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What are the Different Aspects of Prayer?
We certainly have a right to ask for that which we need,
not which we want. You see, we have a right to the needs of existence.
The wants are created by us. And it was Babuji's very forthright, downright,
unambiguous, often repeated statement that we never pray for our needs,
we pray for our wants. And he said this is why it is called begging.
So, let us pray humbly, "Master, don't over burden me with your
blessings. I may not be able to bear it. Let me have it in small doses,
such as I can bear."
Master's blessings come in ways that we cannot see; in
quantities we can hardly see or perceive. But they are always
there. Otherwise we would not exist long enough to make
the next prayer for his blessings! So when we pray, let
us pray humbly for small mercies. "Master! You know
what I need, it is impertinent of me to try to remind you
of this. But you know, nevertheless a human being, my suffering
makes me refer the matter to you again and again. Forgive
me for doing it. I know you are doing what you have to do.
I am unable to perceive it . Please make me capable of perceiving
what you are doing for me." I think it is about the
best prayer that we can make.
So prayers, blessings are very potent things. And when
a man wants to pray for getting a ticket to go for Basant,
we are making the same mistake that Babuji said, when you
use a crane to pick up a needle. Prayer is supposed to
move mountains, not to buy railway tickets. "O,
Master, I want an autorickshaw. Kindly send me one. And
the miracle, you know", the abhyasi
says, "three autorickshaws came from three directions!"
Now we are making the Master a fool, you see. One was not
enough, He had to send us three! You know how stupidly we
handle prayer and blessings? So it is easy to become a saint,
but it is very difficult to become a sadhak (aspirant).
To be a proper sadhak is to realize our relationship
with the Master, to realize that it is always one of humility,
one of submissiveness, one of subordination. To realize
that even prayer must be done in such a subtle fashion
that you do not know you are praying - you are not conscious
of it. And that prayer must become something like the background
of your existence when every heart beat becomes, not a prayer,
but an utterance of your gratitude for the existence that
He has permitted you to lead. Then we are true sadhaks.
So, let us pray to the Master, "Please, make me first
of all, an abhyasi
in the true sense, in the true spirit of what that means
- one who lives by your principles; one who obeys your orders
and commandments; one who is following the practice as established,
sincerely, honestly, with dedication. Keep me aware of the
goal I have got to go to. Am I in this game for politics,
for money, for this, that and the other? No, I am here for
personal spiritual evolution. Please, divert not my mind
away from this goal. Please let me remember that I am doing
this for Myself. Let me not have flights of imagination,
flights of fantasy, that I am doing it for my mother's sake,
father's sake, society's sake, India's sake." That
will come later, God willing, if you are fit for it. So,
Master once told me the first law of spiritual life; "Love
yourself so much that you cannot destroy yourself, but have
to make yourself into that, which you love." Then we
will see the rest.
Don't limit your vision. Don't say, "Babuji was in
Shahjahanpur". Yes, it is like the centre of a circle.
Where is the centre of a circle? It depends on where the
circle is. All the circles in the universe can have one
common centre. Isn't it? He can be here and not be here
depending on me. How He is here and also in my house in
Madras, also in Shahjahanpur, how He is spread out through
the Universe, if my consciousness, the perception that He
gives us is sufficiently widened and expanded to feel His
presence everywhere. So for this, we have to pray, you see.
"Master! I have seen you as this. Please give me in
your benevolence, in your love, in your mercy, in your Divinity,
that which can alone make me see you as you really are."
Unless this is fulfilled, whatever region we may get - and
I pray that we should all get everything in that region
you see - it is still very much short of what we should
become in spirituality.
WHEN SHOULD WE PRAY? Really prayer should be done
only when something exceeds our capacity to do something.
If I have to take a chair and put it here, I cannot pray
to God! So, until human capacity is at its limit, prayer
has no meaning, it should not be used. Otherwise, it is
either a sign of laziness or of a lack of understanding
of God's place in this universe.
Babuji Maharaj, was always saying that He should be allowed the freedom
to do the work as He thought it fit, as He thought it in the best interest
of all of us. And everytime an abhyasi
came to Him with a petition or a request or prayer - even a prayer,
it was in some way a restriction imposed on His abilities to work for
us. He felt bound by what we asked for. He felt bound in two ways. One,
because of His total generosity and love for us, He felt compelled to
give us what we wanted, sometimes knowing that it was not good for us.
On the other hand He was bound because He could not do what He really
wanted to do for us. He has written about this in so many places, that
"if you leave me free to do my work as I think fit, you shall derive
immense benefit from it. But if you come with a list of things that
you need or you want, and impose those on me, then out of a feeling
of love for you, I may do it. That is my mistake also." He concedes,
you see, that it is a mistake. "But I feel compelled to do it because
you come to me for that." But then we are denied the higher benefit
that He could give us.
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