LIMITS OF THE ATMAN

Vedanta teaches that the Atman does not participate in our lives, does not contribute to our lives, guide our lives, or interfere in our lives in any way.  It witnesses our lives only. 

There is, accordingly, no reason to pray to the Atman for assistance, or, for that matter, to thank the Atman for anything. 

Our fortunes good or bad are not the doings of the Atman, but are the result of the good and bad karma we are generating in our current life and that we have generated in our past life/lives.

The term God’s grace occurs in Vedanta.  God’s grace is a way of explaining the truly inexplicable, the really miraculous in our lives, which karma does not adequately account for, in our minds at least.

As soon as we accept the possibility of God’s grace, or Divine grace, however, we find ourselves thanking God and then appealing to God and then talking to God at every turn, except that God, the Atman, does not hear us.

In Vedanta, though, there are lots of intermediaries, gods, goddesses, and avatars, so there is always someone for us to talk to.