For our spiritual life to be stable, safe and perfect, our connection with Nirankar has to be uncompromisingly perfect. For this, not only do we need to value our prayer, a vital tool for connecting with the Divine, but also to make use of it wholeheartedly. It has to be as automatic as our breathing. For this, we have to fill up on love. Let us, therefore, investigate as to what this means.
Prayer is an activity that links man with the higher Being, who accomplishes things that we cannot. It is designed for our constant connection with the Divine in order for us to experience our well-being. But ironically we only connect with Him when we are in trouble. When all is going well, God is a distant thought.
Within all established religions, the manner of prayer is culturally and ethnically coloured. While some religions enforce a stringent format of prayer, the non-adherence of which can result in excommunication, others have a more open approach to communicating with God.
When thinking of building a strong foundation to perfect our human life, prayer appeals to my sense of logic. Although belief in the All-Pervading God has the majority vote, a firm minority still has no allegiance. Even a non-believer may engage in a similitude of prayer such as positive thinking during meditation. In essence, prayer is positive thinking to develop the belief that help is on the way, ranging from the smallest request to resolving the direst of circumstances.
Prayer has been on my mind these past several years, and like a mad scientist, I have been consumed by many various thought processes, gleaned from Satguru Baba Hardev Singh Ji’s teachings. His teachings on prayer have revealed a logical protocol that has given me clarity from the confusion presented by the world’s religions.
Somehow, I imagined the God-gifted soul within us to be minute, for Baba Hardev Singh Ji mentioned many a time, we are a small particle of the Supreme Entity, or we are a soul within the Super-soul, like a drop of water in the ocean. This premise indicates small, but divine nonetheless.
The True Master reveals God to us through God-Realization, and then the natural flow down is to Self-Realization, where we can actually be introduced to our true self. This realisation of the self finally provides the understanding that the body is only a machine, and that our true self is really the conscience soul tethered within. The soul is intended to be the master of the body.
However, our natural tendencies are magnetically attracted to the world’s physical manifestations that please our senses. The mind and soul are overridden by the body functioning on chemical and electrical impulses. Our discipline is weak due to our mind’s confusion with what is real and unreal. But when balance is restored with God-Realization, an alternative comes to light for the first time. With our true self known, the missing puzzle pieces are found and placed properly to complete the full panoramic view that God is everything.
Thenceforth, the mind and soul work together to keep the body’s impulses in check. In so doing, the will of God is fulfilled. This is the overall protocol set forth by Satguru: to know God and to keep close to God, which is the ultimate Truth. Although this seems simple enough, it is complicated enough even for an enlightened soul to stay on course. Saints regularly seek guidance for both a deeper understanding to stabilize their spirituality and to avoid the roller-coaster effects. Satguru Mata Sudiksha Ji regularly preaches stability, concerning our overall physical, mental and spiritual life. The stability of our core being is a condition that the majority of mankind desire, which even with the best of knowledge, we fail to keep.
There must be more layers to explore in this God connection to create our existential stability. Satguru has given us the Almighty God and Self- Realization, the instructions to always remember God in prayer, attend the congregation of saints regularly and serve humanity selflessly. If we imbibe these activities, we will have no problems. But why still the angst?
My belief is that we are not fully engaged in God remembrance or that we take this initiative lightly. Reciting the words given to us by Satguru in a ritualistic manner has drained the power out of the most powerful prayer in existence! God remembrance is the connecting factor with God. It seems to me God is waiting for us to dial in, but we either go days without making the call or limit ourselves to a brief conversation just to ask for something.
We are missing out on the most exciting thing possible, talking with God! As with devotion to anything under the sun, we have to desire it – whatever it is. When our desires focus our efforts to learn, our devotion becomes great, and then we successfully accomplish what we set out to do. Our success is based on our desire, so we have to desire a connection with God, as if we can hardly wait to start our day with God. Starting our day with God sounds awe-inspiring! So what is that process?
Satguru Baba Hardev Singh Ji taught that a God-Realized soul can at any moment think of God and relate to God, and this ad hoc type of God remembrance is very good. You can be anywhere, and at any time think of God, and it counts. The two necessary steps are firstly to be aware of God’s presence all around you, and secondly to relate to God. ‘Aware’ means realizing God, and ‘relating’ refers to understanding God. What is God all about? How do we relate to love, compassion, tolerance and forgiveness? First we have to understand love, compassion, tolerance and forgiveness before we can relate to these virtues. This is a complex process, but necessary to fully connect with God. Indeed, if we have nothing in common with God, how will we relate to God?
Common ground is essential for any relationship to blossom, and finding the common ground is the very next step that Baba Hardev Singh Ji gave us to recite the given words: Thou Formless One, I live sheltered in your creation, please forgive me of my wrong doings. This prayer is the aligning tool that tunes us to the frequency of God. This simple prayer has enormous meaning. We humble ourselves and seek forgiveness from the all-powerful God, who created all and owns all.
Humility is the key to connecting. Humility is the game changer! People are afraid of humility, thinking it weakens them, but humility is actually strength. Humility tunes us to God like a radio receiver tunes to a radio station. Before tuning we hear only static, but once in tune with the radio station frequency, there is full clarity. To understand God and build common ground with God, we first must be humble. We, the receiver, must tune to the frequency of God, and that means tuning out other frequencies that misguide us – i.e. the negativity of the world. Then we will be in a harmonic frequency with God and resonate with God.
Resonating with God takes us further into God’s realm, leaving behind the realm of ritualistic prayer. For when we say these given words, we must be aware of God all around us, and we must relate to God. Furthermore, we must be in the present moment, and not with a drifting mind, to be able to connect with God. The human mind drifts so easily, in that we can consider ourselves a time machine. It is as if we have a special remote controller and DVR to pause, rewind and fast-forward our lives. We find ourselves traveling back in time, as well as to the future, spending less time in the actual present. So let us stop agonizing over the past events, the decisions of the present, and the obsessive planning for the future. Let us live in the current moment, enjoying the gift of the present. We will not find God in our past or future thoughts, as God is in the present; now is the time to really relate to God.
Being aware, relating, and being in the present brings us to the next step of God remembrance, when we pretty much feel it, as Baba Hardev Singh Ji said. This is when the resonating effect with God occurs by feeling the energy. Baba Ji explained that when we see emptiness, it really is not empty. He said what appears to be empty, is full of energies galore, which even science endorses. His next instruction was to take as much as you can from the fullness of these energies, which never deplete, but remain as full as ever. This energy cannot be diminished – God! So once we are feeling the energy, let us take from it to fill our vessel to bolster our particle of the Supreme Entity. Baba Ji said that it is of great benefit to us.
After many years of praying, I would stop once I felt the energy. Now I follow through to the end by taking from the fullness of energy. This critical point of prayer is the replenishment of God in our being or filling up on love! Once we fill up on love, we will begin to truly understand love, compassion, tolerance and forgiveness, establishing the common ground with God. Let us keep ourselves filled with God by always resonating with God, which leads to surrendering to God’s will. As we fill up on love, our mind will have a singular state, a mind without worry of either good or bad in our life. The feeling of bliss or neutrality will be evident, overwhelming us with the simplicity of God’s life style – never bringing harm to anyone.
Filling up on love is how we emulate Satguru, who is love personified. Filling up and keeping full of love is critical to our constant connection with God. In others words, let us not hang up the call, but keep the connection ever going. With the continuum of God in our life, we will be able to succeed in all aspects of our life, bringing peace and love to those within our sphere of influence and beyond. As mentioned in the Bible, all things are possible with God, but we have to have God in our life first and foremost to reveal these possibilities.
This entire process of effective prayer brings us to God, keeps us with God and eliminates the roller-coaster effect in our spiritual lives. Creating this stability enables us to regularly attend the congregation and continually serve humanity selflessly. Effective prayer places us in God’s realm, the entry into the big leagues. But the most important aspect is that it creates the solid foundation of perfection.
– Daniel J. Slebodnik Washington D.C., USA
