Being Present for God: The Essence of Unceasing Prayer

Most of us in relationships—if you're with your partner and you're in the same room with them but you're not really with them in your attention, your focus is elsewhere—you say 'but I was with you.' Is that an acceptable answer to the partner? No. But that's what we try to do with God. We heard the podcast that God's presence is that He is present, but have we made ourselves present for Him? Available to Him? This is the irony of Maya—that in Maya itself we've heard since we were children, especially in India, that God is everywhere, He's with you here and now. But very few sages have ever lived in a way that Krishna is actually with them all the time, Ram is actually with them all the time. Are we available for God? Are we willing to belong to Him? And if we make ourselves available, then I've been talking about setting the dinner table for Him without expecting a guarantee of the dinner showing up. Have we offered up ourselves to Him in this way? Or are we just waiting for an enlightenment experience?

So is God here right now? Are you with Him? Use the energetic support that you get in the satsang environment to both experience, to feel His presence, and to allow yourself to focus like that. Because then when you leave satsang also, you can live like that. We must always feel that He is here. Something Saint Teresa of Avila said was very beautiful: 'The only difficulty in prayer is when we feel that God is absent.' Super potent line, said so simply. So then how to make our life an unceasing prayer, as Paul said? His presence must always be here. And it is not that God is absent; you know what she means—that God is present, but we are not present for Him. So to remain in God's presence means God is present, but we have made ourselves present for Him as well. Just like that relationship example—you took your girlfriend out for a date, but throughout the date you were on your phone. You were sitting together, you had a nice meal, but you were not present. Are you making yourself available to God? And that availability will become a full sacrifice, full surrender. That is when we can come to 'there is nothing of mine in me, all there is is Yours.' But first, make Him your focus, and in this itself you have left all trouble behind. Because the presence of God is what is called Heaven. You cannot suffer, you cannot be troubled; your life is full of miracles. Every day you're surrounded by miracles. See how grace takes care of your every need, your every true calling from the heart, just by being with Him. Everything in life is taken care of. The goodness of God then runs our life. The only compulsion is 'my way, my will, what I want'—that gets in the way.