GOD CANNOT BE BOUGHT

In his book My Guru and His Disciple, Christopher Isherwood records how Swami Prabhavananda was talking to him about grace.  He said that Maharaj (Swami Brahmananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, and Prabhavananda's teacher) had told him that there are some people who just get grace. 

However "God cannot be bought," Maharaj went on to say.  Even if you do all the japam, i.e. the repeating of one's personal mantram, and all the spiritual disciplines, you still will not know God. Knowing God is always given by grace.