Contemplative Prayer - 13th November 2024

Then happy to try and help. So let's take for a minute, let's take another example. If it's like—I just felt because I came back from work, I didn't know how tired or not I will be, so I went and had a nap after work. And after the nap, I felt like some energy, so I can just spend my evening with my teacher. So then I posted over there and then I saw so most of you, had such short notice, just came now. If you can do this for this foolish one, we should do a gazillion times more for the One who lives in your heart. This one is just an instrument of the One who lives in your heart. So if that kind of urgency, that kind of commitment we can show towards Him also, then your life is—nothing really left to be done. And I do realize that you come here because you feel like you will deepen in God's love. But what time you say? 6:30, 5:30, 6:30? So every moment is that potential where He's waiting in your heart. That is also such a privilege that He's there. And if we just allow Maya to have her way with us, then even our spirituality becomes so... I suppose that if I came to someone's house at 6:30 and everybody was too busy, didn't want to come, so I wait for half an hour, 'Okay, it's a busy house, I'll go now.' Would you do that to God? But aren't you doing it too? So it's not a matter of getting us to examine our life and what is really useful, because this is the only meaning I found of my life. I looked for meaning for a long, long time. I read many, many books and I almost became nihilistic in the sense of 'there is no meaning,' but we can try and invent a meaning for ourselves—all those kind of philosophies. Nothing really satisfied my heart until I realized that the meaning of my life is to love God and to be with Him. In a way, I suppose all of you do that at your own pace for yourself and determine for yourself what you feel is the most meaningful way to spend your life. And that's a beautiful contemplation. But if you want to learn from the experience of those who we are coming across, then at least I can tell you that examining so many sources of meaning and how it needs to be found—so whether you look at existentialism, absolutism, nihilism, positivism—all of these things, I just felt like they appeal to me, but it doesn't settle in my heart. I don't feel like I'm at home unless I'm with God or knowing that He's there with me.

And why not spend time? Like all of us grapple with it. We had some silly situation in the office today where for quite some time I forgot about God. Maybe 45 minutes I didn't think of my Ram. So 45 minutes wasting this life. But what can we do? When we remember, we just come back. There's no point becoming guilty and saying, 'Oh...' because that is more time added. So Maya pulls us, it pulls all of us. We just have to learn to settle in His presence. Prayer is a very simple tool, inquiry is a very simple tool, and the quiet prayer is very simple too. Then just to love and actively... it can seem a bit difficult, like we don't know how to do it initially, but it becomes more and more natural. So you can just be in that love. It's a very beautiful state. You just love God actively, either with the support of words or without. There are many ways, pathways to Him. So the methods are not a problem, they are available. The truth of it—whether it is a fact that He does live in your heart—that is for you to examine. Because I can only say, I can only guide, I can only share my experience. And if you feel that it is true that He is there, then it is for you to examine whether a life spent without His presence, in spite of Him being there, is worth it for you or not. That again is something that you have to examine. But if you say that He is there and I want to spend my life living in His love and light and in service to Him, then the tools are available. We are very lucky that we live in an age where we have access to so many pathways to God. Then it's a matter not merely of intending, but following through on our intention. And when we forget, we just come back. That's it. So what? Like much of it, I can pray, I can bless you, I can do, I can speak the words, but the day-to-day Mahabharat with Maya that you have to do. And I don't know what value the teacher's blessings have and all those things, but all those are there with you. But you have to go to war with Maya. If you keep falling through, then it won't be that easy.

Can you just remind us again, like you told us, that focused prayer? Like hold that one statement which is contemplative?

Yeah, one being: take any book which is written, preferably written by a sage. So you can take any of the Indian sages, any of the Western sages, any religion, any tradition—it doesn't matter. But it must strike you as having the hand of God. Maybe then it's really helpful. So if you feel like the perfume of God is there when you read something, then those books are really helpful for contemplative prayer. Contemplation, not just attention. So then what you do is, like if you're reading the 'Interior Castle' for example, you're reading the Bhakti Sutras for example, if you're reading the Bhagavad Gita for example—any of those. So you're reading it and you come across a line which really appeals to you somewhere. Like I've been taking the example of this line from St. Teresa of Avila. She said, 'How beautiful must that place be in my heart where His Majesty Himself comes, takes delight in resting.' So she said, 'How beautiful must that place be in my heart where His Majesty takes delight in resting.' God takes delight in resting. So you can take that line. So the point is not to rush through any of that. So this line is there, then when you read it, what happens? It leaves a certain fragrance within. It leaves like... it's like you're not done with it. So you stay with that line and don't move forward until from your heart you feel like you're done with it. In the sense that—I remember earlier when Radha used to sing, she would start the bhajan and finish it in one minute. So I was like, 'I'm just getting started!' She said, 'No, no, but I didn't want to take too much time,' or she was feeling conscious. So I said, 'No, keep singing it until you feel like in your heart you're done with the bhajan.' So in the same way with this line, you can take it on and just stay with it. It'll take you to a quiet place. And then when you find yourself getting distracted by the mind again, then remember the line again and say, 'How beautiful must that place be where His Majesty loves to, delights to rest.' Return to that. And then what will happen is after maybe—it depends, some lines five minutes, some lines one hour, some lines 30 minutes—so when you feel like then you remember that line, it no longer has the potential to bring you to that place, then you move to the next paragraph, next sentence, you see? So you may spend like the entire day reading only half a page or one page. Or you may start off by skimming a lot because if your mind is distracted, if you've been at work all day or something, then you may not immediately get into that mode. So you may read two pages. The good thing is we have thousands of books and scriptures which can have that effect on us. Read, read until you come to a line which really hits. Then over there, don't rush. Then stay with them.

That's like that... in the world where there are such great sages, and in my Father's garden there are these big flowers like roses and daisies and all those flowers, but I don't feel like I'll ever be able to be one of those big flowers. But I'm happy to be a little flower so that one day He looks down at His feet and He sees this little flower. I hope I bring a smile to His face. So just reading those two or three lines brings you to that bhava, that love, that devotion, and then you can just allow yourself to be the flower. So I love this. I mean, I can spend days just doing this, just contemplative, stay with the line. So I don't feel like there's anything else that is needed actually. Just with the name of God, there's nothing else that is really needed. But sometimes Maya is so strong that we need to be inspired by a sage in some way. Read these inspirational lives of the sages or your leelas of God, then you get inspired to stay within God. It can be anything. It can be a modern book, it doesn't have to be any ancient scripture—anything that for you gives you the fragrance of God's love.