Prayer

Well many would have heard about the story of a little girl who believed in God. A whole village was starving because there was no rain in the village for a year. The whole village decided to pray to God and assembled at a particular place. As the people of the village were moving to the prayer spot they found a small girl with umbrella. The village head asked the little girl, why are you carrying your umbrella with you. The girl replied ‘we are praying to God to give rain and he will surely answer our prayers, and give rain. So when I return from prayer I should not get drenched in rain and so I took umbrella with me’.

Now do you think it is prayer? Though the motive of the prayer may be not acceptable, but of all the villagers this girl had belief and trust, which is part of a prayer. Prayer cannot bloom out of any reasons. It is our state of being.

But our prayers are just desires. We put desires before God? Our prayers are just demands and desires and nothing more. We pray morning and evening hoping that God will hear our prayers. But you know what, there is no God. There is no one to hear our prayers. If we really know what prayer is, it will become a celebration.

But the irony here is even when we dance we dance to impress others. We sing so that others hear. We never sing or dance because we like to. We sing and dance to show our presence to others and to boost our ego. Similarly we pray to God, to show that we exist and he has to look to us because he created us. But this is not prayer. God is just a device. He was invented by man, as device so that man can pray. Man is always motivated by words and sounds rather than silence. He cannot pray in an empty space. He needs an assurance that someone is hearing his prayers. But he is totally wrong. No one is hearing our prayers, and the content of our prayer is so bizarre.

Our concept of God is not true. It is manmade. Our God is our imagination. We have created Hindu God, Christian God and Muslim God, but how God be defined by religions. God is much beyond that. We think we are in prayer when we go to temple and churches. We are simply showing our utter ignorance.  Our prayer has become a routine. We have been taught from our childhood to pray in certain way in certain time and we follow it monotonously even without knowing the meaning of the words we utter and there is no life in our prayers.

If prayer is not desire, if prayer is not demand, if prayer is not starving then what is prayer? It is nothing but being thankful and an expression of gratitude. It is not communicating our desire to God but being Godly. It is not just expressing our love to God but being love. It’s being love with everyone and everything, be it human beings or plants or chairs. It is just being grateful towards everything and everyone. Whether is God or not, whether you belong to a particular to religion or other religion, prayer has nothing to do with your God. It is a feeling of immense gratitude and thankfulness not only towards the creator but towards everything.  We often say let me find God first and then I will thank him. But it is not so. Once we are thankful we will find God. Every day morning we are alive, we are hearing to the birds chirping, we are moved by the beauty of the nature around us and yet we feel that God has not answered our prayers. We are alive, we are existing and be grateful for that. 

So the first thing is prayer is gratitude and the second thing about prayer is it is way of living. A man of prayer remains in gratitude twenty four hours a day. He will be loving towards everything twenty four hours a day. When he sleeps he sleeps in gratitude for the pillows and the bed sheets. When he gets up he wakes in gratitude towards the beauty of the nature around him. When he eats he eats in gratitude and in love. We always believe that we can pray only in temples and mosques. But it is not so. When are filled with gratitude and prayer we can prayer even in the market place. In ancient time, temple and churches were built, so that people get positive vibrations but as days went we started believing that we can find God only in temples. But God can be found in everything and everyplace.

Nature knows us better than us. We ask because we feel that we need it. But nature knows what we need. So even if the nature fulfills all our wishes be thankful and if does not fulfill all our wishes, even be more thankful for it knows what is best for us. The nature has given us free will. It has given us the freedom to choose but not the freedom to escape from the consequences of our choice. So be thankful for the experience. All situations and people we meet are not just coincidence they are planned by our nature for us to grow. So be thankful and be with gratitude. This is our prayer.

It is very easy to say but how to follow. As I said be thankful with everything around you. When you sit on a chair, sit with thankfulness and gratitude. Feel the chair and the help it does to you. Talk with the chair. Express your gratefulness. Talk with the trees. They are the best form of prayer. Hug a tree with gratefulness. When you walk, walk with gratefulness and kindness.

This nature is our God. It has created so many things. Trees are our God. You cannot divide nature into Hindu or Christianity. There was less mental illness in the past because people had the ability to connect with the nature. But now we lost connection with the nature and so we are tensed and stressed in all aspects of life. So first start talking with a tree. A subtle dialogue between you and the tree and once you are able to feel the tree and the gratitude towards it slowly drop the words and observe the tree in silence and gratitude. Prayer is born out of experience of love.

Let’s be filled with gratitude and thankfulness.