Can we all pray together?

 

There was a time when I disliked prayers. I would observe people in temples whispering their prayers as they stood with folded hands and closed eyes before the deities.

I could sense they were routine prayers seeking the care and prosperity of their own and loved ones. As a child I did not have such worries. I was stoic in my approach to life and what I wished for before any deity was the welfare of the world. I found it impossible to pray for myself.

Life is not what it seems. Troubles became my life. Yet prayers did not appeal to me. Was it my ego? Was it my sense of independence? What was it? I do not know. My attitude was, why should I pray?

As I observed the world with my experience of suffering I felt the pain of others. My worries softened me and I understood why people prayed. But I still could not pray.

My campaign and study made me realize the nature of the world. As I grew I found a world very different from what I had seen in my childhood days. This is a dog eat dog world. Everybody is on his own. People absorbed in themselves simply look the other way. Many are in trouble themselves. What help can they offer to others?

I see people burdened with responsibilities. I see youth who have a blank expression on their faces. Those who turn to me for counseling have gone through horrid experiences. The overt bonhomie is a way to mask the pain within.

The Colony I live in had a laid back ambience, as it was on the border of the town. It is now experiencing the breaking down of families, quarrels, increased accidents, and a surfeit of deaths. People are still behaving as if things are normal. They are not.

All the genuine Saints have warned about these days. The difficulties will be insurmountable and test everyone they have warned. The magnitude of the problems would surpass all coping mechanisms.

All of them have similar solutions. Try to live a simple conscious life. Take the name of God. Chant your mantra all the time. Help those in need. Pray for the welfare of the world.

After all my reading I fully agree with what they say. If we can stay sane, let us stay sane. Let us collect our wits and pray. This world needs all the prayers we can drum up for it.

What is an effective prayer; one that emerges from our heart. Even a wish can be a prayer. If we can sit and imagine we are transmitting love and hope into this world, that too is a prayer.

If we want to pray for ourselves, the best prayer is "Oh God help me." There is no better prayer than this. The God principle knows us very intimately. The moment we ask it responds. It knows what is to be done.

Prayer humbles us and erases our ego. If you observe the entire catastrophe the world has faced so far you cannot but fail to notice that the human ego has been responsible. The wrong ego brings troubles in its wake. The coming times will be heavy on those who are riding their egos.

The other thing would be to check whether you are on the right path. If you are not this is the time to rectify yourself. Admit your mistakes and surrender.

It is not physical problems and death we should be afraid of. We should be wary of karma and the trajectory it will provide us. We have come to the edge because we have ignored all the natural laws. It is those laws that are eternal and important.

Withdraw from the world and regard yourself as the witness. Know that you are a character in a scripted play. Climb out of that character and connect with your real identity.

You are witnessing the world. The real you is witnessing you that is witnessing the world. You have to become aware of the awareness. The real you is aware that you are aware of the awareness.

What is is beyond everything. But it is you. You are that. You are never not that.

The path to salvation is to forget ourselves and embrace the world with our love and prayers.

It is time to pray.