Om viśvāni deva savitarduritāni parāsuva yadbhadram tanna āsuv. Rik 5|2|5
Oh God, the creator of the whole world, take away the sins and vices of us all and grant us thoughts that are benevolent. Oh ocean of mercy, inspire our inner mind and hearts and make them pure and illumined.
In the above richa from Rigveda the rishi has prayed to the Supreme God. His first prayer is that God the Supreme may first remove our sins. It is quite natural that if we bring in hard earned articles we first think about how to store them. We create a proper place for them. When a farmer harvests his crop and thrashes out the grains, he does not throw the grains around everywhere without care. He prepares a storeroom for grains months in advance by cleaning it and purifies the same by burning Neem leafs, etc. Nowadays for sanitizing the grain stores different types of chemicals are available. Grain thus stored does not get infested by insects. Rainwater does not harm and the stored material remains safe as desired. However, if due to lethargy we throw the hard earned material anywhere without any thought for its protection, we shall face the consequences very soon. Grain may get infested by insects or may begin to rot due to moisture. Thus by not taking a little precaution, we may lose all that we earned by months of labour.
It has been the first concern of our rishis that before any energy of thought and intellect is gained as a boon from devotion to God and tapa’, Oh! God, wane out all our accumulated sins. Sins are nothing but mental tendencies that are ingrained in our subconscious mind due to our fallacious, vicious deeds and thoughts in the past. Whenever occasion arises these tendencies ride on our ego and mislead our intellect. When our intellect gets misguided then, driven by these intrinsic tendencies, we indulge in acts that we do not like ourselves. But we become helpless due to our habits and hidden force of the accumulated instincts. Hence the rishi is wary of such tendencies and prays to Almighty for the first boon that “God! Liberate us from our sinful tendencies. Till these persist, neither will we be able to do any worship nor render any noble deeds” After removal of sins, the rishi prays that may benevolent thoughts arise in our minds. Our senses execute such thoughts in the form of acts. Won’t such acts be benevolent if they are supported by our intellect and discretion? They will be, if they are due to a mental upsurge. It is worth noting that while conceiving this mantra through his angelic acumen, the rishi has kept in mind the welfare of everyone. Whatever he has prayed for, he has done it in plurals, i.e. as a representative of the entire society and of the period, and has not prayed just for himself or for any individual. It is quite natural that if everyone or the whole society gets benefited, our welfare will also not be excluded. Hence the feeling of “world-is-one-family” must have been imbibed in the rishi’s mind. Otherwise the rishi would have prayed, oh God! May good thoughts arise only in myself.
But can anybody live in peace by gaining boons while indulging in a self-centered prayer? Never. We earn a lot of wealth, create big palaces and by God’s grace good thoughts also arise in us, but if our neighbors turn more sinful day-by-day and their miseries and ill-will keeps growing, then the consequences of conduct of the society will have to be borne by us too, even if we may be great devotees of God. Neighbours will envy our wealth. They will envy our state of happiness and some day may indulge in robbery and ruin us. In contrast if wealth does not increase, but in the neighbourhood all people begin to think good and become benevolent, there will be heaven even in poverty. Jointly we all will spend our lifetime in happiness. This elevated state of mind belongs human beings only and distinguishes them from animals. Our whole social structure rests only on this one prayer of the rishi. If suddenly these feelings of good thoughts disappear from amongst us, this entire prosperity will get destroyed. There will be no development as well. As we see in animals, they do not have this concept of collective interest. Each is out to fill its stomach. Of course ants and bees are exceptions. On the other hand, there is man. Weaver weaves cloth, soldier protects and lives and dies for the security of the nation, scientist labours day and night for research, engineer develops, and likewise people in different occupations also work for others. Directly we see that in human society we all serve one another, and indirectly needs of all get adequately fulfilled. This way moves our society. We are developing day by day. Our means of conveniences and pleasures are increasing. The only reason behind all this development is that benevolent thoughts reside in our minds.
But the day benevolent thoughts and sentiments get removed from the man’s heart, narrowness and hatred alone will begin to occupy our minds and then no one can prevent disaster. In Tretayug the whole population of an island got destroyed only due to Ravan’s devilish arrogance. In Dwaparyug the terrible war of Mahabharat took place only due to malevolent thoughts and selfish desires of Duryodhan. The first and second world wars were also results of malevolent thoughts only. Hence our rishis already knew that praying for anything else other than enlightened thoughts is meaningless, because if the states of our mind are not good, every possession of ours could become a cause of hardship for us. On the contrary if benevolent feelings are everywhere then all useful means of happiness would automatically become available to us. Hence the rishi prays God to enrich us, that is, our whole society, with noble thoughts.
The main wealth that rishi has prayed for is of divine illumination thoughts. But this boon of thoughts will be fruitful only when it is again protected from the heat of sins by means of purity and righteous thinking. With a lot of effort we have brought home seeds of some rare tree and now we want to taste its fruit by planting them in the field. For this it is necessary to first plough the field and then make complete arrangements to protect it. It is not enough to only prepare the field and arrange for protection; we need to arrange for irrigation too. Finally the rishi again prays to God that may our inner souls continue to remain pure. When inner heart continues to be pure then the good thoughts inspired by the Almighty will get converted into good deeds and these good deeds would provide good results to the whole society. So all would be prosperous and happy and we also would derive benefits. Therefore, praying for collective enlightenment of the entire society, purification of everyone’s inner-self – is the best.
The great rishi Yagyavalkya decided to renounce his home after distributing his whole property equally to his both wives. Maitreyi was not satisfied and finally she asked the rishi, “My lord, will gain salvation by taking all this? Will turn immortal? Will I attain spiritual contentment?” The rishi interrupted his thought process and said, “No. It will not be so. Your life will continue to be full of wealth and comforts in future in the same way as it has been till now. Like other worldly people, you will also be able to spend your life in prosperity.”
Maitreyi was not satisfied and she asked, “Yenāham nāmatā syām kimham tena kuryam what use is it to take what does not give me immortality. I do not want this worldly life of prosperity and conveniences, my lord!” The great rishi enquired, “Then what do you want, Maitreyi?” And Maitreyi’s eyes were full of tears. Her heart was overwhelmed from within. That day Maitreyi laid down her head at the feet of the great rishi and said –
“Asato mā sadgamaya, tamaso mā jyotirgamaya, matyormā amatamgamaya, Aavirāvīrmã edhi rudra yattedaksina mukham tena mām pāhi nityam.”
“Oh God, take me from untruth to truth, elevate me from darkness to light and from death to eternal life! Oh Light! Become the source of the eternal glow (of inspiration in my heart) and enlighten my life. Destroy darkness of all my sins and ignorance by becoming Rudra for me. Grant me the sight of your blissful soul-form which is full of love, in whose shadow I get shelter till eternity.”
Maitreyi had spent her life full of happiness and prosperity in the company of the great rishi but this query of her heart had remained unanswered. She had attained no solution to this inner quest so far.
Whole life we accumulate wealth, prosperity, luxuries, property, cash, various items, valuable materials and provide the same to Maitreyi seated in our hearts and say to her, “Take! This will make you happy, give you pleasure.” We accumulate all sorts of material but Maitreyi in our hearts keeps on asking, “Yenāham nāmatā syām kimham tena kuryām?” In all these materials, solution to the eternal query of life is not there and she continuously longs for that quintessence of soul-reality which would provide her the true, enlightened eternity, which would protect her from everywhere and provide her unlimited, unalloyed happiness.
Maitreyi desired the soul-revelation, undistracted vision and the feeling of oneness with that Supreme Element which is Absolute Truth and Light itself, which could become eternal light of her life. Which like the Rudra-form of Lord Shiva, could destroy all her sins and bless her ultimate protection and salvation from all fears, ignorance and sorrows.
Maitreyi had learnt from her experience that this world and all its materials and relationships are perishable and their end results are darkness and untruth. Bodily, mental and materialistic sins and their ill effects always keep the soul impatient and in fear.
Man collects different materials, equipment etc., accumulates wealth and property, raises large palaces, and dresses up and beautifies his body in many ways. Immersed in organizing all this day and night, man develops affinity and attraction for them. Gradually this practice becomes so intense that he begins to regard these materials, equipments, relations as everything and continues his life with their support. But as per rules of the world, these material objects are lost every moment or keep getting modified. World and its materials keep getting built and keep getting destroyed. None of these is imperishable. Even man’s body falls off one day like a leaf from a tree. Even that does not stay. Whatever is visible in this world is all unreal, destructible and full of darkness. By taking support of all these, man every moment experiences their separation, change, and modification, and along with all the ups and downs of life, eventually experiences death. Whatever was assumed as true turns out to be untrue like a dream. Nothing but darkness prevails after the artificial light extinguishes. Every moment man continues to only wander in death, untruth and darkness. Fear, uncertainty, sadness, sins and their outcome do not allow him to remain still even for a moment. This sequence of progression continues unabated and there is no end it…..
Therefore beyond all these objects, materials, property and prosperity Maitreyi desired of something which is totally free from the destiny of destruction and darkness and after attaining that there would be no question of leaving or modifying it. That eternity which is beyond death, which is absolute, true, and which is all light and divine is what desired Maitreyi.
But we search for this eternity in the materialistic world by power and extrovert intellect and try to measure and examine it. We collect various materials and tell Maitreyi seated in our hearts “Take these oh Goddess! Accept these and enjoy life”, but every time expressing her dissatisfaction she enquires, “Will this render me eternity? No? Then this after all is not that what I want. Yenāham nāmatā svām kimham tena kuryām? Whatever does not render me eternity, what is its utility to me?” And uninterruptedly with tearful eyes and impatient heart she prays again and again –
“Asato mā sadgamaya, tamaso mā jyotirgamaya, matyormā amatamgamaya, Aavirāvīrmā edhi rudra yattedakšiņa mukham tena māṁ pāhi nityam.”
Oh eternal truth! Oh truth, present in me and everywhere around, take me out from the bounds of falsehood and assimilate me in your infinite radiance. Remove the illusory curtain of this world and take me in to your perennial palace, which is cast in truth, where exists nothing else but you. ‘Jyotiṣām yad jyotiḥ’ Oh Light Supreme amongst all lights of the whole universe! Your preeminent glow pervades everywhere, like the radiance of millions and millions of sun. Oh Light Supreme! Enlighten me by your pious touch so that I get liberated from all bonds of darkness and become the supreme light myself. “Oh pious elixir of joy! Source of supreme bliss! Only you exist everywhere as undying, indestructible, unlimited. This world gets created, exists and eventually gets destroyed in you only, but you continue to be serene and stable always. You have no form, no limits or age. Assimilate me in your eternal existence and make me also eternal.
“Oh Light Divine, brighten me fully by your incessant glow. Enlighten me absolutely by eliminating all darkness of selfishness, ego, attraction and affinity. The Meaning, Purpose & Benefits of Worship-
“Oh Rudra! Extinguish all my sins by the immense heat of your pure radiance. Destroy whatever sins evil desires, evil thoughts, evil actions etc that exist in my internal and external life by your rudra-brightness. Then there will be nothing but the unblemished regime of your preeminent light only left within me. Oh God! Oblige me by granting me your happy, sweet, enchanting view. Oh God! Then by becoming your abode I will be liberated from everywhere.”
Let us listen attentively to this prayer of Maitreyi the soul seated within us. Let us sing in tune with it. Let this prayer emanated from inner quest, intense desire, offered with tearful eyes not be any type of bargain nor any give and take, nor like an item collected for decoration. While dwelling in the world let us accept only that which will satisfy the eternal desire of our soul. Let it attain the true, incessant light. Let us leave out what does not grant us ultimate liberation. Let the mantra ‘Yenāham nāmatā syām kimhaṁ tena kuryām’ be our slogan of life.
Man of today compared to earlier times has become more fearsome for himself. He has sown in his heart so many seeds of ill will, dispute, cunningness, jealousy and passions and lavishness that his fragrant garden of heart has turned into a poisonous desert. The main reason for this is his the strong force of his kāma – sensual desires.
The stronger the lust of an individual, the poorer he is. His impatience grows by the same amount as his mind runs after the multifarious cravings. This variety of cravings alone leads him only to decline; no good-intentions can be expected from such a person who is headed for downfall. His contentedness is destroyed and thus he feels that all beings in the world are happier than him. He starts cultivating jealousy towards others and gets irritated with himself. He is always dissatisfied with everything, which generates a lot of anger in him. Due to this anger and lack of discretion he declines towards his total destruction at a quick pace.
To prevent his destruction man should control his untoward passions and cravings. The rule of nature in this regard is such that more the efforts to satisfy the worldly cravings, the more these increase. Hence their renunciation is the only solution to get rid of them.
These cravings and lusts are not like a cane in hand that falls off by itself the moment the grip on it is loosened. Rather, these are blemishes of many past lives, which accumulate and subtly shield mirror of heart. This smog and mist has to be washed off by wiping out again and again. Just as dirt cannot be cleaned up by dirt, so also these cravings cannot be washed off by beastly instincts and sensual desires. To wash them off pure feelings will be needed.
Amongst pure feelings of a humane heart, the feeling of compassion is of the highest order. Man should develop in himself more and more of empathic sensitivity. Empathy is a divine quality; it awakens the light of the soul. As soon as it rises, all mental illness, and weaknesses of man get washed off and his mirror of heart gets lighted up with the heavenly brightness, in which he can view the Supreme Soul in the form of his soul.
To develop this empathy man has to at first worship mercy, kindness with complete politeness. There is no religion or sect in the world, which does not give importance to the qualities like politeness, mercy, forgiveness, sympathy etc. To gain empathy man has to take shelter in God, the abode of empathy. Man has to go under His protection with all courteousness, lovingly fill His creation with mercy. He has to embrace courteousness.
All these qualities get earned instantly by recalling God with intense submission. Remember Him, call Him, remind Him about yourself, request Him, pray Him and surrender your to Him.
Requesting and praying worldly persons brings in man that inferiority, which renders the soul maligned and weak. But in contrast requesting and praying the Almighty brings in that submission, which enlightens the soul and renders light to it. In your request and prayer if you beg God for means of physical pleasures then you will get deviated from the route to your destination of inculcating compassion. You will again get headed towards the same desires of objects, to get rid of which you had initiated call to God. If at all you have to beg, then beg only for your aim, otherwise pray only for its pleasure. There is no worldly or divine material of any type, which cannot be gained by His grace. But still out of whatever is gained from Him you should attract the riches of great qualities and virtuous tendencies and try to expand them more and more.
Prayer is the simplest means to please God. At a definite time of the day with pure body and mind pray to Him through your heart and with the feeling complete submission. Let the words of prayer generate more and more empathy, be simple and sweet and their meaning be absolutely pious, without desires and filled with His merciful names. Let their meaning generate one desire-less pleasure. Let its tune be simple to sing and charming. Prayers can, of course, be in prose also, but expression of feelings cannot be so beautifully done in prose as in verse. Greater the assimilation of feelings of heart in your prayer, more the intensity of involvement, the faster will you be able to gain empathy and mercy of Supreme God.
There is no need to sing the prayer loudly. If at all you want to sing it, sing it with such uniform voice/tone that it does not put your throat to any great strain and all the same it is heard clearly by yourself.
Be carefree at the time of praying, get involved with a concentrated mind forgetting the whole world in such a way that nothing remains for you at that time besides prayer. Mental and emotional engrossment is the basic requirement in prayer.
The more intensely you remember the Supreme Soul, He will remember you with the same intensity. More and more you get attracted towards Him, that much more will He get attracted towards you. In this way mutual attraction from both sides shall soon remove obstacles and distance in between, and you will be able to see His presence in your own soul in the form of unalloyed joy.
There is a very great importance of prayer in upāsanā. There has been no great soul or preacher of religion in the world who has not adopted God’s prayer in one form or the other. Even the different manifestations of God pray to each other. Lord Vishnu prays Lord Shiva, Shiva prays to Vishnu; both Lords Brahma and Vishnu offer prayer to Lord Shiva, while Vishnu and Shiva pray to Brahma. No goal can be accomplished without prayer to the Supreme Soul. Mahatma Gandhi used to say “prayer is my life source, my life. I can leave food, leave water, leave all things of the world, but cannot leave prayer. By praying I feel the happiness, peace, strength and completeness inside me. When there is delay in my prayer or for any reason I am not able to perform prayer, then that day becomes the worst day for me. I feel as if I am without life and have become weak. I feel as if I have done nothing, nor am I capable of doing anything. Inside me I start feeling a terrible emptiness. After performing prayer all weaknesses vanish instantly and I start feeling completeness all again within.” He also stated “I am able to bear all sadness, all sufferings and all conflicts smilingly on the strength of prayer. I never get a feeling that I am in any conflict or suffering. In every way I remain happy and full of delight.”
What this means is that in prayer all the strength and all the pleasures abide. Amongst all the reasons of Mahatma Gandhi’s success, prayer is the main. With the spiritual strength of prayer only he led such a big nation, won the war of freedom, and tied the followers of various religions into the thread of unity. With this inner strength alone he won over the various big materialistic foreign statesmen.
Every living being has the merciful boon of the Supreme Soul. God goes on bestowing his inexhaustible mercy on every living being without any discrimination. He has enshowered many types of merciful boons at every step for enhancement of pleasure and for elimination of sufferings of living beings. Activities of life of the living beings go on with the help of these only. If the magnificent creation of body and mind had not been done in such a nice way, the existence of living beings itself would not have appeared, nor would they have been able to enjoy the essence of life in a natural way. In other words, the happy sustenance and welfare of living beings becomes possible only with the grace and support of Almighty’s mercy.
It is quite proper for man, the gainer of God’s unending mercy and empathy, that he continues to prove his due eligibility by giving out a part of that merciful boon to the other helpless, handicapped and backward people. Of course it is not possible to repay God for his mercy, but at least it is possible that we continue to express our heartfelt gratitude to make His weak children happy and prosperous and continue to make sincere efforts for welfare of society to the extent possible for us.
Compassion should get transformed into sympathy and heartfelt feelings. Only those feelings are fruitful which are transacted into actions. There is a lot of suffering in the world. If we are able to share a part of others’ sufferings and are able to heal the hearts of the depressed, it will be greatness that is expected of man. Prayer to God is not just the hummed or repeated words brought out at the time of worship. Real prayer is that which takes the shape of unending well wishes for others and gets expressed in the form of altruistic sensitivity and sympathy to help all living beings.
Let us pray to God beg of him only one thing that He may emanate in our inner self a tiny spring of that magnanimous compassion, in which He bathes all living beings and continues without any bounds to make them happy, prosperous and progressive.
God is all-powerful and the reason worldly man wants to develop relations and contact with that Almighty is that he can take its advantage in fulfilling his selfish needs. This is why in spite of being so near this Omnipotent source man continues to remain in the same state and degrades himself in the sight of the Supreme Lord.
The cooperation of any great and reputed person is expected only worth his dignity and he is approached only with that type of prayer/proposal. But people think of approaching God only with their petty desires and small wants, and pray for their fulfillment.
Prayer is not begging of something from God, but people keep begging only for worldly acquisitions like son-heir, wealth-prosperity, name-respect, etc in their ‘prayers’ to God. This contrast appears because of not understanding the meaning of prayer. Whatever God was able to give to His dear child, He has already given in the best form. Now He wants to see whether His child has understood the value of those gifts or not. Has he or has he not been able to utilize in the best possible way the available resources and powers? In spite of when He sees His child crying, cringing, petitioning…., He must be feeling dejected sometimes to see that all the precious gifts that He bestowed upon man and upon no other living being in this world have gone waste, simply because man could not appreciate their worth. There is a famous story about a devotee to whom his guru gave a touchstone for some time and told him that he remove his poverty using it. The devotee did not know what use should he put the touchstone to. So for one year he continued to use the stone as a weight for weighing. After one year when the guru returned he thought that his devotee by now must have become quite prosperous. But he was disheartened to see that his devotee is still sitting in a shabby shop weighing things and cursing his poverty.
On asking what did he do with the touchstone, the reply of the disciple was – It was a great convenience in weighing any item. Earlier he used to weigh things with pieces of brick-stones that caused problems. Now it has become quite convenient to weigh objects with this stone.
Seeing this, the guru felt very sorry for his disciple’s intelligence. Similar pity the Supreme Soul must be feeling when He sees the man crying and complaining even after He has bestowed upon him the best of things, powerful resources and enormous capabilities. For sure these conveniences and resources have been provided so that with their help man lives his life with ease and enhances the adornment and beauty of the ‘garden’ of the Supreme Creator.
Prayer should be resorted to only for extermination of this satan in soul and for establishing close contact, relation, nearness with the Supreme Soul, whose eternal part man is. By establishing oneness with the Almighty whose part he is, he can also become as capable as Him. Several small rivulets and drains themselves become rivers by merging with rivers. Fuel takes the shape of fire by getting into fire, rivers become ocean by getting into the ocean. Merging of rivulets into river, meeting of river with ocean and entrance of fuel into fire converts them into that form. Exactly like that prayer should also make man merge with his final destination. The union of an insignificant with the enormous is possible by means of a movement, an effort only. Prayer also can be termed as a driving support, a medium, which enables the journey from pettiness to greatness, miniscule to infinite, and from mortal beings to the Omnipotent. This is the only meaning of prayer, not begging. Only such a prayer can become a source of immense spiritual power.
Source: The Meaning, Purpose and Benefits of Worship
