BEAUTY, CRAVINGS, PRAYER

Reader’s question on PRANA AND PRAYER - I

“...is there any way to improve the power of my prayers. Hardly do my prayers work :( though i never pray for much”

Dwell for a moment upon the power of purity and the strength of surrender. Take water from the brook and pour it into a vessel, be it the cup of your hands. At once it becomes a force that quenches thirst, washes off dirt, drowns sin and supports the miracle of life. Why? How? Because the water surrenders to the shape of the vessel, to its destiny and to the packet it comes in, to the act of being drunk, of being picked and poured and held and used and thrown and churned and battered and boiled, but always willing to take on the shape of the vessel and unquestioning of its destiny. Not happy, not sad, not tense, not elated, not triumphant, not defeated; just water. In being so, water is the Life Force, most essential to every living being existent on this planet or any other.

Listen to the sounds of this water. Listen to the sounds of Nature; no protest, no anger, no pain, no shrillness, no elation, no bragging, no lies, no ego. In some traditions, these sounds are called ‘Ragas’. They are not music composed, they are music comprehended.

Thus must be our prayers. Beautiful. Pure. Not asking, content in our being, willing to be taken where life must take us. Most of our prayers arise from insecurity, from undefined fears, from mindless apprehensions of tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and the years that follow. We do not know whether we will return home this evening in one piece, but our worries are for twenty years hence. We will drive fast and dangerously today to a meeting which we think is securing our future.

Understand the difference between prayer and demand. Prayer implies surrender to the will of the giver, demand preconceives a right to receive. Pray, my dear, and you shall receive. Pray for the discernment to recognize the bounties granted, for our view is incomplete; the Artist knows the whole picture and fits us perfectly into the canvas. We may be praying for the lover who is going to leave us an unwed mother some day, and the giver may decide that we do not need it.

One day in your prayers, maybe once a month or week, lie back and thank God for the things not given to you. Look at any person alive, think of his troubles and turmoil, and decide, would you want them too? Think back on so many prayers in your past, can you imagine where you would be if all had been answered? Would you be able to handle it? Then, in the age old way, count your blessings, which brother, friend, parent, lover would you offer in exchange for the prayers that you think are unanswered?

Discern between prayers of the soul and cravings of the mind.