The Power of Constant Prayer

So how to check whether you can be open and empty all the time? If you can truly be open and empty all the time, then it's going to be very easy for you to pray all the time, because there's no block. You're empty. So then in that no-resistance state, you are free to pray the name of God.

And I noticed that these words started coming in satsang also, that your heart, your Atma, the presence within, it loves to pray. It loves to pray. Something that I noticed, you see. But because I'm so foolish, it's also very good to get confirmation from the sages that this is how it is. And over the past few weeks, we've come across sages from different cultures, different religions, who have confirmed the same thing: that the Holy Spirit within ourself, the Atma within, loves to pray. So to prevent any mind tricks that, 'Oh, I'm so open and empty,' while being conveniently mental, just pray all the time. All the time. What is the prayer? The prayer you know, you can use the beads or you can use whatever prayer appeals to your heart fully. It can also be a verse from your favorite scripture, or your favorite verse from your favorite scripture. I've shared why in the Atma Samadhi I use a prayer which is fashioned around the style of the Jesus Prayer, because it contains all the elements necessary for a prayer. If you really dive into it with your heart, you will see that it's very effectively designed as a gift.

It was both ways. So if we are in the idea that we are already open and empty, then you should be able to pray all the time with no trouble, you see. And where does this prayer lead? That is what I'm coming to. So you start like this, and most of us will find it difficult. So how will you be able to pray? You may be able to pray with the help of a mala, with the help of saying it out. So I'm going from the most gross to the most subtle. So with the help of the mala, then to say it out verbally, then to just move your lips—actually, to take the support of your breaths after the mala may be helpful. Then to say it out may be helpful, then to move your lips while it is happening may be helpful, then to just chant inwardly but through the instrument of the mind, intellect becomes natural. Then after the naturalness of that, we come into the ajapa, which is that we can almost audibly hear the prayer but we are not doing it anymore. So the spirit is chanting it, the Atma is chanting it, and we are just hearing it like we hear guidance from the spirit. Or if you don't hear it, don't worry, you just hear the prayer happening within you.

And then you come into the subtlest form of the prayer, which is that the presence is palpable to you in the presence of a deep love, and the words of the prayer may not be apparent to you. So here you are truly open and empty because your head is empty and your heart is full. And if you are open and empty to begin with, then you'll instantly get there. If not, then you will do all these experiments. You will go deeper and deeper within yourself and the prayer will percolate your life, and you will come into the presence, the darshan of the Atma within.