Prayer

How should we approach prayer?

Scriptures recommend prayer as a way to commune with God, or the opening of the soul to God.

What motivates most people to pray?

A hope of communion or the experience of union with God

A believe or feeling that God should be acknowledged

A desire for personal or material benefits

Experience suggests that most people are more concerned about their immediate physical, psychological and material well being. They pray that their desires are fulfilled and their needs met, rather than being in communion with God.

To what form do people generally pray?

A caring superior being

A loving father or mother

A specific figure like Jesus

Is God confined to time or location in space?

God’s presence is all-pervading and everywhere present. Where we are, God is. The Absolute Existence-Being of God is not confined by time or space.

God response to prayer is determined by our attunement and receptivity.

We are never separate from God

Yoga teaches that God alone exists and souls are individualized units of God. The God imminent is our own consciousness.

Dualists see God separate from them and therefore pray to God as a separate Being. The resulting effect is that it produces results in accordance with once personal belief and expectation.

Prayers are most effective when our individualized soul awareness freely interacts with God’s omnipresent consciousness. When praying from this level of awareness we pray to an aspect of the same consciousness, we pray in God rather to an aspect of God that we perceive as being separate from us. This is a higher level of prayer which allows consciousness to express in accordance with our higher good and for the highest good for those for whom we pray. This level of prayer, in its purest form, is the one consciousness referring to itself.

Some prayer styles

They are vocal, mental, devotional, or contemplative where one contemplates the presence of God without words, mental concepts or willful intention.

Forms of prayer

Some are: prayer of adoration, devotion, thanks giving, confession, petitioning, healing, spiritual growth and more.

Do prayers work?

Claims are made that Individuals who know that they are being prayed for and who believe in prayer often experience more improvement than those who are unaware of prayers on their behalf.

Individuals, who are unaware of being prayed for, experience improvement in accordance with their sub-conscious and super-conscious receptivity.

Individuals who are being prayed for, but who doubt the usefulness of prayer, or people who are attached to their problems and limitations, experience little improvement.

All who request prayer support should be informed of their true nature, their relationship with God, the importance of being self-reliant, the need to awaken their higher potential. These suggestions will help them to get people away from a sense of dependency and helplessness.

Paramahansa Yogananda - About Prayer

“Blessed are those who pray for others, for in so doing, they become aware of the unity of all life. We are not isolated beings, struggling alone against the forces of adversity. Our happiness is linked with the happiness of all; our highest fulfillment lies in the welfare of all. May you ever be aware of the constant protection and all satisfying love of God”. 

“When you pray to God, do it from the bottom of your soul. Tell what you truly feel and not what you think He would like you to feel. Be completely sincere towards Him, because there is no way you can hide your inner feelings from Him. An intense prayer gives you a very strong mental force. Your thoughts will then be focused and centred upon Him. Without honesty, this won’t happen. If you don’t feel any state of devotion, pray to Him like this: “God, help me love You.”

He is for you exactly what you really need and He will do for you much more than you can ever imagine.

More than anything search Him for Himself, for His love. Ask Him:

“Reveal Yourself to me!” If you ask Him to come to you in such a sincere way, He will certainly be always there for you.

Don’t ever pray with a beggar’s attitude. Never forget that you are a child of God. So, as such, you have a right to His treasures. Pray to Him and at the same time be sure that He is listening to you, because He will certainly fulfill all your prayers if you pray with love.

A firm faith and love are the most important elements in prayer.

How should you love God? Love Him as a poor man loves money, as a drowned man longs for a breath of air, as a man lost in the desert longs for a glass of water. Love Him with the enthusiasm of all lovers during their first love.

When you learn how to love Him from all your heart, then you will find Him. It is only then that you will be a true yogi, a human being who has reached the union with God.”

Helpful hints and suggestions for those on the path

Pray for the highest good of everyone

Engage in spiritual studies and practices

Nurture consciousness of the presence of God

Do the best you can do for yourself, yet be receptive and responsive to grace (unplanned good).

Be realistic, using knowledge, skills and abilities to provide for your total well-being. Achieve worthwhile goals and accomplish meaningful purposes.

Maintain your faith in one power that pervades the universe and resides in you.

Share your realization of the oneness of God and the supportive actions of God’s grace with others who are interested.

Meditate until all thoughts and feelings of being separate from God are dissolved and you are aware of your oneness with God.

Acknowledge all souls as perfect expressions of God without trying to change anyone of their circumstances.

Sustain your acknowledgement of wholeness and right action until your realization is complete; until opposing thoughts and feelings are absent and you are established in soul peace.