.

Thakur: If you don't assert your willpower and your effort how will you perceive Grace? As long as you have the "I" that is your ego total surrender cannot happen. As a result, one cannot realize that everything is happening only by God's will or wish. The statement that everything is happening by Divine Will and dispensation is true, but only one in a high state of self-surrender can realize that since it requires a state of pure wisdom that is beyond intellectual understanding.

Devotee: But then we hear so much about the saying 'Everything happens by Divine Will.'

Thakur: The divine is the source of all auspiciousness. It always wants all to seek to move towards the realization of that ultimate reality, the ultimate truth. But humans, being subservient to their own ignorance and worldly tendencies, forget the truth and are deluded. 

Devotee: What are these tendencies you are talking about? Are they our habits? 

Thakur: Habit is nothing but your innate tendencies. Because of these habitual tendencies, you have the perception in your own individualistic way about good, bad, doubts, and suspicions. Various states of your mind obstruct your efforts for genuine surrender. That is the realization you have to assert your willpower. As long as you have an ego, you have to assert your willpower. Your willpower and effort alone are not enough, though. You must have dedication and commitment. It takes both loving, dedicated effort and the assertion of willpower to follow the instructions of your spiritual master without any sense of judgment or discrimination. 

If you try for a while with a little sincerity, you will find that your own flaws will become very clearly visible to you. You must work on them. You have to pray, "May these flaws leave me by Thy Grace. Release me from the fetters of these instinctive tendencies of my lower mind, so that I can be truly free of my ego and realize that all is your Grace, and all is your will in manifestation." That is the reason I am saying, "So long as you have ego, you are within the field of willpower or effort on your part." The day ego dissolves, divine Grace dawns spontaneously.

Devotee: There are many things that cannot be understood through logic and reasoning. Is it better to have blind faith and accept them?

Thakur: Why should you walk the past of blind faith? See your path! You have to see the path and move. Be steadfast in your willpower and efforts with dedicated commitment towards Truth, then you will surely experience Divine Grace.