Two years back, when my mother was on deathbed, I prayed
intensely for her life. A few days passed as if my prayers were not answered as
her condition was deteriorating. Suddenly, one day, a realisation dawned on me
that she was suffering a lot and it was my love, which was holding her back.
From that moment, I left everything to God’s will, and when finally she passed
away, I remained calm. This realisation through prayers helped me to remain
composed and experience my mother’s presence beyond her physique.
Do we need Prayer ?
When I thought of this, a counter question flashed in my
mind as to whether we need food to live on ? What food is to body, prayer is
to the mind. Prayer makes our mind healthy, positive, sensitive and humble.
Our attitude or reaction to the situation undergoes change, even as we derive
strength from within.
Prayer and service
Service to mankind is prayer in action !
In May 2008, I visited a place called Nirmal Hriday (Tender-Hearts)
— a home for dying destitutes run by the Mother Teresa Foundation in Kolkata.
I was touched to the core by the selfless services rendered by the volunteers
to the terminally ill. I found that they bring people who are dying on the
roads of Kolkata and provide them refuge with love, care and affection. One of
the volunteers said, that “we are really doing no great thing but just are
serving the suffering humanity — a prayer, indeed. I saw ‘prayer in action’
for the first time. Prayer until then to me was reciting a few hymns — the
meaning of which I hardly ever knew. However, later I realised that prayer is
not merely reciting hymns or visiting temples but it (prayer) is a means
communicating with God. I also realised that one of the channels of
communication with GOD is service to the humanity — as it is said “Manav
Seva is Madhav Seva.” To quote Mother Teresa “the fruit of silence is
prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of
love is service and the fruit of service is peace.”
Prayer and Emotions
An emotion laden prayer is an invocation to His grace !
Questions often arise in our mind, as to how do we pray ?
And what will make God answer our prayer ? For prayer to be effective or
responsive, it is not important how long we pray, but how intensely we pray.
Intensity comes from heart overwhelmed by emotions. Prayer without emotions is
blabbery, whereas prayer packed with emotions does not need any verbalisation,
for He is omnipotent and omniscient who knows all we intend, think or speak.
A small boy in a Church was reciting alphabets — A, B, C,
D. The presiding priest offered to teach him how to pray but was stunned by
the answer given by the boy who said, “I know not complex hymns or words,
though I know that they all are composed of alphabets, and God being
omnipotent, can understand my alphabets hence He can compose a prayer from me
of His choice’. Needless to say that the prayer of the child was well
received, rather than that of the priest who prayed more from his mind
rather than from his heart. But then generating emotions in prayer
is easier said than done. How does one go about it ? Let me give you a simile.
We human beings have launched many communication satellites whose signals are
beamed across the globe. In order to receive these signals and strike a
communication link, we need to adjust the frequency and/or wavelength of our
handset (mobile). Some receive messages/images in colour, others in Black and
White. The quality of communication depends upon the quality of the handset,
that is, whether or not it is capable of receiving colour images, how it is
programmed and so on. If we switch off the handset, we cannot receive any
communication/message whatsoever, notwithstanding the fact that signals of the
message are there in the atmosphere. But, remember, there is no flaw in His
communication. We only need to fine-tune our receiving set to match His
wavelength and frequency in order to strike a link between HIM and us. This
can be done through love, faith and devotion, wherein faith and devotion make
for proper programming and love acts as a battery — battery that supplies
power, — power which keeps the receiving set tuned at all the times.
