Some people say, “Prayer is a state of being – it’s not something
that you do; it’s something that you are.”
Actually, this state refers not so much to prayer as to
prayerfulness, an inner attitude of absorption in God. Certainly such
prayerfulness is a spiritually evolved state of consciousness that we all
should aspire for. But we can’t actualize this aspiration merely by imagining
that we have it – we need to cultivate it by consciously engaging in
appropriate activities.
Consider, for example, how people become absorbed in cricket
– by watching cricket, playing cricket, reading cricket, talking cricket,
dreaming cricket. Thus, repeated intentional engagement in a thing engenders
constant absorption in it. This principle applies all the more so to God
because he is not perceivable at the material level of reality where our
consciousness is at present.
By tapping the symbiotic relationship between prayerfulness
and prayer, we can enter into ever-intensifying divine absorption.
To spiritually stimulate our consciousness, we need to
conscientiously engage in activities such as praying that invoke God’s
presence. And we need to go to places such as temples where his presence is
more easily perceivable. When we thus regularly bask our consciousness in his
presence, our connection with him deepens, and eventually his presence
permeates our entire being.
Significantly, the Bhagavad-gita (09.14) states that
advanced spiritualists strive to engage constantly in devotional activities
such as kirtan (a collective prayer). This indicates that even the spiritually
evolved engage in prayer – not because they need to, but because they love to.
Just as we naturally express externally any emotion that strongly animates us
internally, so do advanced spiritualists naturally express their devotion. And
this outer expression subsumes their senses in an experience of God, thereby
intensifying their inner absorption. Thus prayerfulness, far from replacing
prayer, reinforces it.
By tapping the symbiotic relationship between prayerfulness
and prayer, we can enter into ever-intensifying divine absorption.
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