PRAYER
It's Nature and Technique
 
 

Place for Prayer

    FOR prayer one needs no specific place. It grows best and thrives most on a leavened heart. All that is needed is a quiet place, free from the hubbub of the world or other distracting factors. It may be done within doors or without. Even one's sleeping room can serve the purpose or just a part of it if the whole be not available. In the absence of any place at home, one may walk down to a temple or a mosque, a church or a synagogue, for all such places are meant to satisfy this need of the public. If none of these are near at hand, one can by himself while walking, sitting, or lying down along a river bank or a mountain side, do Simran as ordained by the Master and commune with God and place before Him his inner feelings. Of course the entire world is God's creation and can be used as such.
 

This world is the abode of God, and God truly lives in the world. 41
                                                                                                      GURU ANGAD


Blessed becomes the place where one sits down to pray. The whole earth is sacred and one may offer his prayer wherever he likes.

Mosque is the Earth and as holy it is,
Pray ye the faithful when the time comes,
Care not for the place wherever it be.
                                                    ALAMSAEEN
God has created the whole world and He is the Lord of it all. He does not live in temples and mosques made by human hands. He, being spirit, can be worshiped in spirit only.
God that made the world and all things therein,
seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and Earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands. 42
                                                                  ST. PAUL

All is holy where devotion kneels.
                                       O. W. HOLMES

God is the Master of East and West
Turn whichsoever side thou may,
God shall look thee in the face,
For He pervades in all the space. 43
                                                    KORAN


Human body is the temple of God, and it befits man to worship God in the God-made temple in which He resides. We on the contrary run out to man-made temples and mosques outside, to offer our prayers.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the spirit o[ God dwelleth in you? 44
                                                                   ST. PAUL

This body is the temple of God (Hari Mandir),
The true pearl of Jnana comes to shine in it. 45
                                                       GURU AMAR DAS

Thy mind is the mosque,
Let thou be the worshiper therein.
                                A MUSLIM DIVINE
God can be best worshiped in the body. One need not wander from place to place like a shuttlecock. All glory and beauty lies within you. Outside the human body all structures are made of water and clay. The Vedas, the Puranas, the Koran and the Gospel all repeat the same
tale.
The beloved is in the House,
I search for Him high and low without.
While the pitcher full of water stands beside,
Woe unto me for wandering athirst.
                                    A MUSLIM DIVINE
But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father
which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret,
shall reward thee openly.46
                                 CHRIST
Here a question might arise as to why God, who is in the body, is not visible to us. It may be explained that our eyes of flesh can see material things only. They are too gross to behold the Divine Glory of the most subtle. Unless the power of vision comes into conformity with the density of the object, we cannot see the object. It is, therefore, only the Inner Eye that can, when opened, see Him.
Different are the eyes, O Nanak,
That behold the vision of God. 47
                                  GURU ARJAN

O remove the scales from my eyes,
And show me the face of the True One.
                                                                   KABIR

Again:
Rise up to the level of God,
Then alone shalt thou see Him. 48
When thou closest the ten outlets of thy body,
The Light of God shall shine in thee. 49
                                             GURU ARJAN
If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 50
                                                                                                                             CHRIST


True prayer consists in withdrawing the spirit within with a pure mind and fully devotional attitude. Such a prayer cannot but bear fruit in abundance and in no time.



Next Chapter   Contents