Prayer without attention and love

[Guest guest]

Yesterday, I was reading a book -- the comment there struck me

strongly. What use is the prayer without attention and love? It is

like playing a tape-recorder in the puuja room and walking away to

watch TV. An absent minded prayer or observance of ritual is no

different or worse than this -- yet how often our minds jump like a mad

monkey from one topic to another while the hands roll over the beads!!.

 

 

May shrii miinaaxii forgive me all that lack of shraddhaa and bhakti.

 

On a lighter vein -- Once a man asked a priest -- guruji can I smoke

while I am praying. His teacher replied. No, but you can pray while you

are smoking. -- May be to *start with* one can engage in useful wordly

activities and think about shriimaataa in background (at least once in

a while) instead of sitting in HER altar and thinking of about

everything except HER.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

=====

ambaaL daasan

 

Ravi

 

sharaNAgata raxakI nivEyani sadA ninnu nammiti mInAxI

 

http://www.ambaa.org/ http://www.advaita-vedanta.org

 

 

 

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http://fifaworldcup.

[Guest guest]

, vishwanthan Krishnamoorthy <krishvishy>

wrote:

>

> Does not the act of praying itself have some merit?

> Allow me to pose a question:

> Who is a better person? one who does his Nityanikham

> albeit mechanically or one who ignores it altogether?

 

On matters such as sandhya-vandanam which is a nitya-karma, one has

no choice. One has to do it and not doing is a sin. It will be better

if one can do with concentration and bhakti. In any case, one has to

do it.

 

> Also it is said that the act itself (without

> knowledge)

> is beneficial one example is the story (?) behind

> Sivaratri (one of the many) regarding the tiger,

> hunter, and the bilva tree.

>

 

There are other examples, which indicate that attitude is more

important than act itself. Take the example of kaNNappa naayanar and

shaakkiya naayanar (who is jain but converted secretly to shaivam. He

worships the Lord by throwing stones at him. He does so because, he

wants his fellow jains to think that he is insulting shiva. However,

internally he offers the stones as flowers with devotion).

 

Your example is valid also. For instance, there is incident in devii

bhaagavatam indicating the greatness of "aim" biijam. Even though

there is inherent benefit in some actions, it is greater when done

with understanding (and with attention and love). I have feeling that

jaganmAtA will give importance to the inner attitude than the

external act.

 

 

Also there are three classes of prayers (kaaLika puraaNa, source

maaha nyaasam published by mylapore vedic society).

 

a) The supreme one is the prayers composed by oneself. This is

because, there is personal feeling and greater understanding in what

one says.

 

b) Prayers from shruti, smriti and puraaNa-s, This a middling or

middle level.

 

c) Prayers composed by others, such as abhiraami bhattar or shankara,

falls under inferior or ordinary level.

 

 

#b and #c will elevate to supreme level only when sadhaaka

understands it and uses it with a sense as if it his/her own. For

instance, if you understand the verse "nanrE varuginum ..." so deeply

and feel it internally, then for all practical pursposes it is as

good as a prayer composed by yourself. For many who cannot do #a,

they have to work hard and interiorize #b and #c.

 

And it also possible for humans to do some other activities

(mechanically) and pray with concentration.

 

Ravi