Need for Puja or Prayer

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Need for Puja or Prayer

 

In simple terms, prayer means communicating with Guru/God. Prayer or Puja can be

Direct or Indirect/ Actual or Mental. Offering of actual objects like kumkum,

flowers, naivedya, fragrance, lighting diyas etc to an idol / murti/ picture

/form etc constitutes pratyaksh puja. If the same object(s) is offered mentally

or in ones imagination to God, this will constitute apratyaksh or manas puja.

Constant remembrance of God / Name of God (Naam Jaap) is said to be the most

effective prayer.

 

Prayer means conveying your thoughts, beliefs, fears, aspirations, needs to God.

Most often, we pray to God for expressing our gratitude or to seek favour with a

belief that He is the bestower of everything we need. We believe that God has a

vast, unimaginable and replenishable reservoir of unlimited divine powers and

boons.

 

We pray with awe. We pray in fear. We pray when we want some material object/

position/ service etc. We pray when we want things to go easy for us. We pray

when we are sick. We also pray for forgiveness from God. We pray when we want

thorns in our life to turn into colorful petals. Some people pray without any

reason because praying becomes a habit with them. However, such people are very

rare.

 

We pray when we realize that things are not in our control. When we bend our

head down in prayer, we surrender our ego at the feet of Lord. At that moment we

admit that we are nothing but helpless in front of His Supreme divine power. We

admit that He is magnificent. We admit that the Lord is our fortress where we

are absolutely safe. When we agree to receive from someone it implies that we

have surrendered our ego, it reflects our humility. This means that we have

realized we are incapable of manifesting what we are seeking.

 

Pre-requisites for Prayer - Of course there is no dearth of people who are seen

asking for favours from fellow human beings with a belief that they can fulfill

their needs. However, instead of asking for favours from fellow beings, we must

pray to God Who gives to each and all. Baba often said ˜Sabka Malik Ek " and His

mantra to win over God was Shraddha and Saburi which will help us in crossing

any hardship in our life.

 

Faith and Trust in God comes automatically if we Love God in thoughts, words and

action. Patience to wait for the outcome of my prayer to manifest takes away the

sting of suffering. We often lack this. Most of the time faith and patience

swing like a pendulum depending upon our present life situations. Needless to

mention, most of our prayers are for materialistic gains rather than for

spiritual blessings. Another prerequisite for puja is purity of mind, heart,

body and soul.

 

What should we pray for? When I sit down to pray often I am confused about what

to ask for. Baba said so many times that His treasury is full and people can

take whatever they want but people ask for worldly things only whereas He wants

to give more.

 

So many times I have tried to imagine what I would do if Saibaba gave me His

divine darshan and asked me what my wish is? I would be totally speechless in

front of Him. I would have nothing to ask for. If I found the Lord then there

would be nothing left to seek. For God is our final destination.

 

The Bible says seek the Kingdom of God, which is within you. I believe that if I

seek God himself, Kingdom will automatically follow but then there will be no

need for Kingdom anymore. The thought itself is so awesome. I doubt if I am

deserving enough to reach that stage. Only God knows what my qualifications are.

 

Sometimes, devotees dont pray with humility but make demands. However, it is

felt that we should refrain from making demands from God for it is considered as

a demonic virtue.

 

Wise people say that God knows what is good for us and He will bless us with the

same, time and again, at the most right and appropriate moment.

 

Benefits of prayer - Over the years I have come to understand that I pray to

reach that hidden and unseen sanctuary of peace and silence within me where the

Supreme God resides. With my eyes closed or open, I utilize my prayer time to

talk to God just as I would talk to a respected elderly person.

 

I convey my fears and insecurities, my needs and seek His guidance to turn my

thoughts and actions towards a positive direction so that I can meet Him as soon

as possible. They say it is difficult to understand the ways of God. I feel that

it is possible to understand God provided He showers His Grace on us. For that

we have to reach that highest pinnacle of humaneness. The power of prayer is so

strong that with Grace of God everything becomes possible. It is said that even

a single prayer can convert a war-like situation into peace. A mind in prayer is

always surrounded by a pious aura and sends out positive vibrations in the

Universe.

 

Baba would often tell His devotees that He is within them and does not consider

His devotees to be separate from Him. Baba listens to all our spoken and

unspoken thoughts and words. So many times I wonder if I have that finesse that

will enable God to reside in me.

 

Prayers are very powerful. When we pray from depth of our heart, our wish is

fulfilled. But our faith shakes when our prayer remains unanswered. We feel God

is not looking at us. We blame either God or ourselves. It rarely occurs to us

that if our prayer remained unfulfilled then it must be for our own benefit.

 

Sometimes not having something is better than having that thing. If you look

back in your life, you will find that most of the time the biggest grace of God

came to you when things did not happen the way you wanted. When a bad time comes

in our life, it awakens us to so many inner and outer realities of life.

 

Struggling and finding a way out of our hardship is a blessing that God has

bestowed on us by not fulfilling our wish because God loves us and wants us to

develop our faith, patience, character. So many times we get what we want but

that same blessing separates us from God further because once we get what we

want, we forget to pray again till another adversity starts to loom its head in

our life.

 

Therefore, if we are spiritually strong, we will not be affected if the prayer

does not yield the desired result. Most of us feel that once our material

desires are fulfilled and we retire from family obligations we will pray for

spiritual grace. However, I feel that we should not wait till old age to ask for

such an important blessing.

 

All through our life along with our material needs we should pray to God for

guiding us in the righteous direction. We should atone for our mistakes and pray

to God to give us enough discrimination so that we do not make such mistakes

again. A lot of people confess their sins to the Lord and seek His pardon. How

relieving that must be.

 

Faith or trusting in God means that if the wish is not fulfilled we should

understand that it must be for our own good which we are unable to understand in

given circumstances. We are children of God. He would give us all that that we

need and much more at the appropriate time provided we are qualified for

receiving the same. A sincere and heartfelt prayer will take us to the final

destination – to attain nirvana (liberation from cycle of birth & death) and

become Godlike.