The Power of Prayer

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Item Code: IDG493
Publisher: CENTRAL CHINMAYA MISSION TRUST
Author: Illustrations by Kay Kaiser
Edition: 2005
ISBN: 8175973390
Pages: 90
Cover: Paperback
Other Details 8.5" X 5.5"
Weight 150 gm
Fully insured
Fully insured
Shipped to 153 countries
Shipped to 153 countries
More than 1M+ customers worldwide
More than 1M+ customers worldwide
100% Made in India
100% Made in India
23 years in business
23 years in business
Book Description
About the Book:

Most of us are inspired to pray only at moments of emotional upheaval, when failure, success, or deep fears overwhelm us. At those times in our lives, says Swami Swahananda, "something is stirred up in man's heart; faith in a greater being or power is born, and prayer follows. Prayer is thus the deepest impulse of the soul of man."

Many know prayer only as a form of petition, a plea for a desired object or state, either for oneself or for someone else. But prayer can also take other forms, says Aldous Huxley, among others:

Prayer as adoration: an expression of love for God Prayer as contemplation: union with the Divine.

It is these higher forms of prayer that chasten us and mark a passage into higher states of consciousness. This kind of prayer brought to its culmination is a silent "standing before God," an unbroken state of union with the Higher. Prayer then is no longer the activity of a supplicant relative to a greater power, but is, instead, a state of being, one of total identification with the higher Reality.

Preface:

The urge to live a more complete and harmonious life; the wish to free the mind from the weight of worldly cares; the yearning to soar high and discover a diviner existence-all these can be fulfilled through prayer. Prayer is the most direct path for spiritual seekers. It is immediately available to all students at any level of understanding. It opens up humble and honest self-examination and produces a perfect realignment of one's relationship to the world and to God.

Surprisingly, many spiritual seekers may doubt the validity of prayer. They may waste precious time by putting forth their efforts into secondary religious practices, such as doing charitable deeds, following a pure diet, or studying scriptures. They miss the goal of all practices-direct communion with the Highest.

Perhaps the word "prayer" has been misunderstood. An unfortunate connotation of prayer is supplication, which implies a form of beggary resorted to by the emotionally dependent. This is not true prayer, it is only a preying upon the Lord.

Those who practice prayer know its power and the sublime heights to which it can raise the mind. If you try it, the saints say, you will know its truth. You will experience for yourself how a mind that has become twisted and bruised by worry, heavy with despondence, can within a moment of sincere prayer be completely rejuvenated. In this rejuvenation self-doubts and recriminations wash away, the mind regains confidence in the ultimate good of itself and of life, and the energy that was hitherto trapped floods forth with vigor. This is the incredible power of prayer.

Having purified the mind, prayer can lift one to even greater contemplative heights. The divinity lying in one's heart begins to flower, and in that flowering the ego gets weakened. Prayer than leads the seeker from the dualistic experience of separation and limitation to the immediate apprehension of nondual union with God.

In the following chapters, masters of several religious traditions address the greatness of prayer. Swami Swahananda, a monk of the Ramakrishna Order, presently serving in Los Angeles, speaks of the psychological benefits of prayer: Prayer has the capacity of transforming a man's character. It frees the mind from selfish ideas so that noble ideas can rush in. The desires of the mind are transformed as one becomes attuned to the Higher.

In "Prayer as Invocation," Swami Chinmayananda, a renowned Vedantic teacher, explains that success in life is not accidental-it can be invoked by a strong will imbued with confidence. In the same way, success in spiritual life must be invoked by faith in and identification with the Lord. Prayer can be defined as the method by which the divine qualities latent within us are manifested.

Aldous Huxley concludes Part One, "The Meaning of Prayer," with an analysis of four types of prayer, showing how each one evolves to the next in intensity and selflessness, until the highest type of prayer-contemplation and union with God-is reached.

Part Two, "Appreciating the Divine," focuses on prayer as praise and thanksgiving. Dr. Abraham J. Heschel, a world-known contemporary Hebrew scholar, addresses the need to appreciate the Divine. Awareness of the Divine beings with wonder, a deep wonder at the mysterious gift of life. When one looks at life and wonders, the wonder of being fills the heart. This is true worship.

Sri Daya Mata, the American-born disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, discusses coping with difficulties. She inspires the readers to live with faith, prayer, and surrender, mixing with the worldly yet never leaving the divine plane. We all search for peace and joy. Where can we discover it? Swami Ramdas, who inspired seekers of this century by his great devotion to Lord Rama, explains that we must tune our mind with the Lord through prayer and constant remembrance of God's qualities. As the intensity of longing for supreme bliss increases, we feel his nearness and begin to understand that all is ordained by him.

The highest form of prayer, which culminates in union with the Divine, is the theme of Part Three, "Joyous Communion." Swami Chinmayananda analyzes the different concepts of God that have evolved throughout the ages. We see in various traditions that the highest religious experience is the state of absorption in God. By refusing to worry, by seeing all events as the Lord's will, by serving in the world to exhaust one's inherent desires, one can invoke God and live a continuous devotional song of joyous oneness.

"Interior Prayer," from the very popular autobiography of a nineteenth century Russian pilgrim, quotes from a Catholic treatise on prayer. The message can be best summed up thus: "We think very little of God's presence and do not realize that we should be as rays of grace.... The method by which we can acquire this gift is constant awareness of God's presence. We should practice this until it warms our heart and enflames it to the unspeakable love for the Lord."

The final chapter is written by the highly respected present Sankaracarya of Kanchi in India. He cites Sanskrit verses that illustrate the nature of devotion. He ask: Why should we have devotion? In order to make the mind steady. "If you meditate on a thing with concentration, you acquire its qualities, and at last you become that itself."

When we understand prayer in terms of invocation, even the most rational seeker of Truth can understand the vital importance of prayer. The perfection and bliss of our inner Self can be ours when we surrender our sense of separation and attune our thoughts to the Divine. As we concentrate upon the higher possibilities, indeed they will start unfolding themselves.

CONTENTS

Preface1
PART ONE
THE MEANING OF PRAYER
I.The Benefits of Prayer
by Swami Swahananda
8
The Role of Faith9
The Power of Prayer12
The Rational Basis of Prayer13
II.Prayer as Invocation
by Swami Chinmayananda
17
Secret of Success18
The Power of Faith19
Impartiality of the Divine20
III.Types of Prayer
by Aldous Huxley
23
Petition23
Intercession26
Adoration27
Contemplation30
PART TWO
APPRECIATING THE DIVINE
IV.Wonder
by Abraham J. Heschel
36
Awareness of the Divine37
Source of Prayer39
V.Spiritualizing Life
by Sri Daya Mata
42
Plunge the Mind into Meditation43
Learn to Draw from a Higher Power44
The Value of Balanced Living45
Truth is Simple46
VI.God Remembrance
by Swami Ramdas
48
A Means to Communion49
The Agony of Separation51
God's Assurance52
Different Kinds of Prayer53
Beyond Prayer55
PART THREE
JOYOUS COMMUNION
VII.Developing a Relationship with God
by Swami Chinmayananda
62
Offering up One's Anxieties 64
Living and Growing in God65
The Four Conditions of Prayer68
Transformation of the Devotee70
The Power of Invocation72
VIII.Interior Prayer
from The Way of a Pilgrim and
The Pilgrim Continues His Way
74
St. Simeon the New Theologian on
Prayer of the Heart
74
St. Gregory of Sinai on Actualization
of God's Presence
76
Barsanuphius and John 79
Abba Philemon 80
IX.Devotion to God
by Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati
81
Anchoring the Mind81
Seeking God, Our Sanctuary 83
Praying for Purity85
**Contents and Sample Pages**








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