Month: November 2019

Growing up in a Hindu family, prayer has always been an integral part of my religious practices. But as I grow more conscious of spirituality, I come to one conclusion.

Prayer is NOT religious. Infact, it’s a vital part of our spiritual practices.

Let me start by clarifying the misconception, that “God comes to us when we pray”.

God is omnipresent. Well if you’re rolling your eyes at the use of the term God (because you are thinking of one specific energy), then let me rephrase.

The Universe is omnipresent.

Thus, in prayer, WE go to God.

What does that mean?

As we establish a connection with the ‘beyond’, we work to eliminate the heavy densities of fear and doubt. So, we start moving up the ladder, to start operating in a lighter state of knowing.

This often occurs in our worst times, when we remember, or atleast hope to be assured, that life can’t be this bad. That there must be grace somewhere. And when we reach out to it, we take our leap of faith.

So, the Universe is always subtly present but in true, deep-felt prayer, the subtlety becomes a roaring presence.

And thus, the grace we seek is no longer subtle either. Our life speeds up.

Have I experienced this personally? YES. In today’s list, there’s a personal story associated with it, to help you see the power of prayer.

Ofcourse, there would be no point chanting a prayer if you didn’t know what it meant. Because, any act of devotion is only as meaningful as YOU, the person praying can intend it to be. So, I’ve shared the meanings for each, that you can invoke in your heart.

#1 – Om PRAYER

MEANING : OM, or AUM, is the sound of vibration that reverberates throughout each particle of the universe, of existence. When you become one with this prayer, you become one with existence itself.

NOTE : Here’s a beautiful OM chanting music, click to check it out.

MY STORY : I started chanting Om when I first began meditation and my mindset was very pessimistic, and depressive. So, I talk about more about my meditation stories in this dedicated post, and as you will find, this simply word with its vibrations was just the beginner’s luck I was aching for!

#2 – Heartfulness Prayer

O Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes
Putting bar to our advancement.
Thou art the only God and Power
To bring us up to that stage.

MEANING : The first part of the prayer affirms our goal – enlightenment. The second part refers to our present state, acknowledging that we are the creators of our own problems and that our wishes and attachments are obstacles to our progress. The third statement points to the source of our liberation, recognising that it is God alone who can help us rise to the higher state of existence.

(meaning extracted from : http://www.sahajmarg.org/sm/practice/prayer-meditation )

MY STORY : At a time where I was meditating daily but still quite restless and moody, the Heartfulness Way came to me like serendipity and changed my life. The prayer has brought me immense peace and clarity, and I continue to reflect on it every night before bed.

#3 – Lotus Sutra

Namyo Ho Renge Kyo

MEANING : I am devoted to the mystical law of Cause and Effect. In other words, repeating this prayer is a reminder to ourselves to be Conscious of our actions, and to let the Universe help us rapidly clear it. The faster you pray on this mantra, it is believed that life moves faster too!

NOTE: Incase you find it tricky to pronounce, here’s a powerful online version.

MY STORY : I chanted this prayer for one hour, and three days later, met my to-be in-laws and one week later, my now-husband! Before this, we had been actively searching for the ‘right guy’ since several months to no avail. It was this prayer that assured me, that sometimes our life is just a few chants away from completing a life-old promise and experiencing a true transformation.

Did life speed up? Oh boy, it did! I got married within the next 6 months and it was time for me to move to a completely different continent, with a new career path and family.

#4 – Forgiveness, Grace & Protection Prayer

I often heard my grandfather say this prayer in Hindi, which translates to,

If I have created bad Karma, please forgive me.
Please grace me.
Please protect me.

MEANING : The beauty is in its simplicity. When you seek humble forgiveness, when you acknowledge the karmic debts, you walk towards liberation. We alone cannot understand our Karma, because we are not that Conscious or evolved, but the all-knowing within each of us can help us act in a way to release them and free us.

MY STORY : This prayer humbles me, every time. Having been reflecting on it since I was a kid, it always reminds me that I’m only a part of the grand scheme of things, and only here to play my part. There are moments when I’m filled with hopelessness or resentment, and this prayer clears my head and the hurt.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON PRAYING

While Karma, action, is important, so is being still and acknowledging the power of the Universe. Through prayer, you develop that connection during stillness; a key component to Self Actualization.

Keep doing, keep being, keep praying. 🙂

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As much as talking about my spiritual stories excites me, there have been some odd and unnerving spiritual awakening experiences along the way, which took some patience and perspective to overcome. These make me nostalgic and grateful to see how far I’ve come though, so no grudges! 🙂

Sharing a few of such moments, and hopefully in better light, so that you feel motivated to keep going.

#1 – The duality will seem more obvious and unsettling than ever.

This may mean a few things, all which can be really scary to feel, such as,

• you no longer like your job;
• you no longer enjoy the things you used to (drastic change of habits, possibly making you an introvert if you weren’t one already);
• you no longer enjoy being around certain people;
• you may start resenting material pleasures;
• you might look down on people that aren’t living as Consciously (which takes me to the next point);

My takeaway: I experienced ALL of these, and almost all at once. It was scary and I felt isolated. But gradually, I started enjoying my own company. So much, that I stopped going to parties or hanging out around people that I didn’t really vibe with. In other words – you will be able to transmute this into your strength, once you realize that YOU are still with yourself, and that’s really all that matters!

#2 – You will not be consistent as a person, especially not spiritually.

If you’re like me, you might actually jump between one form of healing to another and feel short-lived joy. Here’s what I was like in the first two years.

• Balanced chakras a few times and felt like a saint, until I clearly wasn’t;
• Learned Reiki and completely quit after 3-4 days of practice;
• Practiced hypnotherapy for a few sessions and felt healed (that bubble did pop quite a number of times);
• Meditated sporadically and kept getting agitated at home and office;
• Journaled for several pages right before getting into an ugly argument with my parents!

My takeaway : It’s okay to be inconsistent or to keep exploring. Spirituality cannot and should not be FORCED. Treat this as your “no-strings-attached” period with spirituality where you’re not completely committed for some time. Eventually, you will automatically incline towards some practices more than others. Until then, keep going!

#3 – You may experience arrogance, that you’re better than the people who are not Spiritual.

On the contrary, you may feel arrogant infront of other spiritual people too, and cut them off when they’re sharing something.

You might roll your eyes and think, you already know that, why are they wasting time repeating things to you!

My takeaway: Life has its own ways of humbling and grounding us. To save the embarrassment, I’d encourage you to focus on holding more compassion in your heart, so that you are able to accept people as they are. Work on keeping your heart open and reflecting on the way the ego-mind makes you think you know it all. And also on holding space for repeated advice – usually its the things we are so confident about are the ones that require most attention and sorting through.

#4 – You may feel overdosed.

Constantly seeing 11:11 on the clock, animal totems, or noting down synchronicities was overwhelming!

When I had first started reading spiritual books and trying all sorts of spiritual practices, I would swing like a pendulum.

A few days or weeks, I’d devote to all things spiritual. And then, I’d ‘compensate’ because I was feeling overwhelmed by my spiritual awakening experiences.

My takeaway : Though you will gradually establish a natural and less awkward rhythm in life, if you’re feeling this way, and want to do something about it, here are some suggestions. Try to balance yourself a little in both aspects of your life, by practicing grounding and balancing your chakras. It also helps to meditate on crystals that balance our energy.

#5 – You may actually lose a lot of relations, or they may become somewhat irrelevant.

This is natural. You’re experiencing a growth spurt and the only thing that’s constant right now, is the growth itself!

As with all things, you will find new relations form where people vibe at your frequency and understand the experiences you’re having.

It’s also important to understand what role the old relations played in your life, and what lessons the new ones are bringing to the table. As you understand how each relationship helps you to heal, you will no longer be as attached to the relations or be so affected by the flux in dynamic.

My takeaway : It may be this way for quite some time, don’t let it get to you. Place your anchor within yourself, and your faith in the universe.

#6 – You may not behave spiritually at ALL!

I can’t even count how many times I’ve exploded in rage when cars on the streets cut my lane or honked incessantly at me the second the signal turned green. Even worse, I’ve over-reacted at home, and at work, for situations that now obviously seem petty. For a long time, it hardly seemed like spirituality was changing my behaviour.

At times, it feels like being Spiritual is a curse more than a blessing because now we REALISE how many mistakes we make and we are desperate to really correct ourselves.

But being so deeply rooted in our past habits and patterns, it can take a really long time before we start acting like the way we think we should be acting, now that we’re conscious. Our spiritual awakening experiences can seem counterintuitive in the beginning.

My takeaway : As the saying often goes around, give time, time. Let yourself gently come out of years of behaviors and patterns. I assure you that in due course of time, you will be able to match your mind and actions.

#7 – You may start preaching about your spiritual awakening experiences.

Because we think we know better (#3), we start preaching and nitpicking at people. We want them to behave in certain ways and we might scoff at them for not being conscious about the things that we have. We might think we’re being helpful, but it can seem more like mothering or teacher-ing, to those at the receiving end.

My takeaway : Eventually, you’ll learn how to experience your truth without trying to impose opinion or recommendations on other people unless asked for. This infact has been my latest lesson, several years into the journey. Stop giving unsolicited advice. I still fumble with this one, but I’m getting there!

Concluding Thoughts

So you see, the journey is quite a ride. But the thing that always makes it promising is the benefits. You will start feeling balance in many forms, and it’ll all fall into place much faster than things do for people that aren’t consciously living out their lives.

So, hang in there. Not only does it get better, YOU get better too! 🙂

Oh, and you might want to explore this post next, the 10 Stages of a Spiritual Awakening.

Happy Waking Up, Dear One 🙂

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