Prayer power (the power of prayer)

(published in Inner Voice column, page 13, Hindustan Times, October 24, 2007)

(published in slightly edited form in the newspaper due to space constraints)

There is a lot of power in thoughts and prayers. Thoughts are a form of energy and therefore real. Prayer is a form of communication with the Infinite source of all energy, or God; through our thoughts. Thoughts are like seeds which require nourishment to grow into fruit-bearing trees. The nourishment of thoughts is in the form of affirmation, concentration and attention. Prayer need not necessarily involve the usage of pious phrases.

Normal Vincent Peale describes a three-fold approach in his best selling book, 'The power of positive thinking' – (1) prayerise, (2) picturise and (3) actualise. The first step involves simply thinking and talking to God informally, which is prayer. The next step is picturising or visualising it mentally. Create in your mind an image of the desired result: a healed love one, a more prosperous life, a happy marital life, a more healthy or confident self. Whatever you seek, pray to God and then visualise it to be so and then just say to God, "I have put it in Your hands, Lord." After this, the actualisation will come in time either by the desired result or guidance.

Peale gives a glorious example of how we can spread love and goodwill throughout our daily lives. Just say a little prayer for anyone that you see. These are called flash prayers "shot" out towards people. Just send out thoughts of love and goodwill. There have been cases where the recipients of such prayer "shots" could feel a physical manifestation of the energy.

The world can be a lot happier if we all just continuously "shoot" each other with prayers of love and goodwill. Let us "shoot" out positive thoughts towards one and other. We could try to replace our hatred and anger filled thoughts with thoughts of love and goodwill. Just mentally send out peaceful and love filled thoughts of goodwill towards everyone that you see and they will feel it as well. The energies around the whole world will change if everyone starts to do this. These energies are very powerful and the results will be seen and felt. But constant prayers are needed. Even prayers take time to be answered. Just be patient and have faith.

Prayer and positive thinking is also a very useful technique in creating a more confident and success filled life. Thoughts of success often attract success. Thoughts of failure often attract failure. Energy is like a magnet. It attracts. Positive energy attracts positive results.

Positive affirmations, especially at night time before bedtime is a very important tool to attract positive results. The age old tradition of prayer before sleeping is so that the positive thoughts and prayers can sink into the subconscious mind during sleep. Avoid all forms of negativity. Nip it in the mental bud. One can not stop negative thoughts from entering, but one can kick them out as soon as they enter. Positive thoughts can repel negative ones from establishing themselves in the mind.

Many of the world's problems can be solved if there is more prayer energy generated. This energy will increase when we add prayer into our consciousness and make it a part of our daily life. Talk to God either verbally, mentally or even in written form. Yes, write a note to God. Every day use flash prayers to increase the overall consciousness of peace and goodwill and soon if more people do it, we will transform into a much better, safer and peaceful world.