By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,
Prayer is a vital tool. When you feel obstacles of life are too much to handle, deep prayer can work miracles.
Often people say behind every successful man is a woman. But I say behind every success, there is the Divine saying “I am behind you”. And Divine dawns in you when you pray and cry for it. You dont need any special qualifications or abilities to pray. Whether you are a wise person or not, whether you are rich or poor, you can pray.
Prayer is a vital tool to improve your life. When you feel an obstacle is too much to handle, deep prayer can work miracles. What you can do, you do. What you cannot do, you pray for it! Whatever you do, know that the higher power has the final say and you can tap that power through your prayers.
Prayer doesnt mean just sitting and chanting some words. Its about being in that serene, calm and meditative state. That is why, in the Vedic tradition, before prayer comes dhyana (meditation) and there is dhyana after prayer. When the mind is focused, the prayer becomes far more powerful.
When you pray, there should be total involvement. If the mind is preoccupied elsewhere then that is no prayer at all. When there is pain there is more involvement. Thats why people turn to prayer when they are in pain. Prayer is the cry of a soul. Prayer happens when you feel grateful or when you feel utterly helpless. In either case, your prayers will be answered. When you feel helpless, prayer happens by itself. Thats why we say ‘Nirbal toh Balram’. If you are weak, God is with you. Prayer is that moment when you come in touch with your limitations, your boundaries.
To whom you pray is not important. Whereas religion puts words to the prayer, and adds symbols and rituals to it, the prayer itself transcends them. It happens at the subtle level of feelings and the feelings transcend words and religion. The act of praying itself has the power to bring about transformation.
Be sincere in your prayers. Do not try to outsmart the Divine. Usually you give the time that is leftover; when you have nothing else to do, no guests to attend to, no parties to attend to, you go to the Divine. This is not quality time. Give prime time to the Divine and you will definitely be rewarded. If your prayers are not answered, it is because you have never given quality time. For your prayers to be answered, the desire has to be intense. Intense desire leads you to devotion. Devotion arises when you have faith and you experience the divines presence around you.
Dont be in a hurry to get what you seek from the Divine. When your intention is to get a boon from God, you are in a hurry. But when you know you own God, you are not in a hurry to get something out of God. Your hurry to get something throws you off balance and makes you small. In todays fast-paced world, people often pray out of fear and greed. Usually when you love something, you want to possess it and you pray for it.
True prayer, however, is just the opposite of wanting to possess. Its about honouring and offering everything to the Divine. Honouring brings devotion and it leads to surrender. Devotion brings a healing touch to life. Devotion and faith is the central core of prayer. A true prayer cant happen without devotion and faith. Having faith is to realise that Gods protection is there for you. Devotion is an inner flowering. Unless you are lit in devotion to the Divine, your life will remain restless. In devotion, longing will arise in you. And when there is longing, true prayer happens by itself.
so nicely explained…how true is saying of guruji that when we have too much of pain then we r fully involved in it then we pray…n not even give quality time for it..amazing n i really trust this devotion n faith are at d core of d prayer…n even i realise d prayer needs no words
…just the feeling of prayers to god reach d Almighty…so what we … See Morecan do we shud do..and in those cases in which we feel helpless we have nothing except to pray to god…When doctors also lose hope medical point of view they also believe in prayers..n they say just Pray..nothing else can b done
..and sometimes just d prayers can do miracles..but it does not mean that all we want from god through prayers shud b given to us otherwise person wil become greedy n evry one will have eveything n then there wont b any need of prayers n gratitude to god…so just have faith in God and pray ..
just this Faith that even he is not fullfilling our so called worldly wishes or taking too much time to listen to our prayers..just have faith that everylittle thing he gives us even hurt pain is also for something good..that we dont realise at that moment but later we can realise it…
Thanks Sanjib for putting forward d thoughts of Guruji ..every day we hear something from u n reading al this have become important part of life..wthout which i feel day iis not complete …regards n care ..rekha..
very gud post-i too beleive that one shud sit quietly n meditate-it does bring peace n inner understanding of oneself-
Will be going for sahaj meditation with swami pragyapad ji, this weekend in Austin !
Vibha Sharma……………..please so share your experiences with Swamiji when you have finished:)
So grateful, so thankful for this wonderful teaching from the Divine.
Thank you Sanjib for being the messenger of God- you are truly blessed to work on this platform, our good wishes are always with you. You are spoon feeding us, seems like we are enjoying the result of your hard work.
If only we deeply realise how precious these teachings are and how much harder we need to work on ourselves to honour the divine’s teachings and your work.
Rachna…the thanks is all from me…..I feel blessed to have so many amazing readers, it inspires me to learn more:)
can you explain diff between devotion and hindi word “shraddha”?
Hi Shweta, have another read of the last paragraph…Guruji explains the difference beautifuly….:)
devotion is deep love for a positve subject and shraddha is respect….
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JGD Sanjib,
Every word of Guruji is a pearl of wisdom… true prayer can happen only through surrender. You do what you can do…where you cannot do anything surrender and pray…Thank you for finding me on facebook…you take care.
Deepa