When Does Stillness Become Prayer

What we can do, or as far as what we can do, is to bring ourselves to empty, to bring ourselves to that stillness. Now, by God's grace and in His mercy, there are so many paths, so many tools, so many mechanisms that we can use based on what resonates with us the most to come to this stillness, to come to this empty, to come to this silence. But when does this stillness, silence, emptiness—when does that become prayer? When does that become inquiry? When does that become contemplation? It becomes prayer only by God's action in that stillness. It becomes a contemplation in the light of the spirit, in the light of the Atma within.

So our mechanism to come to that stillness is secondary to that stillness itself. So whether we use the path of prayer because that resonates the most in our heart, whether we use the path of self-inquiry, whether we use the reminder to remain open and empty, or whether we use Maharaj's pointer—which his teacher gave him—is to remain with the sense 'I am'. All these points, pointers, or mechanisms or pathways in themselves are not the crux of the matter.

The crux of the matter, like we were saying last time also, is that whether we come to the bank of the river where we wait empty of ourselves for His light to reveal to us the reality of who we are. The reality of love, the reality of His presence in our heart, the growing in our love, patience, humility—all of that is gifted from there. So when we say to God that 'I hand over myself to you', it is not so that we can maintain a duality. It is so that we can hand over our mind, our hearts, our entire soul to God Himself. Important point.

Am I on the right path? How to tell? Is there such a thing as the right path? Firstly, and if there is one, of course, I want to be on the right path. So what's the right path?

The key is the sage is telling us one important thing: that our silence becomes a prayer only by His light, in His light. Our silence becomes an inquiry or a contemplation only in His light, by His will, by His action. So in the interim, our job is to use whatever tool we have to come to that stillness, that silence. It would be a mistake to presume that a method itself does the work without needing that emptiness and that allowing of God's will to unfold in our hearts leading to true insight and love.