Prayer – Disciplining the Mind

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

A Seeker's Concern:

We are doing well, physically. There is not a change in my mental state – emptiness within as ever. Hours and days pass by, and knowing that death may consume any moment, what is it Swamiji, that makes me so lethargic? An unknown fear is within me now, and at times I tremble. Swamiji, I do nothing at all, and am nothing. The thirst for true knowledge I have. Could it be an excuse that I am clinging to? Am I earnest in life; and am I not good at all? Why am I living?

In my desperation I still can’t bring myself to sit before a personal God and cry my heart out, because I can’t accept that He is there in photo or form to hear me out.

Poojya Swamiji’s Response:

What is it, dear soul, that you write about? If I remember, earlier you have mentioned about Lord Guruvayurappan. Now you say: you cannot sit in front of a picture of the Lord. The crisis can be dealt with in more than one way:

1.    You need not have a picture of any God, in order to pray to the Lord. Picture is a visual aid. But thought-evolved devotees do not need any picture at all. When prayer grows in intensity, from the beginning itself, the devotee closes his eyes. Why then have the picture at all for prayer. So, the issue must be clear now. In temples too, you go, look at the idol, and the next moment close your eyes. What does this denote?

2.    By prayer, you dig out, bring forth, and express, your own heart’s dimension. Instead of blood from the body, you bring out the spirit from the heart. The idea must be to involve the heart, its emotions, by prayer. Until this is actually had, deepen your feelings, be more and more touched by them. It is partly an art, a combination of effort as well as culture and habit. Make up one with the other, and surely you will have the blessed fruition. It is like loving, showing your love, expressing your love, emotions to a child, partner or friend, or all. The more the better.

3.    Another explanation is that every one has a psychic structure. It is a compound of sattwa, rajas and tamas. Either sattwa, meaning purity and love, is too less, or it is overduly mixed with tamas. Tamas implies laziness, lethargy etc. In that case, you have to beat down, overcome, the excess of tamas, by right effort, persistently made. Sattwa will have to be with rajas, not with tamas. For the first few months, with the help of your wisdom, by which you know there is lethargy and it is to be overcome, you should make regular efforts. Lapses may be there. Despite them, proceed with determination. Later on, like every good habit, this too, representing sattwa guna, will begin to please. You will start missing it, if you do not have the routine.

4.    Psychologically, every individual has one emotion or another dominant. Pessimism, optimism, self-condemnation, fearfulness, hopelessness or the opposite of both, like these are the different traits. You may belong to one kind. Recognize that it is so, and treat your system with its opposite for a while. The unwelcome facet will gradually leave, the welcome one will grow instead. It takes time. But tell me, till death, should you not have something to do? And is this bad, by any means?

Making effort is everybody’s wont. You too are endeavouring, in every field. Do so, in this field too. Catch the direction, adopt it, incorporate its features in the system like food and then see the nourishment that results.

[A response from Poojya Swamiji to a seeker's question -  Correspondence of September 1981]

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