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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Life of Prayer

Here's a summary of Chapter 11, Life of Prayer from the book of "We Must" presented as part of Chinmaya Mission Pune weekly group study class.



Transcript of the Video:-

Hari Om to Swami Jee and everyone present. My topic for today's discussion is "Life of Prayer". Like in each chapter of We Must, Gurudev has emphasized upon a particular aspect of life, in this he talk about Prayer.

My first questions is, why at all we need to Pray?

How I understand is, like the physical body, which get's cleaned every morning under shower and set out for a fulfilling day, mind does equal amount of work, if not more and hence there are times we might be physically active but mentally exhausted. To replenish mind for a fresh start, daily shower does not work out. As we still remember the pain of yesterday.

For mind to re-vitalize, it needs stimulation. For that, we need to study inspiring scriptures which have the potential to calm our mind and make out self emotionally strong. It is no magic. Many a times we feel relaxed by being all alone. Mental silence is what we gain with reading the scriptures.

The effect of this activity cannot be measured in scientific units. They are perceived. Prayers have the potential of transforming someone's behavior because it promotes contemplation and evaluation of self.

Talking about other necessity of why we should do prayers, Prayer help us control our desires. You may question why do we need to control them at all. Aren't they our natural behavior. The answer is, indeed they are but they are also the reason for pain. Fulfillment of one desire breeds a new one and the seeker is in  a never ending cycle of fulfillment of desires and one day he will be frustrated with himself.

Man is capable of higher achievements in life. He is capable of doing everything his/her mind could perceive. The only blocking stone on his/her is their self-doubt which is a product of mind.

Prayer, like I said is mental gym-ing. It helps us flex our mental muscle and prepare ourselves to for higher achievements in life. It cleans the mind of self-doubt, instill confidence and calmness.

Prayer help us connect to supreme self. We should embrace it with love and tune our mental self to his message through scriptures. There's only one output of this effort and it is reaching higher.

It will be strange to say but I will be honest. I do pray regularly but not sincerely. It is more of a mantra-jaap we hear in marriages. With this discussion I would like to convince myself and convince you that it is a worthwhile effort to be pursued with full faith onto him for reaching your best potential.

Thank you & Hari Om.





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