What Does Prayer Mean - to Me & to My Wife?
When I tell my friends that I don't go to temples to pray, some of them are shocked and ask me: "Gopi, you mean you don't pray at all?"
My reply is this: "I do pray, but not in the way my wife prays. Prayer means different things to my wife and to me!"
For my wife it means going to a temple or to the home altar and recite ritual prayers or hymns in her mother tongue Malayalam or in Tamil or even in Sanskrit - which she does not understand.
She says she gets peace of mind by reciting the hymns while doing the rituals of burning incense, ringing a bell and lighting a lamp. I have no problem with that - in fact, I even take her to temples to pray while I wait in the car for her to finish. We have been married for 46 years, and accept each others beliefs, but I sometimes do tease her about visiting so many gods.
As for me, a prayer must arouse my feelings, must inspire and motivate me before I find it satisfying. So,
I don't recite hymns or prayers in a language I don't understand, just assuming that because the words are 'sacred' they will help me!
If I don't understand the words, it has no impact on me or my feelings. If it cannot impact my feelings and hence raise my vibrations, then I feel it is of no use! Let me give you an example:
If I were to say: "Ulimwengu huu ni baraka, sio laana" OR "Asante mungu kwa kila kitu", does it convey anything to you? Do you feel anything? Unless you know Swahili, it would mean nothing to you or to me!
NOTE: According to Google, these phrases translate to "This world is a blessing, not a curse" and "Thank you God for everything".
The point I am making is that when I pray, I want to know exactly what I am saying, and I must feel joyful and confident that what I am praying for will come about. Thus it may even be preferable to write your prayers in your own words, if at all possible.
By the way, nowadays my prayers are the type called 'manifesting prayer', which I will discuss later. However, before I get to that, I always like to begin with a gratitude prayer as shown below:
My Gratitude Prayer
O Source - GOD, whose Power and Energy permeates Everything, is Everywhere, and within Me, I thank YOU for this Gift of Life.
I thank YOU for this wonderful World that YOU have created for me to live on.
I am grateful for my loving Family and my dear Friends, who bring me joy. I thank you for all that I have Now and for all that is coming.
I am grateful that I am able to make the Proper Plans and carry out the Right Actions to achieve my Goals for a truly fulfilling life – this being my gift to YOU for giving me this gift of life.
I realize that it is my belief that creates my reality. Hence, I look forward to Co-Creating a wonderful day Today and Every Day to come. I know I don't need to ask for daily bread or struggle for survival because abundance is my birthright.
Thank you for gifting me with the ability to Accept Myself (warts and all) as I am and thus Accept Others as they are – thereby being able to Forgive others easily.
I trust and know that I have been given the power to Choose my Thoughts, my Words and my Deeds. I also know and trust that YOU and the Universe are never against me, and YOU need no worship or appeasement from me.
So long as I move in the direction of my Passion and my Inspiration, I shall be able to Overcome all Challenges easily, and I shall always be Joyful and Fulfilled in this World.
I know that in due time I will be promoted to the Next World or Dimension to continue the Evolution of my Soul, and that world too will be as great a blessing as this earth has been. Thus I have no fear of the after-life.
And So It Is!
- - Gopi Menon
Now you the reader, may be tempted to ask me: "Why do you even bother with the Gratitude Prayer if you believe that GOD does not need your prayer?"
A very valid question indeed and my answer is this:
It is true that GOD does not need our worship or prayers. Why would an infinitely powerful, supremely benevolent Being need the prayers of us puny humans?
The gratitude prayer is for us, not for GOD! With infinite wisdom, GOD is not going to be miserable or unhappy if we don't thank him/her! But it makes a great difference to us. Just think about how you feel when you are grateful? You feel good. You feel happier.
Now contrast that with how you feel when you are complaining, when you feel you don't have enough? It feels down and depressing, doesn't it?
So I start with a gratitude prayer to put myself (not GOD) in a good, happy mood! When I start reading the first lines, I feel upbeat because I feel that Life and this World is a Gift.
When I come to the part about my loving family and friends and really think about the persons involved, again I feel loving and kind.
When I read the next parts about making plans, and about Co-Creating a wonderful day, again I feel confident and motivated.
When I read about accepting myself unconditionally with all my faults and foibles, I feel at peace and am able to accept others with their faults and weaknesses too. And so on and so forth.
When I come to the last part of being promoted to the next world in due time, I am at peace with myself knowing that I need never fear the next world - since that too is one created by GOD and hence I expect it would be just as blessed as this earth!
Thus, the reason for my Gratitude Prayer is that it makes me happier, more confident and more motivated to make Happy Living a reality. My Gratitude Prayer is not for GOD, but for me!
In my next post I will talk about "manifesting prayer" or how to pray so as to achieve more of your goals in life - material as well as spiritual.
Well written.
Thanks, Madhan.