Editorial
Prayer will certainly help…
Many educated people are not much into daily religious practices nowadays. The reason is, they are busy. Both parents have to work. They have to rush to their respective workplaces after completing daily chores at home. In that rush, they have no time or inclination for any other thought, let alone religious observances. Evenings are post-work relaxation times, and television attracts more than the shrine room. This trend is easily picked up by their children. Entire generations are thus forsaking their duties as Hindus just because a little more money flows to the house. However, once a year, either there comes the Durga Puja or the Ganesha festival. And participating in these annual events, offering a few flowers to the deity and eating prasad are considered the completion of the religious obligations of life. That is, once a year, a little participation in the Durga puja is all that is needed, some think. Rather, worshipping Durga just once a year for a few minutes is enough, they seem to think.
Just as we have our duties to parents and family, duties towards our society, religious duties are essential and they must be performed. We eat several times every day. What does food do to us? It gives us energy, stamina and mental strength to function. According to a Upanishadic mantra, when we are starving, not only is our body weak, but our senses, our mind, everything is weak. We lack enthusiasm to function. Once food enters the system, everything becomes active.
Religious activities like prayer, repetition of mantra, worship, reciting hymns, meditation, service in temples and other holy places are all food for the soul. The soul is starving. It is overburdened by karmas. It needs food badly and that food is the little worship, prayer etc that we perform daily. Just like daily physical nourishment, spiritual nourishment is a must for our system to be in good condition. What if we don’t do all these? Tension, stress, anger, sorrow, sadness, failures, lack of concentration, everything is due to our lack of connection with the source of all Power, the Divine.
The Source is within. The Source of all life, all positivity, all energy is within. Our daily rituals, prayers etc are connecting to the source. It is like plugging to the socket of electricity. Even if you have the costliest gadgets, if you don’t plug them to the power source, they will not function. That source is the Atman or Ishvara.
Our sufferings, problems, pain and failures, all are caused by our past karma as well as our lack of regular religious routine. Routine prayer and meditation, routine worship, at least for a few minutes, brings strength to the mind to face problems. Most of those around you, who appear to be strong and happy, are hollow inside. They are either drowning themselves in drinks to forget problems, or they are taking to worse habits to forget issues. These things further deteriorate the situation.
Spirituality is a golden opportunity to become good and great. We spend such a lot of time on television, sport, news, videos, social media, etc but the moment we have to pray or do something religious, we have lame excuses ready at hand.
Prayer is the way. If you are teaching your children, by example, to repeat mantras or hymns, to pray, to do a little puja, and so on, you are not only training them in “gym” to make them strong, but also removing their stock karmas and making their future better.
May Sri Ramakrishna, Mother and Swamiji bless us all.
Swami Sunirmalananda