By: M.R.Lalu
Does prayer work as a weapon? Being a different perspective on prayer, this question has many queer elements to it. With millions of people across the globe resorting to pray in different ways and fashions, prayer has become an indivisible part of human existence. There are many people who don’t believe in prayer, for them praying is detrimental. But to see prayer as a weapon that fights all the odds and adversities of life should be an intrinsic approach. Enmeshed in life’s complexities and perplexities and chaos, prayer brings little solace to the soul and a compassionate approach with a prayerful vocabulary in vitriolic circumstances gives us inner peace. I personally believe that prayer should not be seen as a religious affair. Every religion does have a systematised manner in which it initiates prayer. But to me prayer is a relentless surrender to an entity that holds control over everything, which you may call almighty. Starting from the Vedic period of Yajnas to the inner spiritual splendour of the yogis, prayer and its outcomes existed in various forms.
Does prayer come from a disillusioned and insecure mind or does it always come from the boundlessness of the inner realms of happiness? Mostly, before the advent of organised religions, prayer was an act, a personal business in which a person delved into the possibilities of establishing a connection with the omnipotent and omnipresent which he thought would drive his passions into its total expression. When we try to passionately pursue the truth in its all potential forms while understanding the essential base as one, prayer takes us for a silent pursuit and helps us live in tandem with the ultimate reality with its flourishingly expressive variety. Prayer is an inner journey, the journey that helps the traveller to go through the wonderful realms of a spiritual thirst and an outcome slowly but gradually solidifying in the horizon of our inner consciousness as an incandescence or an unadulterated joy in abundance.
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A prayerful mind makes a positive churn in itself and around. It disseminates abundant positivity and makes tranquillity a habit. Religions have often invented various ways to pray as part of their survival. Imagine if religions failed to evolve prayer practices. They would indeed cease to exist gradually with no powerful way to console, cajole and bring about solace to the seekers who have taken spiritual asylum under the broadened shadow of its philosophy. Prayer at a personal level fulfils the spiritual demands of a person but at a community level under the garb of religious sophistication it takes the role of a catalyst that keeps the larger audience of the religious establishment connected. There, it remains a fabricated and intentional occupation that does not bless the person with an intuitive nudge that it is actually capable of. Of course a community prayer system does bring about spiritual renaissance in a person but the depth of accuracy with which a silent meditative mind can capture the real essence of divinity does not come through this practice.
Prayer systems existing in different religions are effervescent about their ultimate goal. But prayer as such is a roadmap for the prayerful mind which follows a religious tradition because the roadmap shows the highway to the goal. Sri Ramakrishna the teacher of Swami Vivekananda had a strange way of saying his prayer. The idol of the Goddess he used to consecrate on a daily basis had taken him to the magical realms of spiritual reality that many people in his times found to be unrealistic and mysterious. But the wisdom he had gained through the temple ceremonies and prayer seemed to have had the power to transform the ordinary man in him to an extraordinary being, which science with its logic and inventions failed to define. So prayer is not a mere vocal exercise by someone in a well structured manner. When a person goes beyond the chanting regime of his prayer, he is not only crossing the boundaries of materialistic inclinations but the sphere of spiritual discovery that he naturally enters in, would transform him into an effulgent personality radiating spiritual purity.
For Mahatma Gandhi, prayer was a weapon that he frequently used to ward off anomalies. And the power he galvanised by being prayerful had been so persuasive that the person who came into the influential radiance of his persona got metamorphosed and became purely cognizant of the reality of the cosmic order. The Bhakti movement throughout Indian history reveals the power of prayer and its various methods. A personal transformation through prayer by spiritual luminaries exemplifies the immensity of the spiritual splendour that different ways of praying could catapult. From Adi Shankara to the Sankardev of Assam to the Nayanars of the Southern part of India to the Eknath of Maharashtra every spiritual personality had gone through this prayerful life that in a later period did transform them to the context for which we remember them today. To quote from the epic, the Ramayana gives a well-qualified narration on the transformation of Ratnakara into a renowned poet Valmiki. From a cruel forest dweller, who made his living by preying upon others to that of a great poet Valmiki his transformation is known to have happened through the way he executed his spiritual practice, the prayer.
The mental faculty of being in communion with the supreme power is the religious intent of prayer. But at a personal level prayer is silence at its glorious form manifesting in its purest realm. So to remain prayerful can be a method to unleash our hidden power to dispel stress in every given moment and it needs deliberate practice. An attentive mind that delves into the possibilities of prayer excavates diamonds of satisfaction which indeed brings solace to not only the practitioner but also the people who come under this surveillance of stress. Being stressful cannot be a choice, but to remain prayerful with complete attention passed on to the emotions that drag our life to severe stress can be a choice. Silence can be a track on which the flights of prayer can take off to further heights. And it is obvious that prayer with deep attention can illuminate the chasm that the stress of our daily life throws us in. Prayer cannot be conflicting and disagreeable, for it is your business to conduct; an exercise to discover the soothing power in you, where neither internal nor external conflicts pull your nerves anymore because prayer is perfectly an inner discovery of the purest. (The author is a freelance journalist & has penned down the book “India @ 75- A Contemporary Approach”. He can be reached at mrlalu30@gmail.com)
