Prayer is a divine and sacred medium through which our soul connects with God - our Creator, our Eternal Father. It is the most potent embodiment of our bond, our association, our connection, our expression, our dialogue, our relationship with God.
People often ask why should we pray if God already knows everything. He already knows our feelings, our desires, then why should we say anything? Why should we do anything or worship Him? The answer to this is because the key to life is all about reciprocation. Love or rather divine love is about reciprocation. Yes the Lord knows what is in our heart and the Lord knows what is in our mind but it pleases the Lord when, by our free will we express ourselves. With the proper intention, proper honesty and integrity. And the Lord reciprocates. In personal prayer, whether we are repeating the words of the Vedic scriptures or whether we take the spirit of the shashtric prayers and put it on our own words, the Lord reciprocates.
In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, we must sincerely pray to him by saying, "Help me give up this envy, help me get rid of this lust, help me to give up this greed, help me overcome this anger, help me to serve you, to please you, to be an instrument of your compassion". When we offer these prayers with sincerity, we become eligible to receive the merciful glance of the Lordships. This is because the Supreme Lord is assured that we, His parts and parcels too have developed the deep desire to come closer to Him, to re-establish our forgotten, lost relationship with Him. When He sees that we are completely dependent on Him, have surrendered to His will, which is always in our best interest - that is when, the power of our prayers is manifested and acknowledged by God. And our lives are transformed. God reciprocates our love by making perfect arrangements which is beyond our comprehension and leaves us spellbound, in awe and reverence.
The greatest of all prayers is: "O Lord! How may I serve you? How may I love you?" The Hare Krishna mahamantra, prescribed by the Supreme Lord Himself, has been explained by the acharyas in the spirit of prayer. Brhad Naradiya Purana - the timeless Vedic Text declares, in this age of Kali, the most powerful of all ways of purifying the heart and awakening our original spiritual consciousness is the chanting of Lords name. When we chant Gods name attentively, with sincerity, without offences, the name of God awakens our original spiritual essence - 'Prema Bhakti' i.e. unadulterated love for God.
Therefore, prayer is an unfolding process of heightened spiritual consciousness discovered through joy and transcendental bliss by chanting His holy name, glorifying Him, engaging our senses for His pleasure, expressing our gratitude, strengthening our faith on His grace on conditioned souls like us. Even though we are not qualified to receive His causeless mercy due to our countless sinful acts not just in this lifetime but over millions of lives that we have taken on this material plane. However, inspite of this, the Lord, due to His all compassionate nature has given us this infinite medium, the power of prayer to reach out to Him, to call out to Him, to cry out to Him to deliver us and liberate us from this material existence to His all blissful touchstone Spiritual Abode. Let us not waste this precious human birth in seeking temporary sense pleasures, rather we must utilize our time fruitfully and leverage this dynamic instrument of God - the Power of Prayer, from the core of our hearts, pleading the Lord to take us back home to where we belong - the spiritual world.
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