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Good Prayer & Bad Prayer

Date: 02 Feb 2008 23:17:38 -0000 From: "Chandramohan Jha" To: AM-GLOBAL Subject: Good Prayer & Bad Prayer Baba 'The Divine Call' "Yuga'nterar tamasa' na'shite, a'lor jhalake esechile..." (PS 4718) Purport: Baba, in those dark days of old when the whole society was drowned in dogma and everyone was suffering in pain and agony, then in that desperate moment in a flash of lightening-- floating in the rhythm of dance-- You Yourself came showering Your grace to wipe away the age-old staticity. Baba, before Your auspicious arrival, in that bleak era there was no positive pulsation of life. Just there was sorrow and misery in every direction. Everyone was feeling tense and depressed-- sunk in the delusion of darkness. There was selfishness, in-fighting, and hatred all around. The earth was hopeless. Nobody had the courage or inspiration to shake the struggling humanity from its agonies. Nobody valiantly came forward and declared, 'Arise, awake, the new dawn has come! Get rid of all the dogma and follow the path of neo-humanism!' Nobody told like this. The scene was totally grim. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, by Your grace in one auspicious moment You Yourself came and told, 'Always keep one great philosophy in mind: There is only movement if one is progressing ahead towards towards divinity-- towards Supreme fulfillment, toward the Cosmic Hub'. In that auspicious hour, this was Your divine blessing. Baba, by Your grace Your victory chariot is fast moving ahead with its rattling sound, in the bhuloka, duloka, and triloka and in the infinity. Baba, Your divine vibration is reaching each and every corner of this vast cosmos. Without people's awareness the whole planet and the entire universe is being transformed in all the realms: physical, psychic, and spiritual. Baba, by Your grace You told everyone, 'In your frustration do not sit and cry in the depths of hell. Arise, awake, and follow the divine path. Human life is very valuable and you must not forget that Your goal is Parama Purusa.' Baba, this divine & eternal blessing You showered upon all. Baba, by Your grace You came wiped away all the staticity by showering Your divine effulgence...
== GOOD PRAYER & BAD PRAYER ==
Namaskar, In AM, we are essentially taught not to pray to God, so no one asks Baba for anything. However, upon further reflection, we can say that there are two types of prayer-- 'bad prayer' and 'good prayer'-- and it is the latter that enables us to reach that divine stance, His lotus feet. So as Ananda Margiis, we should clearly understand the difference between bad prayer and good prayer, and utilise good prayer to progress in our spiritual lives.
THE MAIN TEACHING: DO NOT PRAY TO GOD
Since first coming in contact with Ananda Marga, one of the main teachings everyone receives is not to ask Baba for anything: I.e. Do not pray to God. Each and every Ananda Margii understands this fact and in our philosophical treatise-- Ananda Sutram-- Baba makes it quite clear.
3-11 Pra'rthana'rcana' ma'traeva bhramamu'lam.
"Purport: It is useless to pray to God for something for He is sure to give what is necessary. Solicitation or importunity in the name of worship is nothing but toadyism and flattery." (AS) By this way, we can clearly know that we are not to ask Him for anything. So we never ask Baba for wealth, or a new job, or a baby boy, or more money, or a glamorous wife, or a new car, or for anything mundane etc. This we do not do. And this is one of the basic differences between the dharma of AM and the various dogmatic religions and crude yoga gurus like Sai Baba etc. We live by the tenet that He provides us with what is needed and therefore we must not ask for anything-- period; whereas with those cheap type of gurus like Sai Baba,the followers constantly ask for gold watches, a Mercedes-Benz, a beach house in Bali, and all sorts of mundane things etc. So there is a vast difference: They ask and we don't.
WE MUST REQUEST SOMETHING FROM BABA
Even then, we should as Parama Purusa for something. We should pray to Him for something. And what is that something? How is it that we should pray to Baba? Baba says, "You yourself should say...'O Parama Purus'a, give me para'bhakti.” Or you should say, “O Parama Purus'a, give me shuddha' buddhi'." (SS-24) Thus margiis we should pray to Baba or request His grace in ways that bring us closer to Him. That is Baba's special and unique guideline. We should request, 'O Parama Purusa, please be gracious; make my meditation proper; please appear in my dhyana; You are mine, please grant me devotion; please give me parabhakti so I may love You in sadhana'. These are the sentient ways in which we should pray to Baba. And doing so does not go against sutra 3-11 from Ananda Sutram. The two are not contradictory. Because one is related with asking to be closer to Him whereas the other is related with asking Him for one of His material objects. And sutra 3-11 indicates that we should not ask for something mundane but it in no way forbids us for praying to Baba for more devotion to get His closeness. The first is 'bad prayer' and the second is 'good prayer'. Verily, this type of 'good prayer' must be done otherwise it will not be possible to get Him.
WHY GOOD PRAYER IS SO IMPORTANT
Ultimately this type of sentient prayer or good prayer is not optional-- it needs to be done, it must be done. Because it fulfills a particular need of our human psyche. Because it is human psychology to ask favours from those whom we feel close to. We may ask our close friend to help us out in a problem; or we may ask our parents for help in some regard; or we may ask a close neighbor to babysit our children for an afternoon; or we may ask so many things from people. And this type of asking builds trust and makes friendships flourish. So requesting or asking creates a special intimacy or closeness in a relation.
HOW CRUDE DISCIPLES GET BENEFITED
And verily those crude disciples who ask their god for a new house or a marriage for their daughter etc, although they are doing wrong by asking their god for such things, at the same time they are coming sentimentally closer to Him-- since they are coming under His shelter by confiding in Him. so their approach is mixed with the bad and the good.
WHY WE ANANDA MARGIIS SHOULD DO GOOD PRAYER
As Ananda Margiis we do not fall into the bad category, as we never ask for mundane things from the Lord. Yet at the same time, we must ask ourselves, 'How often do I ask Baba for help in sadhana, how often do I ask Baba for devotion, how often do I ask to get Him'. These are also important questions because they by making such requests of the Lord, we automatically increase our closeness and intimacy with Him. That is why 'good prayer' is a needed element in the life of any sadhaka. By this way sadhana improves, we feel closer to Him, we come under His shelter, our life becomes more charming and meaningful, and ultimately one day we become one with Him. That is why 'good prayer' is an integral aspect of the term yojanat, or achieving unicity with Him. Just doing the lessons of AM sadhana without requesting Him for devotion, makes sadhana just a technical exercise that can easily become dry and boring. Whereas if we bring Baba into the picture, if day and night we are asking Him for help and His blessing in sadhana, then the whole experience becomes an intimate affair where we know He is always with us and listening to our every request-- and, by His grace, He fulfills those requests as well and our sadhana because a blissful event where we get Him. So that is how we become close-- and ultimately one-- with Him. That is why good prayer is a healthy and needed ingredient in our sadhana practice and devotional life.
BABA'S BLESSING
By Baba's grace He has shown us the exact way in which we should pray to Him. Baba says, "O Parama Purus'a, grant me devotion – that devotion which will enable me to love you every moment in newer and still newer ways. For you are endless and your expressions are also endless. If I learn how to love You, I will be able to love You in endless ways. My life will become effervescent with the sweet rhythms of the infinite. My life will attain its highest fulfillment.” (NKS, Disc: 26) Namaskar, Chandramohan
Note: STORY OF BOATMAN'S WIFE & RA'MA
Here is one of the famous stories which Baba tells again and again in order to show us that we should never ask anything mundane from the Lord, only we should ask for Baba Himself. Baba says, "To return to the original story. Vishvamitra was going to Mithila with Ra'ma and Laks'man'a... When they reached the other bank of the river they saw to their amazement that, at the touch of the holy feet of Ra'ma, their boat had been transformed into gold. The astonished boatman exclaimed, “Good heavens, what an amazing thing. He must be an extraordinary person.” He ran home and narrated the astonishing incident to his wife who immediately grabbed as many things as she could carry – kitchen utensils and the like – and rushed to where Ra'ma was standing. She placed all the objects at his feet to convert them into gold. To carry all the wooden furniture to the boat, get it converted into gold and then carry it all back again was a Herculean task. Things become a lot heavier when they are converted into gold!" "So, the boatman’s wife had aches all over her body and pains in her back and hands, and soon the poor wife was no longer able to carry the load. But under the spell of greed she wanted to acquire more and more gold. People do their utmost to bind themselves with the worldly bondages and often fall prey to this greed instinct. So even though her back was badly aching she was unwilling to stop carrying the wooden furniture to get it converted into gold. This is just like the condition of gluttons at a feast who, even after eating so much that they are completely full, still manage to stuff one or two more pieces of rasagolla (Indian sweet) into their mouths. If ever such people get a chance to eat at others expense, they are ready to eat for days together. The boatman’s wife was suffering from a similar psychic ailment. Even though she was no longer able to carry the load, she was helplessly goaded on by greed. "Then the boatman said to his wife, “Stop this folly! How much longer will you be able to carry the load! You’ll get deeper and deeper into difficulty. Your greed for gold will never end and you’ll probably die under its weight. You’ll never be able to satisfy your greed so stop this folly, stupid woman!” “Yes, may be I am stupid,” she replied, “but now I am helpless. There’s nothing I can do about it.” The boatman advised, “Instead of carrying all the loads of wood and gold, why don’t you simply carry those two feet which have such extraordinary qualities and at the touch of which everything gets converted into gold?” So she went up to Ra'ma and said, “Well, you’ll just have to come along with me.” At first, Ra'ma was unwilling to go, but due to her insistence, he finally agreed and sat down in the boat. Then, strangely enough, the boatman’s wife forgot her desire to get everything converted into gold and became totally absorbed in the thought of those two feet. Having attained the ultimate thing, why should she bother about the gold?" (AV-6)

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