Heartfelt Prayer: Singing to God and Each Other

So when we sing, we must sing so that our voice reaches our heart in the form of a prayer, in the form of these words where we are remembering the Leela of Lord Ram. And it is said that to remember the Leela of the Lord is to remember him in our hearts, that he lives in his Atma as well. So really have the sense that we are in a deep prayer and everything must be from our heart. The pronunciation is not so important; who is singing how is not so important. Sing mostly in our hearts and sing also so that you're singing to hear your brothers and sisters share their love for God. So you must hear them at least as much as you hear yourself in the singing.

So let's not do it in the way that when I was growing up, I saw some in my family used to read the Ramacharitmanas like the older generation. We would read it, but they were never read—I didn't see them reading it in a heartfelt way. They were just reading it because probably they thought it's a good thing to do, but their mind was occupied with other things and the minute the reading stopped, they would start shouting at others around them. And so we're not doing a tick-in-the-box reading; we're not just doing a symbolic reading. It must be a true prayer from our heart. And let's use this opportunity to dive deep into the love for Lord Ram, that both the ones that we are reading about right now are the greatest embodiment of that love for Lord Ram. So may their grace bless us during this reading today and let's read full-heartedly and not in a self-conscious way or with any pretense.