Prayer - Meaning and Practice

Wisdom Teachings
The Basics
Meditations and Prayers
Book: Prayers

From pure existence the universal consciousness emerges. It is the source from which we have emerged as a soul and then have taken to a personality. As a personality we usually live in our thoughts, feelings and sensations. While we are busy with the outer world, we forget ourselves.

Prayers help us to consciously connect with our source, our original identity. From the state of inner disorder we thus get back into balance and realign. Prayers are a means to purify the thought plane and to create a better atmosphere. With a pure mind and with right orientation the divine light can flow into us and lift us up as well as our environment.

Prayers and meditations complement and support each other. Worships and rituals are also a means to connect with the one consciousness. However, they are secondary and may be used according to the time and inclination. Most of our prayers are only concepts and mechanical routines. Thus, they do not achieve their purpose to link us to the God centre in us. Instead of making long, monotonous exercises, it is easier and more effective to connect with the heart and offer ourselves as a prayer. Offering oneself culminates in meditation because meditation is a happening and not a doing. It opens us up to the Divine to receive it into us.

Prayers are like a conversation with the Divine where we can converse with him inside. We should consciously speak the prayers and not remain vague; otherwise we will fall asleep or our mind wanders away. But if we keep on talking we do not hear what he wants to tell us. It is as if we talk with someone on the phone, speak continuously and then hang up without having listened the response. If we get stuck in the drill of our exercises, no encounter takes place. After some time, we should become quiet to receive the answer to our prayers.

In prayer we can turn to the Master in the heart, or to the Master of the universe. The moment we think of him he is there. We can tell him about our daily life and our problems. In this, we can also be humorous - he then will be more humorous. This way we create a cordial relationship with the Divine. The Divine can best reach us via a cordial link.

Prayers are essential on the path. They are good for beginners and aspirants, but also for adepts and Masters. They should be joyful, without self-pity or resentment. Prayers do not belong to the mind but to the heart. Prayers for the welfare of all, like the prayer “Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu” (May all beings on all planes be in peace and balance), are the best prayers. All prayers and invocations have to be brought and applied into daily life in some way; otherwise they do not really belong to us.

It facilitates the prayer if we have a prayer room. If we always sit at the same place for prayer, we build up a vibration and can align more easily. For alignment it is ideal to sit towards the east, north-east or north. Pleasant smells like incense or a well-decorated altar also help. But if these things are not available, they should not prevent us from praying.

Prayers help to awaken our will in order to do what we need to do. The prayers of those who have a deep desire to serve will be answered. It is a spiritual law that we receive help when we pray. No prayer goes unanswered; each call brings a response. But the answer may not come in the way we want it. What we believe to be a need is not always genuine or what we really need. We should leave it to God and not instruct him and demand something from him.

An apparent failure with praying may be caused by wrong motives, wrong use of things in the past or insufficient individual effort. What happens will ultimately be for our good. We will get the help that is good for us. It comes when we have done all we can do. It is of no use to pray for money when it is not used for the needs of the surroundings or to meet our own responsibilities.

If we ask for something, we should be clear about it and sincerely explain what we want and why. Prayers from the personality want to get something for the personality, but such prayers do not transform us. Prayers for alignment to the higher planes, for better self-control and patience, or for the welfare of all are higher prayers. The true prayer is to bring ourselves in accordance with His will. Therefore, we say: “May my thoughts, words and actions be in accordance with the Plan.”

In the yoga of Master CVV prayer is the central theme. This prayer is not meditation; it is the means by which the Master can enter into us. We invoke the sound CVV and then observe the magic that happens inside. He explains, “Don’t do anything; I will do it for you. I will fulfil you in this world and in the other world.” Prayer achieves everything. Things start to move from inside. The Energy visits us and then performs the necessary adjustments and rectifications. He says, “I will do the repair in your body. You just be a witness while I do the mechanical repair work. I will rectify and develop your system.” If we allow the Master to enter, he will do rectifications in us. For this purpose, there is a brief invocation: “Master, please rectify and develop our system”.

We should conduct the prayer at least twice a day, at an interval of twelve hours, so that the Master consciousness can realign us. The chosen times should not be changed for reasons of convenience. It is important not to leave out any of the prayers and they should not be done on the side.

In the prayer the Master gives the necessary impulses from the heart lotus to inspire us for self-development and self-transformation. He knows that our memory is short and that we forget very quickly. Since the instructions come from within, it is better to make note of them immediately after the prayer. If we follow the instructions and try to implement them, the Master will slowly start teaching from inside. Prayers also help transmitting Prana to strengthen the vital force and to uplift people from depression, worries and troubles.

If we correctly perform the prayer of Master CVV, we will feel the fire arising in the body. It is a comfortable warmth which transforms the matter and our mind. The hidden and active fires in us are stimulated and if they join forces, the Kundalini fire emerges. The heat allows the water of emotions to evaporate. Sometimes during prayer we need to breathe a lot. This is also an activity to transform the body into a body of light. When Master CVV did the prayers, great heat was created and he drank large quantities of buttermilk.

Sometimes we fall asleep during prayer or during class. The main reason is the presence of the energy with which we are not familiar. The energy of the Master causes certain chemical reactions in the mental system. With some people thoughts get overstimulated, with others thoughts get evaporated and cause a kind of smoke in the mind. Although we sometimes come out of a deep drowsiness during the prayer, we are not yet rid of it forever. The Master said, “During each deeper surgery you will go back to sleep”. Unless the inertia (Tamas) is removed from our body cells and the rectification is completed, we will continue to be sleepy from time to time.

If we go to sleep late in the evening, our prayer next morning will be rather casual or we may even miss it. When it comes to prayer, meditation, spiritual study or service, we usually are quite flexible but when it comes to breakfast, there is no such flexibility.

If we are in constant alignment with God, no prayers are needed and we are fulfilled, just like we do not think of food when we are not hungry. Some, however, who are already on the path since a long time, get into other priorities and think that they are still connected but they no longer are. Without prayers one’s focus, work and vision will slowly weaken.

Group prayers are more effective because the Aquarian energy works better through groups. If we are alone, we can consciously connect with the group and visualize that we do the prayer together with a large group; this has a great power. If we do not maintain the connection, we fall into the influence of the surroundings in which we live.

The group prayers also have a positive effect on the world and help in dissolving crises on the planet. When we gather as a group and utter OM seven times, it goes high in the sky and spreads everywhere to bring the needed harmony and prevent crises which would otherwise have manifested. Therefore, group prayers are more appreciated by the Masters of Wisdom than the prayers of an individual, because the impact is much more.

K.P. Kumar: Saraswathi – The Word / Prayers / Notes from seminars. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India