"Morning Prayers" - 2

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“MORNING PRAYERS” – 2

 

(Swami Dayananda Saraswati)

 

As an individual with a limited mind, a set of senses, and a body, I play

different roles every day. As son, husband, father, uncle, friend, employer, and

so on. I play different roles. All these roles are played by me, the individual.

 

When I think of my father, I am son. When I think of my friend, I am a

friend. In order to be a friend, I replace my father with my friend.

 

My relationship with the Lord is not the same. As an individual I am

fundamentally related to the Lord, whether I recognize the relationship or not.

This relationship is expressed by the word “devotee.” As a devotee, when I

assume the role of father or son, the devotee is not replaced. This relationship

between the individual, me and the Lord is the same as that between my father

and the Lord or my friend and the Lord. The devotee remains due to the abiding

nature of the relationship with the Lord.

 

This relationship is an abiding relationship, a fundamental relationship

born of recognition. As a person, an individual, I see myself a devotee. A

relationship that exists with the Lord is recognized. Only then does religion

have meaning.

 

As a devotee, I express my devotion in various forms. As a devotee, I

invoke the help of the grace of the Lord by an act of prayer. Prayer is an

action. Its result is what is called Grace. I create the grace through the act

of prayer. I require the grace to remove obstacles, problems and difficulties.

My efforts themselves are supported by the grace I win or earn. I invoke the

grace of the Lord or I invoke the Lord:

 

“Oh Lord, may I have the capacity, the maturity, to

 

accept gracefully what I cannot change, the will and

 

effort to change what I can, and the wisdom to know

 

the difference.”

 

As a child, I was helpless. My will was not with me. My mind was not

informed enough to see, to interpret. Whatever happened to me as a child and

later in life, I cannot do anything about. It happened in the past; it is past.

What has happened has happened. Maybe there is a meaning to it all. Maybe the

meaning is that I can now pray. All that happened may be valid for me to be what

I am today.

 

May I accept gracefully what happened in the past. May I have the maturity

to do this. There are a lot of things I can change. I can change my attitudes

towards my life and the world. I can tighten up my personal life if it is loose.

If it is too tight I can loosen up. I can change a lot of things. I can repair

any damage done. May I enjoy the will, not merely an intention or a desire, but

a will supported by adequate effort. May I have the will and effort to change

what I can wherever I have to. And may I have the wisdom to know what I can and

cannot change.

 

May I not victimize myself by subjecting myself to the past. Let me see

clearly that I cannot alter what has happened. May I not have any regret,

sadness, anger, or agitation on this score. Let me recognize very clearly

thoughts about the past that I cannot change so that I can accept the past for

what it is. Let me be aware of whatever I can change. Let this be clear to me.

Let there be no doubt. Let me not waste my power and time trying to change what

I cannot change. Trying to change what I cannot, leave me so powerless,

helpless, and impoverished, that I cannot bring about the change by that needs

changing.

 

“Oh Lord, may I have the maturity to accept totally, gracefully, what I cannot

change, the will and effort to change what I can, and the knowledge of the

difference between what I can and cannot change.”

 

That you are not the past, you see by seeing awareful of the present.

 

Om

 

The present moment . . . . . . .

 

You are aware of it . . . .

 

You are an awareful presence. In the awareful presence that you are, perceptions

happen and the objects of perception are many and various. You are an awareful

presence, an abiding, awareful presence.

 

Om Om Om

 

 

 

 

 

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