Why has prayer gone missing from our lives? - II

 

 

TRUE, temples are receiving throngs of devotees on a daily basis -- young and old. Consequentially, there is reason to believe that prayers are pretty popular with people. People pray, bow to the Divine, surrender to the Ultimate Power ... and then place demands at the altar! So, prayer is very much relevant in people’s lives, as anybody would see and say. How, then, can one ask why the prayer has gone missing from our lives ? This question does need a rather elaborate consideration. For, prayer is not a charter of demands to the Divine. Much to the contrary, prayer is a communion with the Divine -- located within self, and not anywhere else. Yes, it may require a physical symbolism -- of a deity, so to say, or a saint or a ‘guru’ or spiritual master. Despite that, prayer is something of far greater and deeper and higher importance than just urging Gods to bless the person with success or happiness or prosperity. Of course, those elements may get included in a prayer as part of the person’s wish-list, all right, but cannot form the core of the statement of surrender to the Divine. In other words, prayer is expected to be focused on the individual person’s own inner self, urging him or her to understand self in a clearer light, and make a list of the negative elements in personality to be erased and the positive elements to be enhanced -- on the strength of personal resolve to achieve a higher refinement of personality.

 

In response to last week’s question ‘why has prayer gone missing from our lives?’, a few readers responded with different approaches to the issue -- which was welcome. One of the premises propounded in those responses was that large numbers of devotees to the temples show that people still value prayer. The thought, certainly, has its own value, all right. And if that statement is to be taken as the final truth, then there is no need to further this discourse from this point on. Yet, the issue is not as simple as it appears on the surface. Hence the need for a detailed consideration. Of course, there is no need to question the seriousness of intention of people going to temples and offering prayers or placing worship at the altar. For, different people respond to the presence of the Divine in their own and different ways. To different people, prayer may have different meanings, all right. So, to that extent, it is absolutely acceptable that prayer continues to dominate people’s lives in some or the other way. Yet, as the last week’s column meant to state, the prayer is a conversation with the self within -- urging it to understand the importance of looking inward, at one’s own faults and foibles, and urging self to start rectifying the negatives and enhancing the positives in a personality -- so that virtue has an upper hand in human conduct.

 

The prayer, thus, is an appeal to one’s inner self -- in favour of correction of the negative and turning that into the positive aspect of personality. Prayer, thus, is an appeal to self -- and this part may not be found with every person going to places of worship. In sheer terms, prayer is a reminder to self of the right things to do and the wrong things to avoid! Enough signs are available from the larger human community that this metaphysical part of the prayer is not the matter of everyday practice of the people -- especially the young people (whose lifestyle often interferes with the personal connect or communion with the Divine or whatever may higher power be or mean). So the question: Why has prayer gone missing from our lives? Is prayer in this manner being practised by people ? Upon the correct answer to this poser will depend our collective understanding of the truly fine cultural and spiritual nuance of life!