The Meaning of Prayer

The Meaning of Prayer

                 The entire process of the spiritual ascent is from start to finish one of earnest practice. There is no other road except Abhyasa. One may have the best feeling, the best heart, the most sublime Bhava, but unless and until every part of this is put into actual practice, there is no hope. Abhyasa is the keynote of the life of Sadhana.
                          Without it, Sadhana will not go towards its fruition of Anubhuti or experience. Thus we have the celestials standing at the door of Mahadeva. They hymn Him, glorify Him and pray unto Him; and this is our next cue. It is the law of prayer that is now given to us as our sole guide upon the path.
                     Prayer means, first and foremost, a perfect belief in a higher power. It means the desire and willingness to submit our Abhimana or ego at the feet of a higher power. Thus, the acquisition of Shraddha (interest) is now pointed out to us. The submission of our personal ego or Abhimana is next pointed out to us. Herein its natural corollary, the cultivation of the supreme virtue of absolute humility, also is indicated. The fourth thing that prayer implies, as it has been given to us specifically in the unfoldment of the Skanda Lila, is that the ultimate purpose of this prayer was to be given a leader, whom the Devas were to follow.
                          The seeker has to mark this. The prayer was not for power or ability to oneself. If we carefully reflect over this, we will find how this beautifully brings forth the underlying law of spiritual unfoldment with its ultimate connotation of the total eradication of the ego. The entire anatomy of the spiritual life can be summed up in this one phrase: the annihilation of the individual ego so that the universal ego-consciousness may be experienced.
                                The Devas prayed not that they may get power to win the Asuras. There is the attitude of willing self-effacement, self-abnegation, a standing aside so that the fullest manifestation of the divine power may stand in front and take over the stand from them. They said: “We are nothing, give us a leader whom we shall willingly follow and obey and under whose lead this victory may be brought about.” This indicates the recognition of the non-doership of the individual self and the Supreme doership the one doer, the Supreme God. It indicates that the Sadhaka or the seeker is but a mere instrument; and it is the Lord Himself, the indweller in the individual, who takes over the Sadhana and actually does it. When the seeker begins to feel that even this  Sadhana is not done by him, but is the Divine Sakti that works within him and enables the Sadhana to be worked out and which achieves the ultimate fulfilment of the Divine Will, then he starts on the real upward march and rapid ascent towards triumphant divinity.

               Thus the second aspect of prayer unfolds itself before us. We completely allow the Divine to take charge of our personality. The seeker recedes into the background and there is a total resignation to the will of the Divine. “I am nothing; Thy will be done.” This is the formula that keeps tune to every beat of his heart, every pulsation in his body. The seeker becomes a transformed being.