Real prayer

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Real prayer is the complete offering of one's body, heart, mind and soul to

God. Here recitation with lips when the heart, and the soul are not

attuned is not prayer, but an empty pretension prayer offered thus in

unison purifies the person, it removes all evils in us such as lust, anger,

greed, etc., and establishes mutual toleration and goodwill. There

are moments when we are assailed by doubts, disappointments and

darkness. We must cultivate unlimited patience and courage to

withstand such moments of depression. A man of prayer knows no retreat

or defeat.

 

Prayer is request to God in a humble and reverent attitude. It is the

yearning of the heart to be one with its maker. It is the mental attitude

that is important and not the words uttered. The various exercises are

intended to humble us to enable us to realise that nothing happens without

His will, and we are but clay in the hands of the Divine potter. Duration

of the prayer varies from man to man according to the stage of his spiritual

development. Prayer should certainly be in one's own language. Silent

prayer is often more effective than loud recitation. The prayer of a pure

heart never goes unanswered.

 

It is a good plan to begin the day with prayer so that Divine grace may

guide us throughout the day. Similarly the day should be closed with prayer

so that we can have a peaceful night free from ugly dreams and nightmares.

Too much of rational explanation is the bane of modern civilisation. We must

begin with childlike simplicity and have implicit faith in God.

If I exist, God exists. Once we have faith in the existence of God, then

arises the necessity of prayer. There are only two aids to those who are

faltering in their steps in the path of God realisation. One is constant

endeavour and the other is prayer.

 

To one with a prayerful attitude there is no idleness. When we are not

actively engaged in work you can seek union with the divine in prayer. It

purifies and strengthens us. Heartfelt prayer steadies one's nerves, humbles

one and clearly shows one the next step. Such is the efficacy of prayer.

 

Kingdom Of Heaven

 

MAN is in essence a spark of the divine power. But he manifests himself

in lower worlds. His physical body is like an animal. His mind makes him

human and his spirit which is the spark of God makes him divine. The

summum bonum of human existence is to seek the kingdom of Heaven within.

Man is essentially a spiritual being, his self being an emanation from the

Universal Self, God. So to know himself, his deepest self, is to know God.

He can sink in consciousness into the depths of his own being beyond the

body, the passions, the emotions, the mind, the reason ; these are all his,

but they are not he, he can pass beyond them all and fealise himself as

separate from them, the pure 'I*. Then the recognition dawns that the

universal spirit into which the self opens, transcends all the beings in

which it is manifested and is alike in all.

 

The paths leading to this self-realization are many. One of the paths is

through prayer. It is of threefold forms—physical, verbal and mental. The

first consists of rituals and ceremonials, in modern life, due to stress of

activity, lack of leisure and other inconveniences, this form of prayer has

almost fallen out of use in the life of the individual. In view of this

tendency of the age, great emphasis was laid on verbal and mental prayer

which is meditation, i.e., sequential thinking directed towards an inspiring

and interesting object—an Ishta Devata, no matter what the deity is. As Mr.

C. Rajagopalachari said, it is true bhakti that counts, and it does not

matter what deity we worship.

 

In all our puranas great emphasis is laid on verbal prayer because it is

easier to practise than the other two. "The seekef iafter truth," says Manu,

" reaches the highest goal only by japa." And japa, declares the

Mahabharata, is said to be the best of all spiritual practices in modern

age. The Vishnu Purana supports this view wholeheartedly when it observes,

"That which one obtained through meditation in the Satya Yuga (the Golden

age), through sacrifice in the Treta Yuga (Silver Age) and through worship

in the Dwapara Yuga (Bronze Age) may be achieved ift the Kali Yuga (Iron

Age) by reciting the names of the Lord,"

 

In the modern age the physical body and the mind of man are highly

developed. The divinity in man is dormant. As has been already stated, man

has a mind, but mind is not man. But the tragedy of the present day is that

man thinks that he is the mind. Mind is a good servant, but a bad master. We

are living in an age of the mind, of intellect which is trying to assert its

supermacy over man. Look at the incalculable harm the mind has done in

releasing the forces of atomic energy, for the destruction of human culture,

civilization and, in short, for the destruction of man himself. Can there be

anything more suicidal than this ?

 

The reason is not far to seek. The gulf between the human mind and the

divinity within him has not been spanned. The mind is estranged from the

divinity latent in man. How to link the mind of man with his divinity?

Prayer is the bridge that connects the human with the divine. This prayer

has to be practised daily, hourly and, in fact, every moment of your waking

consciousness in order to strengthen it, so that the divinity in man may be

awakened. When the diabolic pleasure of the human mind in releasing

destructive forces can be sublimated into the angelic influences sending

forth comfort and peace, happiness and health to all mankind will result.

A suffering world is calling to us. Within us is the power to heal waiting

to be discovered and released through prayer. Shall we, then, not find time

to pray and to turn inwards and seek the God within so that we may reveal

Him to others and so that spiritual life may become a living reality to us

and to them? As Rajaji said, the quality of love, kindness and mercy are the

attributes of God. If we imbibe and manifest these qualities in our daily

life, we could say that we have truly offered prayer to God. In fine, as

Swami Vivekananda said, " Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to

manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal.

Do this either by work, prayer or worship or psychic control or philosophy

by one or more or all of these—and be free. This, is the whole of religion."

Thus prayer leads to the Kingdom of Heaven within us and let us begin it

now.

 

Om Shanthi ! Shanthi ! ! Shanthihi !!!