Conscious Living (A Personal Philosophy of Life) - Prayer and Contemplation - Swami Rama

Part I

There are four approaches to attaining the purpose of life: The school of prayer, the school of contemplation, the school of meditation, and that of selfless action. I will systematically explain these schools so that you understand the differences between them and, according to your own choice and capacity, you can follow one of the schools and finally attain the goal of life. Let us first try to understand prayer and contemplation.

I’ve seen that prayer can solve that which cannot be solved in any other way. Prayer means closeness to the Almighty, to the absolute truth, to the source of energy, to the source of strength. When you pray whole-heartedly, your mind and heart run one-pointedly to the source. During that time you become an instrument of that power, you become a channel of that power. If your prayer is genuine, it helps. If your prayer is egocentric, it does not help. These are the two sides of prayer. If your prayer is genuine, if you are very selfless, anything that comes out of your mouth helps. If you are not genuine, if you are not selfless, your prayer, no matter how many times you bless others, is useless.

Prayer is always answered provided it is done correctly. There are two types of prayer, egocentric prayer and God-centered prayer. Egocentric prayer, is called sakama prarthana, sakama upasana, sakama bhakti, that is desire-filled prayer, desire-filled practices and desire-filled devotion. Egocentric prayer makes you very poor and petty and you cannot go beyond that. "O Lord! Give me this. O Lord! Give me that." All the time you are begging. It makes you a beggar, it never improves your life because you’re feeding your ego all the time. It is not considered to be a great prayer. Sometimes it is answered and sometimes it is not, because it is just to feed your ego. Otherwise all prayers are answered, answers which you do not receive from any other quarter, from anyone else, because life itself is a big question mark. No matter how much one explains, yet there is a question. Every individual has a question and that individual wants that question to be answered by someone higher, greater, one you call God. You pray to God, but that prayer should be God-centered prayer. Do not ask anything from God because God already knows your needs. There is difference between need, want, wish, and desire. Our days are laden with wants and nights with desires. Thus, we remain disturbed all the time and put the blame on God and say, "I suffer thus, because of the Lord. It’s He who makes me suffer."

(to be continued in November, 2006 issue)

© "HIHT News" (February 2006 issue to June 2006 issue), a Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust Publication, published by Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, Swami Ram Nagar, Doiwala Post, Dehradun District 248140, Uttaranchal. Website: www.hihtindia.org. Reprinted with permission.

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