PRAYER

PRAYER

Prayer is not a "spare wheel" that you pull out when in trouble, but it is a steering wheel" that directs the right path throughout.

Selfless prayer from the heart does get answered sometimes sooner or later. A prayer is a conscious realization of a personal intimate relationship with your higher power, putting aside all selfish desires so one can experience communion with the Lord with out hindrance from worldly egos. To pray is to know how to stand still and to dwell on the sincerity of the words. The nature of the Universal Mind is Omniscience (all knowing), Omnipotence (all powerful), Omnificence (all creative) and Omnipresence (always present). Know that this too is your nature. You have access to all knowledge, known and unknown; you have access to an infinite power for which nothing is impossible; you have access to the limitless creativity of the One Creator. All these attributes are present within you at all times in their potential form. When you pray for something and really believe that it will be granted, your energy links to the divine current and the Universe sends a response. The faith you have is what aligns your request to the Universal current. To ‘ask’ is to center yourself in the radiant light and project your clear divine thought into the mind of the Source/Universe. When your thought-vibrations align with the cosmic thought - that is asking. The divine current must answer and pull you into itself so that the situation moves and transforms. To ask in such a way is always to receive a response from the Universe. Prayer connects the individual to a higher source of love and energy whenever there is a need of comfort or direction. There is no other better way to open up to your Higher Power or God. God is unknowable, infinite, unapproachable, formless and imperceptible.

Prayer does not require a language and silent prayer is in order too. It is a humble request for benefits either for one's self or for others (Intercession). Command does not succeed with Lord; it is only the imploration (piteous supplication), which works. It can be said at any time and at any place. God is not confined to any Religious place and is everywhere. Prayer is not a formal ritual. God is father, mother, sibling, relative, friend, lover etc. with whom you have liberty of being informal. One does not need a middleman for a prayer.

The only thing, which one can offer, is to praise, appreciate the Lord with an Attitude of gratitude. It describes a state of mind of complete surrender to God in which a person becomes humility incarnate. Emphasis is on Humility coming down from the heart and not on the posture while praying? God is always merciful and kind. His nature is giving and not taking.  God never bounces back prayer from humble servants. However, all powers are with God, which implies that to answer a prayer is His prerogative. It is not a check that you can draw on the bank of God, whenever you are hard put to meet your needs. Prayer always springs out of a sense of need and a belief that God is a rewarder of them who seek it diligently whether literate or illiterate.

We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words but prayer is the opening of mind and heart to GOD, the ultimate mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions. We open our awareness to the God whom we know by faith with in us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking and closer than consciousness it self and perceptible in each one's heart.

Thoughts are an umbrella term for any sense perception, including feelings, images, sounds, memories, and reflections and are a normal part of centering the prayer. We are all parts of ONE Universal Spirit. True meaning of spirituality is to know God. You will realize that God is your Self, Who exists equally and impartially in all beings. Prayer says I am helpless, impure and weak. I need you O' Lord to strengthen me, to purify me and I offer my constant attitude with heartfelt Gratitude.

The ordinary prayer is made for some specific object, some advantage or possession of material or spiritual in nature. The virtuous disfigure their meritorious act by asking for salvation or reward.

The TRUAST prayer is "Not my will but Thine will be done" followed by dutiful, energetic action, and thanks. We can only aspire to bring our lives, our wishes and thoughts in to harmony with the Divine Law. It means we have to ask in spirit of unselfishness and purity of heart, desiring nothing but submitting unconditionally to the Universal Spirit, thus freeing the mind of attachments and desires. Conquer the mind and defeat it by praying and meditation to grant one the power to control the all-wandering mind. The mind is the total sum of desires. When you have no desires, you have conquered the mind. The mind spends most of its thinking of the future or dwelling in the past. It hardly spends any time in the present. The mind is like a bird flying aimlessly, going in to the future hopes and desires or running back in to the past memories and sorrows. Most people spend their life like this, resulting in stress, depression, burnt out, no happiness, and uncontended, unfulfilled hopes, bitterness, negativity and so on.

Most prayers are more or less selfish requests to God to make exceptions in favor of the petitioner, which if not granted leads to:

• Loosing faith.
• Killing self-reliance.
• Developing more ferocious selfishness and egotism than what is already endowed by nature.

The whole purpose of life is to strengthen character, which is the school of soul, by humbly requesting God to remove our character defects as step 6 and to grow spiritually by using the tools of this fellowship.

The wording of the prayer can be individualized by the petitioner him self. It is the sincerity of the prayer, which matters. It is the motive that makes difference between true and false prayer. Only the prayer performed with the full concentration of mind is accepted at the door of Lord. Other prayers are self-deception and hypocrisy. Prayer should express itself in Actions by which we strive to manifest, which is best in us.