The Heart's Guidance in Prayer and Devotion

Firstly, that we must remember that it's all God. So it's not that serious, you see? Secondly, when something is just taking root, then the mind will come and want to resist that. It'll come and say, "But this, but this," you see? But since we are still early in the processes—even a year is a very short period of time, you see—that you can still experiment a bit, taste a sense of it. And in your love and devotion to God, He will guide you. He will guide you deeper and deeper.

So that's why some of you found it... may find it strange is that my prayer is the Jesus prayer with Ram as the mantra. So my prayer is: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me as bless my heart with the light of spirit. Ram, Ram." So it can sound like... I can understand it sounds strange, like, "Why would he do that? He's saying that prayer should be rooted," you know, all of that. But it's strange, yeah. So it can seem very strange, how can he be guided by the heart in this strange way? But actually we have accepted this in many ways, like even the ISKCON Mahamantra is what? Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. So why Krishna and Ram? Then you say, "Okay, but they are the same." But these are also the same. There is literally no difference between Jesus and Ram, see?

So it can happen like that, that in your heart something may emerge like that. And if you don't have duality in your mind, none of that will make a difference in your prayer, you see? But if you have duality in your mind, then it'll make... so something here is deeply aligned to the name of God as Ram but also loves Jesus very deeply. So my heart guided me this way. And at least to me, it's very apparent that it's working, that it is deepening something here. So of course, a long, long, long way to go, but that's how you may be guided, you see? So if you're open and you're making sure that you're not getting into any mental fantasies or imagination or anything like that, and you're true to your heart, then the prayer itself will teach you how to pray.

But I keep reiterating this point because many can just... it's like getting home and that last very attractive turn will come, and the last very attractive turn will come. And when we've taken that turn too hard, then you won't listen to me also. Then it's just like, 'Oh, he doesn't know what he's talking about.' If it comes from the heart, the heart knows best how to pray. So we can trust Him. And don't... it's very beautiful where in the tutelage, in the discipleship of the Satguru presence within, that which is impossible for our mind to understand—like the nature of Shiva Himself, pure awareness, Nirguna Brahman, the nature of love—all of these things which are impossible for our mind to fathom are only understood—'understood' may not be the right word, but grasped in some sense, really grasped in the heart intuitively in the guidance, in the discipleship of the Satguru within.