Spirituality behind regular prayers

This article is one of the chapters in my book on spirituality, titled, "The Spirit Of Spirituality". Readers may wish to purchase the book which has over 90 articles at Amazon.com.

The Spirit Of Spirituality

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Most of us go through various forms of devotion in some form or another regularly. Almost all of us who are devoted tell some prayer or the other. More often than not, at least in my case, these prayers were chanted mechanically without a real appreciation of what the prayer stood for. Many a times, some of us who claim to have learnt a bit of Sanskrit get the ego kick that we understand a prayer. However many of these prayers have a deeper meaning than what we can translate.

I am listing below some of my favorite prayers

1. An attitude of gratitude

One of the critical important paths on the spiritual quest is the Bhakti route. This is not the traditional way wherein we go to a temple, roll around the sanctum sanctorum or sing bhajans. Bhakti is an attitude of gratitude for what we are today. It is an acknowledgement of the role several people have played in bringing us to our current glory. It is a way to control over ego. A control over ego is the first step in achieving divinity. The prayer below covers this aspect of the spiritual journey.

Guru Brahma Gurur Vishnu Guru Devo Maheshwaraha
Guru Saakshat Para Brahma Tasmai Sree Gurave Namaha

Meaning: Guru is verily the representative of Brahma,
Vishnu and Shiva. He creates, sustains knowledge and destroys the weeds of
ignorance. I salute such a Guru.

Whatever we are today is because of a teacher. The teacher is not only the person in a classroom who taught us ABC. Obviously our teacher started off with the great prakriti who taught us the most natural act of crying as babies to get attention. Our parents are teachers who taught us to take the first step and eat the first morsel of food on our own. The list goes on and includes everything in nature from which we learn so much every day.  Hence my first verse goes in humble obeisance to that multitude of teachers who made me what I am today.

2. A move to immortality and supreme bliss

Asato maa sadgamaya Tamaso maa jyotirgamaya
Mṛityor maa amṛitan gamaya Om shaanti shaanti shaanti

Meaning: “From the unreal, lead us to the Real; from darkness, lead us unto Light; from death, lead us to Immortality. Om peace, peace, peace.”

This is a fabulous prayer taking us to the roots of spirituality. This world is an illusion created by the power of Maya. The only reality is the supreme consciousness or Brahman. So the first two lines pray that we be freed from the unreal feeling of duality and consequent pain in this illusory world to the supreme peace of the only reality, which is Brahman. Since the only reality is Brahman and there is nothing else at all, there is nothing like life and death to an individual. This prayer gives us the phenomenal ability to realize that we are all immortal and do not need to fear the dark forebodings of death and mortality.

3. An appeal for liberation from bondage

OM Tryambakam Yajamahe Sugandhim Pushtivardhanam
Urvarukamiva Bandhanam Mrityor Mukshiya Mamritat

Meaning: We worship the three-eyed Lord (Siva) who is full of  sweet fragrance and nourishes human beings. May he liberate me from bondage, even as the cucumber is severed from the vine. This is the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra.

The main reason for our repeated cycle of births and deaths is our unfulfilled desires. We take birth each time to fulfill a set of desires and in the process accumulate more desires which lead to more births. Can this cycle ever be broken? We need the ability to stay away from any binding desires, be they physical, emotional or intellectual. We should take the opportunity we have got as a human being to realize the true purpose of this human birth, which is nothing but to gain liberation. Any other life form goes through the motions of life in a programmed manner with no deviation. Only man has a chance and that too if he realizes the futility of binding desires. Hence this prayer is an appeal for help to cut our bondage to desires and lead us on to divinity.

4. A total sense of surrender

Kayena vacha manasendriyenva Buddhayatmnava prakreetiswabhavat

Karomi yadhyat sakalam parasmai Narayanayeti samarpayami |

Meaning: Whatever I do with my mind, body, speech or with other senses of my body, Or with my intellect or with my innate natural tendencies, I offer everything to the Lord!

Most of us go through life’s various activities. In our own ignorance we arrogate to ourselves, the ownership of the activities and when the results are not in-sync with our expectations, we become sad and dejected.

One of the most powerful ways on the route to spirituality is to do any action as an agent. If there is an attitude, that I have to do an activity because it is my obligation, I will not worry about the results. Just as a soldier kills on the battlefield as an agent of the country and he will not be punished for any act, similarly if we do any act as an agent of the supreme, there is no impact. Every action incidentally which is done with a feeling of ownership has a karmic impact with strong potential for a rebirth due to that action. However any action done with a true feeling that it is my obligation to serve humanity or this activity is for a larger cause beyond my selfishness, will not have any karmic impact.

5. The relationship between created and creator

Om Poornamadah Poornamidam Poornaat Poornamudachyate

Poornasya Poornamaadaaya Poornamevaavashishyate

Om Shanti Shanti Shantih

Meaning: That (brahman) is whole. This (creation) is also whole.  From that whole (i.e. brahman only) this whole has come out (creation).
But even though this whole has come out of that whole yet that whole remains whole only.

This is a splendid prayer and it also shows the highest evolution that ancient Indian spiritual masters had reached. It says that brahman or consciousness is complete by itself and out of it came this creation which is also complete. One might wonder what could happen to the creator (brahman) if from it, a whole came out. Used as we are to routine arithmetic where a – b means that a is reduced, we may think that since this creation has been taken off from brahman, Brahman stands reduced. This is where the loftiness of the spiritual masters comes in. They said even if this creation is subtracted from brahman, brahman is unaffected and remains as it was.

In mathematical terms, if brahman = infinity and this universe = infinity, then any mathematical student will agree that infinity – infinity is still infinity.

In a slightly different example, when I am dreaming, I create a world of my own from myself. But in no way do I the person sleeping on the bed gets subtracted. In the same way, through Brahman’s own illusory power this universe is created. But it does in no way reduce Brahman.

6. Peace Everywhere

Om Shanthi Shanthi Shanthihi

Meaning :  (Let there be) Peace, Peace, Peace

One may wonder why we recite the peace word thrice. All of us by now agree that the aim of human birth is to attain Brahman or that infinite happiness. For achieving that state, one needs to have a peaceful mind so as to focus on that objective. However we are never peaceful.

 The triggers for any person to lose peace come primarily from 3 sources:

a. Nature: This could be natural events like floods, famines, drought etc. This is something not within a person's control and are "acts of God". But they can have a devastating impact on the emotional stability of an individual.

b. Environment: Stress trigger also could be caused by the environment in which an individual functions. It could be the family environment, office, stock market etc. A severe fight with the spouse can lead a person to emotional instability. A stock market collapse can create mental turmoil. Several people committed suicide after the stock market crash during the great Depression period in USA.

c. Internal : Stress trigger may arise from one's own thoughts. I may imagine the worst in every situation and get stressed. Have we not heard of people who are afraid of their own shadows, literally? At the extreme, this progresses into situations where people here voices that don’t exist, see people and situations that don’t exist.

Hence the prayer request that I as a student on the spiritual path should be protected from the 3 sources which cause me to lose peace.

 

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality