THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER

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THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER

By

H.H. Swami Kesavaiahji, Madras 30

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. He can sink in consciousness into the depths of

his own being beyond the body, the passions the emotions, the mind, the

reasons; these are all his but they are not He, who can pass beyond them

all and realise 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 three fold 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; and meditation is sequential thinking

directed towards and inspiring interesting object - an Istha Devatha, no

matter what the deity is.

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

is easier to practice than the other two. " This seeker after truth " says

Manu, " reaches the highest goal by Japa only " And Japa, declares the

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

modern age. The Vishnu Purana supports this view wholeheartedly when it

observes, " That which one obtains through meditation in the Satya Yuga

(the Golden age), through sacrifice in theTreta yuga (Silver age) and

through worship in the DwaparaYuga (Bronze age) may be achieved in the

Kali Yuga (Iron age) by reciting 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. 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 practiced daily, hourly and in fact every

moment of our waking consciousness in order to strengthen it, so that

the divinity in man may be awakened.

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, that we

may reveal Him to others and that the spiritual life may become a living

reality to us and to them? 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.

Prayer leads to the Kingdom of Heaven within us and let us begin it now.

Om Shanti! Shanti II Shanti!!!

The Saptagiri - June 1975 Published by T.T. Devasthanams, Tirupathi