Having come this far, how does one pray? Realizing that prayer has more significance than ordinarily thought and God is not someone who lives on a distant planet and further still, prayer is not about holding a rosary or a coconut in hand and letting the mind wander—what then is true prayer? True prayer is realizing the truth that God is right here and now. God is everywhere. We don’t have to search for God. We don’t need complicated rituals to pray. All we need is true love for God, sincere gratitude to the Divine.
It is not necessary that everybody will actually realize the truth. But even if we have the knowledge of realization, it is good enough to start the journey of true prayer. While it is not difficult to realize that the temple of God is within us, most of us are looking outside. The Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak, said that we human beings are given 9 doors, all opening to the outer world. We have 2 eyes to see, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, a mouth, an organ of procreation and organ of excretion. None of these openings which he called doors are looking within. He said that we should open the tenth door that looks within. Then we can truly realize God within and pray.
Once we realize that God lives within each human being, then, there is no rocket science needed to find out the way to true prayer. It is simple. We must be kind and compassionate to everybody we meet. We must love one and all. That is why, if we carefully study all the religious scriptures, they abundantly use the word, ‘love’. Modern man has never been able to understand why the word love is so freely repeated in religious scriptures.
Most of humanity does help and serve the poor on some occasions, if not regularly. But why do they reach out to the discarded and downtrodden? They do so because they want to invest in good deeds or good Karma. Their service to the poor is motivated by the fact that the good they do will come back to them. While it is a commendable act to serve the needy, it is not true prayer. True prayer is being able to see the Divine in the poor and destitute. We need to make a paradigm shift and serve them, not because of Karma, but because we have realized the truth that God dwells in each living being.
Serving humanity is prayer! Yes, there is no doubt about this. When we realize that every orphan child is a manifestation of the Divine when we reach out to those who are physically challenged or mentally unstable with the realization that God dwells within them, that is true prayer. Every act of service is no less than sincere worship to God. One who realizes the truth knows that every person is a picture of God. To serve them is to worship God.
While this is the absolute truth, most of us cannot see through it as reality. We question: How can a human being be God? Our mind convinces us with compelling and contradicting thoughts. It tells us – ‘This man is a thief, how can he be God?’ ‘These people are suffering because of their own past deeds. We must not interfere with God’s plan. Let them suffer as per their Karma.’ These are contradictory thoughts of the mind that wants to take us away from the Divine. That is why it is important to realize the truth of who we are and who God is. It is unfortunate that over generations, mythology has ruled. Rituals and superstitions have overtaken the truth. In the process, people with selfish interests have developed ulterior motives and they would much prefer that the human race doesn’t realize the truth about God. But this is a pity. All scriptures endorse the fact that God lives in each one of us. Scriptures also emphasize the importance of serving the poor, but we are unable to live with the realization that true prayer can be performed by serving suffering humanity.
Swami Vivekananda said, ‘He who wants to serve the Father must serve the children first. He who wants to serve Shiva must serve His children — must serve all creatures in this world first.’ Around 1898, Swami Vivekananda had acquired some land at Belur and constructed the Temple of Sri Ramakrishna and the Math for sannyasin. Soon after, the plague broke out in Calcutta, and panic overwhelmed the city. People began to leave Calcutta in fear. Many died and there was no one to take care of the ailing or dispose of the bodies of the deceased. Swami Vivekananda was not in Calcutta but upon hearing the news, he immediately returned to Calcutta and urged the sannyasin of Belur Math to be of service in taking care of the affected. Many protested, saying, 'This is not our work; Sri Ramakrishna had never told us to do social service. Our main aim is to seek God and perform sadhana.' Swami Vivekananda addressed them saying, ‘O my brothers, have you forgotten the mantra of our Sri Ramakrishna: 'Shiva Jnane Jiva Seva'? By serving human beings, we are serving the highest expression of God on this earth. Love the Lord in these suffering patients. I appeal to you to come forward in this calamity and serve the living God.’
The monks were surprised, when they heard these powerful words of their leader but some still protested, ‘O Swami, from where would the money come?’ To this, the Swami said, ‘If need be, sell off the Belur Math. The money thus gathered would be put to the service of these men. I care not for home or shelter for ourselves; we are sannyasin, and we have taken the vow of poverty. Tree shade would be our roof and a loin cloth would be enough for us to cover our bodies.’
Thus, the monks, the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, and the inmates of Belur Math became actively involved in looking after the afflicted. In fact, the British authorities in their report on the epidemic had recorded that it was because of the timely help from the Math, that mortality was less and the epidemic could be brought under control quickly.
The challenge for us is to realize that each human being is a manifestation of the Divine. We are not praying to the outer surface or body covering. We are praying to the God within. Such prayer is true prayer when it does not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed, religion, gender or financial status. Nationality or how one appears on the outside is immaterial. True prayer is knowing that inside every human being, there is Divinity.
Outside a church, a little girl went up to a man selling gas balloons. She saw him fill a red balloon with helium and tie it with a long string so that it bobbed up and down in the air and attracted other children. He then filled a blue, a green, a yellow, an orange and a white balloon. Seeing all the colourful balloons filled with gas, swaying in the sky, the innocent young girl asked the man, ‘If you fill a black balloon with gas, would it also fly in the sky?’ The man laughed and replied, ‘Of course, dear child, it is not the colour of the balloon, it’s what’s inside it that matters.’ Sometimes, we behave like this little child and we get carried away by the colour of the skin or the profession or status of a person. We need Divine grace to see through the outer surface and see God within.
How else can we really pray to God? There is no other way! The only way to truly pray is to experience God’s Divine presence in each of His manifestations and there can be no better option than to serve suffering humanity. When we help a blind man cross the street, when we give a hungry child milk to drink, when we go to an old age home and comfort the aged, these acts are the acts of Divine prayer. Unfortunately, because we don’t realize God and we don’t realize that we are the Divine Soul, we are unable to see the Divine Soul in the sick and the suffering.
Some people are yearning to talk to God, to see God, and to meet God, not realizing that Divinity appears in front of us every day. He gives us innumerable opportunities to love Him, to serve Him, and to experience His Divine presence.
In ancient India, there was a saint who had realized the truth about God. One day, he was making chapatis, a kind of Indian bread. Just then, a dog passed by. It snatched the bread and started running. The saint started running behind the dog. Somebody then asked him, ‘Why are you running behind the dog and calling it back? It’s hungry, let it go.’ The saint replied, ‘I have not yet applied butter. I want to apply the butter on the chapati so the dog can enjoy its meal.’ This saint is a true example of one who has had God-realization. He not only saw God in every human