primelements: Prayer : Ask and Receive

PRAYER: Ask and Receive

Saints, learned men and God-realised persons advise that it is best not to pray for worldly things ‘loaves and fishes.’ Devotion to God should be without desire, nishkam Devotion [निष्काम भक्ति] [meaning doing everything for the pleasure of God, asking for nothing in return. The best examples of devotion are Gopis of Braj [यथा ब्रज गोपी नाम] declares sage Narad in his Bhakti Sutra [भक्ति सूत्र]. No synonym for Nishkam prem or Bhakti in English; in Greek ‘agape’ signifying non-reciprocal love comes closest. However there come times in our lives when we are faced with “mountains” which by our greatest efforts we cannot scale. We cry out, “My Lord, my God, Help!” forgetting the principle that whatever good or bad comes to an individual is because of his deeds or karma [कर्म], God’s will, destiny or Al-Qadr as the Muslims say.

When we cry out to Him for help He comes to our rescue, this is proved by scriptures of all religions. He helped Uttara[उत्तरा] and brought her foetus[गर्भ], killed by Ashvatthama [अश्वत्थामा], back to life… Mahabharata chapter 69 vs. 18 to 24 [महाभारत अध्याय 69 श्लोक 24]; for Daniel God shut the mouths of lions --Daniel, Chapter 6 verse 22; parted the sea for Moses…. Exodus, chapter 14 verse 21; gave back life to Lazarus --John, Chapter 11 vs. 43 and 44. Lord Krishna [भगवान श्री कृष्ण] calls all his devotees noble, whether they call him in times of their need or love him for the sake of love only --Geeta chapter 7 vs. 16 to 18.

Now the question is should we pray? Yes! What is prayer? Prayer is a humble communication to God or an object of worship. It can be supplication, praise or thanksgiving. When you desire anything, be sure that God wants you to have it or you cannot even think of it. Some wise person has said “The object of your desire is coming to you and the vibrations of this coming makes you desire it.” God wants you to have all good things of life̶ prosperity, health, strength, beauty, energy and all positive virtues.

If it is alright to pray, how to do it? The disciples asked Jesus the very same question to which he answered, “Go to your inner room and when you shut your room [from outside thoughts and disturbances] pray to your father who is in the secret place [of the most high]... and your father will reward you openly" --Matthew Chapter 6 vs. 6 and 7. Then Jesus gave them the Lord's prayer --Matthew Chapter 6 vs.9 to13. To receive an answer to our prayers we have to access this secret place. It is not a geographical location. “It is a place in your consciousness where you and your indwelling Lord meet. No outside person can either take you there or enter there himself for you.” Dr Cady inform us in her book “Lessons in Truth”. We have to reach the secret place ourselves. We have to earn it by our own efforts. To accomplish this we have to sit in silence and communicate with the Creator. It is called waiting upon the Lord. You should abide in it, invites psalm, 91 vs.1. Cady advises what thought to meditate upon, “Thou art the answer to all that I desire; thou doth radiate thy self from the centre of my being to the circumference and out into the visible world as the fulfilment of my desire.” When we pray in this manner our desire will be manifested if we expect it to. Always keep your mind centred on the truth that the giver of the gifts and the gift are one and the same. God becomes manifest as the gift; secondly, your expectations should be from God only --Psalm 6 verse 25. Not only the Bible but Geeta [गीता] also teaches the same truth --leaning on God only-- “Fix your mind on me, worship me, make obeisance to me ,thus linking yourself with me and depending entirely on me you will come to me.” Gita chapter 9 verse 34. Once you are made the union you will become “Mighty with his mightiness made visible” --again from Dr. Cady from her book Lessons in Truth. Now you will do the works that Jesus did and even greater works --John chapter 14 verse 12. More about this union from Dr Cady. In her above-mentioned book she writes about an uneducated woman who hardly knew anything of religious science. Her face, however, was radiant with the light of Christ manifested through her. When in prayer the following words flashed into her mind, “If, therefore, thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light…. no man can serve two masters. She understood that having a single eye meant ‘seeing but one power in our life’ while she saw two powers [God and devil, good and evil]. She was serving two masters.” Explains author Dr cady, “She was taught in a single day by the Infinite Spirit the whole secret of how to banish evil and have only good in our lives.”

For getting your prayers answered, pray in the name of the Almighty. Once when Gopis [गोपियाँ] on behest of Krishna [कृष्ण] asked river Yamuna [यमुना] to give them way in the name of Krishna, the river did so. This incident is in Gopal Uttartapnee Upanishad [गोपाल--उत्तरतापिनी उपनिषद] vs.3 of chapter 1. Jesus admonished His disciples to pray in His name. Muslims also pray in the name of the Almighty, for such a prayer is charged with His power and brings the desired fruit.

It is faith that brings into manifestation the desired object person or situation- faith materializes our desire. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” --Hebrews Chapter 11. Jesus could not perform many miracles in his home village for the simple reason that the people lacked faith --Mark Chapter 6 vs 4 to 6. How to get this faith? After getting this faith how to increase it? When asked this, Jesus replied. “If y1ou have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this Mulberry tree [ this tree has very deep roots and it's very difficult to uproot it] be pulled up by the roots and be planted into the sea, and it would obey you. ” --Luke chapter 17 verse 6. Again the importance of it is shown in Matthew chapter 18 vs 6-9, where Jesus tells us it is better to lose hands and feet, one eye and drown in the deep sea rather than lose faith. In Mark Chapter 11 verse 22 to 24 we are reminded it is faith that can move mountains. When we pray we should believe we have already received that which we are praying for. --Mark Chapter 11 verse 24. The key to answered prayer is believing. Careful analysis of this biblical truth shows that belief in receiving should precede actual receiving. “believe you receive them” and “you will have them”. Belief is in present tense, factual getting is in future tense. First believe then receive. No belief, no answer. Belief is accepting something to be true. How to cultivate belief? True belief, and not just ordinary belief, can be ours when we have true knowledge about God, Self and the World; and the relationship of each one with the other two. This is spiritual knowledge tatva-gyan, [तत्वज्ञान]. We know that God is Spirit --John 6:24. Once again from doctor Cady, “He is Omnipotence Omnipresence, Omniscience -sum total of all good. God is the unchangeable principle at the source of all existence. Outside God is Principle but within us He is tender Father-Mother who has compassion for our every sorrow….” Geeta informs us that we are parts of God -imperishable- and have no existence apart from Him --Chapter 15 verse 7 and chapter 13 verse 31. God is everything. --Gita chapter 7 verse 19. We live move and have our being in Him. But we are two distinct personalities; if God is light we are shadow –Kathopanishad [ कठोपनिषद], chapter 3 verse 1. God and we are like two birds living on the same tree [here it means our body] Shwetashvatar Upanishad [श्वेताश्वतर उपनिषद], chapter 4 verse 6 [We are in God and God is in us. Now the relationship of God with this world. The world is created by God with the help of His potency called Maya [माया]; creation is done under the stewardship of God by Maya. The world is real but temporary and is always subject to change. We who are the Self are unchanging uncreated imperishable, we are not material but spiritual in nature and eternal --Gita chapter 2. God is the Lord of all, He is Lord of us, He is Lord of the created world and He is the Lord of Maya. And God loves us –Gita, chapter 5 verse 29 . All this wisdom from Gita, the Bible and the Quran enlightens that God loves us, is nearer than hands and feet, and “nearer than our jugular vein” –Quran chapter 50 vs 16. God answers all our prayers. This does not mean God amends or breaks His law for our sake. His laws are immutable! For answered prayer it is rather we who have to come into conformity with His will.

To get our prayers answered we should have a belief that God is capable of answering our prayers. We should hold the belief that nothing is impossible for God. --Taitriya Upanishad 1:10: 30 [तैतरीय उपनिषद भृगुवली दशम अनुवाक तीसरा श्लोक ]. If we want Glory we have to think of God as having Glory, then we will get Glory. If we think of God [or the deity to whom we pray] as having great memory we can get such power, when we ask for it. If we think of Him as the one who can kill anybody then our enemy dies as a result of our prayers. The very same principle is again affirmed in Geeta, Hadiths and the Bible. First Gita chapter 4 verse 11 “Arjun howsoever men seek me; even so do I approach them…..” From Hadith kudsi, Mohd-alBukhari in Sahih Bukhari: “I am as my servant thinks [expects] I am.” Ibn Haja has this to say about this hadith, “I am able to do whatever he [devotee] expects I will do.” In the Bible Jesus said to the woman who in the crowd touched his robe, “your faith has made you whole.” –Luke chapter 8 verses 43–48. All these scriptures from the major religions of the world point out one common denominator -- we get from God whatever we believe we can get. So our part is to believe and again believe that we have already got an answer to our prayer, even if we do not perceive any change by the means of our senses. Whether our prayer is petition, affirmation or decree [you shall decree a thing and it shall be established –Job chapter 22 : 28]. We gain and increase in faith by:- 1. Believing our God is all powerful and capable of giving us all that we ask for. 2. Believing we have already received the prayed for thing, person, situation etc., even before we actually see the manifestation. This is called receiving by faith. What we receive by faith even saying, ‘Thank you’ we will soon get by sight, that is we will be able to know it by means of our senses. 3. Sometimes the answer is at once, at other times it is progressive…, “first the blade, then the eye”, especially in healing. 4. We have to forgive everybody who has ever hurt us or we think is our enemy. Negative emotions like “I cannot get the desired result of my prayer” should be avoided. 5. We should get rid of resentments, fears, envy, greed and other negative emotions. 6. Be full of love of God and expectation. 7. A prayer to hurt somebody is not likely to be answered. 8. Prayer of a person breaking His laws cannot be answered; we have to keep in mind that Laws of harmony peace love etc. have always to be respected, they should not be broken. 9. Be persistent: ask, seek, knock and you will get. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.” --Mark Chapter 7 vs.7 and 8. May I draw your attention to Daniel chapter 9 verse 23 and again to Daniel Chapter 10 verse 13 and 14. His prayer in chapter 9 was answered while he was still speaking vs.21 to 23. But in Chapter 10 his prayer took three weeks to be answered. On reading vs.13 and 14 we find that there was an obstacle, demonic power. “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty one days....” So keep on praying, don't give up. 10. Remember God will give you only that which is for your highest good... God will not give you what is injurious to you. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu [चैतन्य महाप्रभु] explained this law to his disciple Sanatan Goswami [सनातन गोस्वामी ]. “I give my devotee only what is good for him, for I am wise though my devotee is ignorant.” So in order not to get something which is harmful for us we should surrender to the will of God. “Thy will be done, not mine” is a good suffix to any prayer --Mark chapter 14 vs. 36; also Matthew, chapter 7 vs. 9 till 11. Thus praying to God only [not to any other power] and surrendering to his will we have a guarantee that we will not get anything from Him which is not for our highest good. Such a promise does not hold good when we are worshiping other entities like demi gods, devils demons etc. [देवता, राक्षस, यक्ष, पित्तर, भूत-- प्रेत]. These powers will give you whatever you ask them even if such a boon is not for your good or is actually detrimental or injurious to you. An example from Mahabharat [महाभारत], Kunti [कुंती] prayed to Sun-god [सूर्य भगवान] and though a virgin got Karan [करण] a son as an unwanted gift. Secondly, these powers if worshipped by you can give only perishable fruits, and at the most take you to their abode which is perishable like them. –Gita 9/25. No wonder Lord Krishna has called persons who worship entities other than the Almighty as ‘people of little wisdom’. –Geeta chapter 7 vs 23.In Bhagvat [भागवत] Paramhans Shukdev [परमहंस शुकदेव] advises us to pray to the almighty exclusively, no matter what we want whether worldly things or liberation --Book 3 Chapter 2 vs.10 [ स्कंध 3 अध्याय 3 श्लोक 10]. Only God knows what is good for us, we do not know. –Quran chapter 2 vs.186.

Now a look at the manifestations of our prayers -the answer to prayer may be ‘yes’, ‘no’ “maybe something better”, “wait”. Whatever the answer respect the wish of God.

For those who want scientific proof-- “There is power in prayer. Prayer is physical workout for brain.” This is from Dr Andrew Newberg director at Thomas Jefferson Medical College, Pennsylvania, USA. In his book ‘How God changes your brain’ he concludes -“Each part of the brain constructs a different perception of God. Intense long term contemplation of God and other spiritual values appears to permanently change the structure of those parts of the brain that control our moods, give rise to our conscious notions of self and shape our sensory perception of the world. Contemplative practices strengthen specific neurological circuit that generates peacefulness, .social awareness, and compassion for others.”...pages.6--7.

Those not inclined to pray to a personal God and the ones who do not believe in God, may pray to the ‘universal mind’ as Herbert Beierle calls [this Universal mind is the creator of all and is perfect. and has created everything perfect]. He submitted a paper at the first international congress of parapsychology and psychotronics at Prayag in 1973. His method to effect a cure is simple. It consists of the five following steps:-

Do you believe in the power of the universe; the subject answers: yes.
Do you believe that this power works in you? Answer: yes.
Do you believe that the universe was created perfect and that this perfection applies to you? Answer: yes.
You were created as a perfect idea and you are now healed of whatever it was.
Give thanks for the healing that has already taken place [difficult for the subject to believe, but when he believed, healing took place.]

He demonstrated the healings and his paper which was not scheduled to be read, came to be read mainly because of the healings the people saw, felt and demonstrated at the place of the meeting --from the book ‘Truth to Tell’ by Glenn Clairmonte pp.80-82.

Whether you are praying to God or the universal mind or addressing your subconscious mind, remember prayer is a two way traffic. Therefore listen for the answer. Answer can come in a dream, by way of intuition, it may be a hunch, it can be a passage from some scripture, and it can come in any other form. Please be alert and expectant.

We started this by declaring it is best not to pray for material things. It is again emphasized such praying is second best, a poor one at that. We will discuss this at length in “Epilogue to Prayer”. Till then magnificent manifestations!

List of the books / scriptures consulted and relied upon: ̶̶̶

1. Lessons in TRUTH --Cady

2. Truth to TELL --Clairemonte

3 Bible

4. Quran

5. Gita

6. Bhagvat

7. Mahabharat

8. Upnishads

9. Prayer Can Change Your Brain --Neuberg

Annex. Whom to pray and for what fruit :̶

Sr. No.	Fruit	The Deity
1	Sacred knowledge	Brihaspati बृहस्पति
2	Keenness of senses	Indra इन्द्र
3	Progeny	Prajapati प्रजापति
4	Prosperity	Maya माया
5	Energy	Fire अग्नि
6	Wealth	Vasu वसु
7	Lovely wife	Apsara Urvashi अप्सरा उर्वशी
8	Lordship over everybody	Brahma ब्रह्मा
9	Happy married life	Uma उमा
10	Bodily vigour	Marutgun मरुतगण
11	Black magic and spell over others	Demons भूत--पिशाच
12	For everything and Moksha	Supreme Lord Krishn भगवान कृष्ण

Annex 2

Apart from this Bhagvat also advises us which matters from it when heard, told to others and pondered upon can bring desired results.

1. The Killing of Hirnyaksh [हिरण्याक्ष] by our Lord bestows merit fame wealth strength in battle and long life. 3/19/37,38.

2. The prayer of Prechetas [प्रचेतागण] gives long life affluence glory security worldly power and prosperity and the way to eternal happiness -4/31/30.

3. The Killing of vritrasur [वृत्रासुर] demon by Indra is the giver of wealth fame, victory over enemies long life and freedom from sin.

4. Payovrat ( पयोव्रत) is universal sacrifice and vow, fulfilling all desires -8/ 16/58-62

5. Krishna’s combat and victory over Shiva, One becomes invincible in battle and life’s struggles -10/63/53

6. Theft and Restoration of ‘Smayantak Mani’ [स्मयंतक मणि], precious stone: from this one gets rid of ill reputation and sin; also gets lasting peace. -10/57/42

7. Reading about the destruction of Shishupal [शिशुपाल] and Jarasandh [जरासंध] is said to give freedom from sin -10/74/54.

8. Instance of rescuing Lord Shiva from Vrikasur [वृकासुर] absolves a person from the fear of enemies; it frees from the cycle of Births and deaths -10/88/40.

May this inspire you to go Godwards. God is your insurance for health, happiness, prosperity, all good things of life and liberation / salvation.

Prayer : Ask and Receive

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