Prayer is central to our spiritual tradition. Prayer sustains the connection between the individual and the supreme reality. There are as many ways of prayer as there are individuals in this world. As children prayer meant, going to a puja room, lighting a lamp and singing/chanting the praises of bhagavan. As we grow up it can transform into elaborate rituals and longer hymns. For some, it loses its meaning and they drift away from their childhood practices. For many, prayer becomes a confusing act. Who are we praying to? Why should we pray? And the most important question of all, What is the right way to pray?.
It would all be very easy, if there was a simple manual that told us how to pray. Alas, no such manual exists, or depending on your view, there are too many. One form of advice asks us to sit in front of an Idol and concentrate/focus and chant hymns we don’t understand. Yet, another form says, join bhajan groups and sing. So how do we understand this all and bring this into our life?
To untangle this we need to step back and understand Love. Think of how we behave when we know we are loved. As an imaginary experiment, think of being with your grandmother or grandfather. In their presence, you feel happy, loved, safe and most importantly, you are comfortable being yourselves. You just go about being yourselves and constantly aware of their presence and love. You don’t follow a specific sequence of steps in their presence. You don’t try hard to focus. You might break out into song and dance from your favorites list. The only thing you need to do is show up and be in their presence. The rest happens naturally. This simple insight is all we need to understand how to pray.
Bhagavan is omnipresent love. It’s just love and there is no expectation. To visit bhagavan, you don’t need to physically travel anywhere. Just bring Bhagavan into your mind and feel his presence. The next step, that we call prayer, is just being yourself in the presence of love. You can do this anywhere, anytime and in any state. The only requirement is to be awake!. Rituals and established processes have the risk of turning into mechanical and mindless sequences. This happens because we often miss the critical ingredient, the feeling of being loved by the infinite.
Let us summarize the answers to the three questions,
Who are we praying to? We are praying to Love. To identify bhagavan, remember being loved. That source of love and love itself is Bhagavan. It can come from a friend, parent, teacher or a stranger. But remember it is Bhagavan himself.
Why should I pray? To remember how it feels to be Loved. In the great dance of five elements, we often forget how it feels to Loved. A regular reminder of this feeling necessary to be happy.
How should you pray? Be yourself in the presence of love. Cook, drive, sing, dance, hike, be with your spouse or kids knowing that you are in the presence of love.
This is the essence of prayer and bhakti. It is very simple, just as Bhagavan is. Ever available to us at all times.