Pearls of wisdom for prayer, worship and meditation.



Of what use are prayer and worship, if the heart is not pure, and the mind not clean?



Without mental peace, there can be no happiness.



Darkness disappears, when light enters. Similarly, ignorance disappears, when one is enlightened.



When there is the Enlightenment, there, ignorance cannot exist.



One, who is a slave of the senses, is a fallen man. Because, he is wandering into gutters and ditches for impermanent sensuous pleasures.



One who uses senses with care, intelligence, discrimination and devotion is an ordinary man.



But, one who has conquered the senses is a divine and noble man.



Our biggest problem in the spirituality is this: having God within us, we search for God everywhere.




It is like sitting in a temple of Lord Krishna and asking everyone " where is Lord Krishna’s temple? ' people will give all sorts of directions. But, in actuality, you are right there, in the temple of lord Krishna.



Similarly, God is within us. But, we are asking everyone: ' Where is God? '



We get different answers from different people. Some will say, God is in this temple, or, in that temple. Others will say, to see God, you have to visit this holy place, or, that holy place.



But, all the while," God is within us ". In other words, we are always looking for God" somewhere else".



‘God or self ' is our true nature. Self-realization is our goal. Hence our tendency is to reach the ' self' ', to realize the ' self ‘. In other words, we are trying to ' gain the self ', by going somewhere else and ' acquiring ' it.



If you gain something, you can easily lose it. That which can be gained, can also be lost. Whereas, ' self ' is not something that can be gained or lost.



‘Self ‘is us. It is our true nature. This self is hidden from us, because, we are deluded. Hence, we identify with our false nature. When I am dreaming, whatever is happening in my dream, it is true. Nobody can convince a dreamer, that his dream experience is false. It is only when he wakes up, he realizes that it was only a dream and it was false.



Similarly, when I am deluded and consequently identifying with my false nature (dreaming), it is not easy for the sages to convince me that, it is my false nature.



In my ignorance, I am identifying with the body mind and intellect as me. From now on, whenever I say BMI, it means body mind and intellect. In actuality, I am not this BMI, but, I am the Illuminator of thisBMI.



Let us take an example of a room and electricity. The room is illumined by electricity. If I shut electricity off, the room becomes dark. That means the room and electricity are two different things. Electricity is the illuminator and the room is illumined. The illuminator and the illumined are different.



Similarly,' I ' the illuminator and This BMI, the illumined are different. Hence, lord Krishna says in Gita, the song Celestial, that Arjuna in his true nature, is not that BMI, but, the illuminator of that BMI.



In other words,' self ' is our true nature. Identification with our BMI is our false nature. When, we identify with our BMI, we are egocentric. If I am egocentric, I develop the feeling that I am bigger than thou,holier than thou, richer than thou etc.



Identification with my BMI--- is EGO. All the sufferings come to this BMI. That means, the sufferer is the EGO. If identification with my BMI is EGO, and if the ego is the sufferer, to the extent I detach myself from the BMI, to that extent my EGO is dead, and if the EGO is dead, where is the question of suffering for the fruits of my actions?



By deduction, all of our suffering is because of our EGO .EGO is our false nature. In our true nature, we are EGOLESS.



' God ' is totally EGOLESS. Hence, an enlightened person is totally EGOLESS.



Why do we pray to God? Why do we worship God? Does God care whether we worship him or not?



As we go deeper and deeper into spirituality, we realize that God cares less whether we worship him or not. Because, he is totally egoless. If somebody praises me, I like that person. Because, I have ego. If I am totally devoid of ego, I care less whether somebody praises me or,curses me.



Similarly, God Cares less whether we worship him are not. God is totally ego less.



Then, why do we pray? Why do we worship God?



' Prayer and worship ' are not for ' GOD ‘. They are for us. Prayer and worship will make our mind calm, serene and equipoised...



After all,' mind is man ' and ' man is mind ‘. As is mind, so is the man. If the mind is disturbed, man is disturbed. If the mind is calm, man is calm. If man wants to calm the mind, he needs prayer, worship and meditation. Hence, prayer, worship and meditation are for us, not for God.

These are the tools to make our mind calm, serene, equanimous and equipoised.



A calm mind is meditative mind. If we are mentally agitated, we cannot meditate. If we are unmeditative, we cannot have peace. If we are not peaceful, how can we be happy? (Says, Lord Krishna).



Hence, through prayer and worship, we can develop mental equanimity. If we have quiet mind, then, we can meditate. In a nutshell, if we truly meditate, in our deepest meditation, we will become aware of our true nature.



Mind you, we did not gain our true nature. It was there already. Our ignorance has disappeared, knowledge has dawned. Hence we became aware of our true nature.



Our true nature , ' self ' will shine forth in all its glory, if we unlearn our false tendencies, egocentricity etc. so, let us arise, awake and make an effort to unlearn our false tendencies, so that our true nature will shine forth. That is Godhood or self-awareness.



I will conclude this article by quoting swamy Chinmayananda's memorable statement which is as follows: man awakened to the glory of self is GOD. GOD forgetful of his own glory became a deluded man. We are in effect deluded men at this stage of our spiritual evolution.



Dr. Eswara Dutt.