This question must have arisen in your mind sometimes. Prayer is never useless. Prayer creates some supernatural Power in your subconscious mind. Prayer is a very powerful thing that helps you to develop a great relationship, an unbreakable and unshakeable bond with a superpower called God.
Prayer is a source of infinite power that is the ultimate truth, but truth does not attract people as much as ostentation. Many people are there who won’t believe in praying.
Pray daily, saying will not be enough for them. Why? This will be their first question. Second question- what is proof that we will get benefit from prayer? Third question-how, when, and what to pray. Although all the questions are meaningless.
The point is that prayer is not something to be understood and known, it is a source to awaken the powers of the soul. The ultimate truth is only that God is within us. Like physical yoga, prayer is also a yoga of mind and soul whose aim is to unite oneself with divine power.
Whenever someone folds his hands in prayer or bows his head, meditates in front of God and wishes to be free from suffering, he is in a way of inwardly Preparing to deal with the situation.
It also happens in the lives of many people that their prayers won’t work. Because of that mistrust, doubt and despair are born in them. What is the reason for this?
Why even so? The answer is that the power of our prayer gets weakened due to our lack of self-confidence, desires, and fear of failure.
If your desired work is done because of prayer, a belief starts to arise in you that this situation can be tackled and you will feel that now the calamities will be averted from your life, and your good time will start. As soon as you think like this, you will feel a new spiritual power within yourself. This positive feeling gives you new power to fight against time and circumstances. You will jump into the struggle of life with courage.
Another thing, there are still many saints who are equivalent to God. whose prayers are heard much sooner than ours. God hears that because those saints have sacrificed their whole life in the service of humanity and praying to god. They can take God’s help for whatever they want for social welfare. but, with just one condition that His intentions should be clear and it has to be for the welfare of all mankind, not for personal greed.
like, our Shastriji Maharaj Shree Dharmajivandasji Swami. Before 75 years when he was about to start Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul he went to Vadtal and prayed to Harikrishna Maharaj that “oh! Maharaj, I don’t know if it is right or wrong to go on this path but, If I have any personal greed in this work, then do not let me succeed in this work.“
And we all know very well how Bhagwan Shri Swaminarayan has approved this prayer of Shastriji Maharaj. Because indeed this Gurukul has transformed thousands of students’ lives and even successfully transforming right now also.
When you pray to God, you can work through serious decisions in your life. God always listens and often provides the specific answers and guidance we seek. Even when He chooses not to answer immediately then also prayer itself is a way to find peace. Just like parents hear a baby’s cry and they will understand what the baby wants, our Heavenly Father also wants to hear from us and will understand what we need.
When you pray, He listens. Then He answers your prayers in the form of thoughts, spiritual feelings, sitting in a pious saint, scripture, or even the actions of other people.
This one might seem obvious, but prayer is an excellent way of getting closer to God…
In Visnagar village there was a true devotee of Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan named Rupram Thakar. By profession, he was Vaidya (medicinal doctor). he was going back to his home from Godhra after treating his patient. There was a deep forest in his way. In that forest, There was fear of carnivorous animals, thugs, and robbers. In that forest, he lost his way. His life and wealth both were at risk.
He prayed to Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan, “Oh Maharaj, you are my saviour, you have protected many of your devotees in the past. I am also your devotee. Please, protect me and save my life.“
Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan came disguised as a policeman and holding a stick in his hand, appeared in the forest to guide and guard his devotee.
Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan in the guise of a policeman consoled him and took him to a nearby hut. They both slept there in the hut. In the morning he guided Rupram on his onward journey. Rupram Thakar desired to convey thanks for the care and hospitality he received from that unknown policeman. But as he looked back to thank him, he found nothing. There was neither a hut nor a policeman. Being a true devotee, he realized that Bhagwan Shri Swaminarayan himself was there to take care of his humble devotee. After realizing this, he went straight to Gadhada to thank Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan. So, this way Maharaj always listens to the words that come out of his true devotee’s heart and will never deny helping us in any circumstance.
Another thing, why do most patients who have gone through their journey of severe disease turn to spirituality?
When even the greatest doctor gets defeated even after treating someone till he can, he also says that “now we have no way other than prayer.” And many times that prayer works and miracles happen. Many people never prayed in their life but have now come down to praying heavily and regularly. What changes them? Well, most of them have come back after seeing their death from very near, so it is all so frightening that they automatically remember God.
As kids and teens, visiting holy places disinterests us. We will take our parents to visit the temple in a car, but we will stand below and we will be sitting in a car, will not be able to climb a few steps of that temple, will not be able to see how god is looking today, but as soon as any crisis comes on us or our beloved one, then we will pray to the same God with the bottom of heart. Some people experience the value of prayers early in life and some later.
Prayers are not any other to-do list activity in your day. If you pray, let those prayers and their teachings come into your daily life. The three essentials when it comes to prayers are Faith, Belief and Surrender. So many of us pray almost daily, and visit different religious places, but anxious and worried about the very problems they prayed for. Instead, pray with utmost faith and belief and just surrender the outcome. Above all, keep practicing your prayers till you build so much faith that there is no room for fear.
There was an elephant named Gajendra who was living on Mountain named Trikuta (Three-Peaked Mountain). Gajendra was the leading elephant in his herd. One day he went to the nearby lake to pick lotus flowers for offer Bhagwan Vishnu. Suddenly, a crocodile living in the lake attacked Gajendra and caught him by his front leg. all his family members were there but they were unable to help him, they were just standing and helplessly looking at him. Gajendra tried for a long time to escape from the crocodile’s clutches. The crocodile simply would not let him go. When the herd realized that ‘death’ had come close to Gajendra, they left him alone. He trumpeted in pain and helplessness. As the struggle was seemingly endless, when he had spent his last drop of energy, Gajendra prayed to Bhagwan Vishnu to save him, holding a lotus up in the air as an offering.
Hearing his devotee’s prayer, Bhagwan Vishnu rushed to help him. He was in such a hurry that he said no to his vehicle Garuda because If God had gone to sit on Garuda, it would have been too late. As Gajendra sighted the god coming, he lifted the lotus with his trunk. Seeing this Bhagwan Vishnu was pleased, and he threw Sudarshan chakra to kill the crocodile. He decapitated the crocodile.
so, as long as we are young, healthy, and wealthy, we feel many people love us and we become egoistic. The crocodile symbolically represents death, which ends everything.
When we are caught in the jaws of death, no one can save us. Friends will fly away, relatives will disappear. And even our bodies will fail miserably.
The only solution to suffering is to turn to the Lord. In the moment of that utter surrender, God rushes to our aid, destroys death, and releases our soul from the clutches of death – and that is liberation or Moksha that comes by the grace of the Supreme god Bhagwan Shri Swaminarayan.
prayer is not just asking God for his Favour or help but thanking him for everything that he us is also a prayer. Even If we take two rupees pen from someone to write, we don’t forget to thank them, then why do we forget to tell a thank you to the god who has given us this much good fate, health, wealth and so many things that even we don’t deserve or can’t imagine. Every day we should wake up in the morning and thank God because who knows someday may come when we may not be able to wake up. And then we regret that I wish I had said: “thank you”. even only once because this life was the greatest gift, I may ever have from someone.
There are plenty of examples where God hears the prayers of his beloved devotees like,
Krishna heard Draupadi’s prayer when the whole assembly was sitting. Dushasan was pulling her sari,
Bhagwan Vishnu heard Prahlad’s prayer when Hiranyakashipu said to Prahlad “is your Vishnu staying in this pillar?” and he was about to kill Prahlad and Narsingh Bhagwan came out from the pillar to save his little devotee Prahlad.
Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan heard when Naja jogiya prayed. He heard it from hundreds of kilometers away. In the ongoing rain, the whole night he rode Manki, Crossed the river without a boat, and came to bhoyri (Naja jogiya’s village) where he saved Naja from Vajsur khachar.
Shree Krishna heard When Meerabai of mewad prayed when she had to drink poison, Shree Krishna heard, and that poison didn’t work upon her.
And many more like this…
Thank You
Jay Swaminarayan!
