Man is in essence a spark of
the divine power. But he manifests himself in lower worlds. His physical body
is like an animal. His mind makes him human and his spirit which is the spark
of God makes him divine. The Summum Bonum of human existence is to seek the
kingdom of Heaven within. Man is essentially a spiritual being, his self being
an emanation from the Universal Self, God. He can sink in consciousness into
the depths of his own being beyond the body, the passions the emotions, the
mind, the reasons; these are all his but they are not He, who can pass beyond
them all and realise himself as separate from them, the pure I. Then the recognition
dawns that the universal spirit into which the self opens, transcends all the
beings in which it is manifested and is alike in all.
The paths leading to
this self realization are many. One of the paths is through prayer. It is of
three fold forms-physical, verbal and mental. The first consists of rituals and
ceremonials. In modern life due to stress of activity, lack of leisure and
other inconveniences, this form of prayer has almost fallen out of use in the
life of the individual. In view of this tendency of the age, great emphasis was
laid on verbal and mental prayer which is meditation; and meditation is
sequential thinking directed towards and inspiring interesting object - an
Istha Devatha, no matter what the deity is.
In all our puranas, great
emphasis is laid on verbal prayer because it is easier to practice than the
other two. "This seeker after truth" says Manu, "reaches the
highest goal by Japa only" And Japa, declares the Mahabharatha, is said to
be the best of all spiritual practices in the modern age. The Vishnu Purana
supports this view wholeheartedly when it observes, "That which one
obtains through meditation in the Satya Yuga (the Golden age), through
sacrifice in theTreta yuga (Silver age) and through worship in the DwaparaYuga
(Bronze age) may be achieved in the Kali Yuga (Iron age) by reciting names of
the Lord."
In the modern age the physical
body and the mind of man are highly developed. The divinity in man is dormant.
The gulf between the human mind and the divinity within him has not been
spanned. The mind is estranged from the divinity latent in man. How to link the
mind of man with his divinity? Prayer is the bridge that connects the human
with the divine. This prayer has to be practiced daily, hourly and in fact
every moment of our waking consciousness in order to strengthen it, so that the
divinity in man may be awakened.
A suffering world is
calling to us. Within us is the power to heal, waiting to be discovered and
released through prayer. Shall we then not find time to pray and to turn
inwards and seek the God within, that we may reveal Him to others and that the
spiritual life may become a living reality to us and to them? The quality of
love, kindness and mercy are the attributes of God. If we imbibe and manifest
these qualities in our daily life we could say that we have truly, offered
prayer to God. Prayer leads to the Kingdom of Heaven within us and let us begin
it now.
Om Shanti! Shanti II Shanti!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment