An interview with my mirror
Sir, do you pray?
Yes, certainly. Everyday I pray for myself and for my family members.
Sir, do you pray for others?
No, no. I only pray for myself and for my family members. Why I will pray for others?
What you are praying?
I pray for my name and fame. I pray for money. I pray for my promotion. I pray for my success. I pray for safety and security of my family members.
Sir, do you pray everyday?
Yes. I pray everyday. Actually, I pray more seriously when I am facing a critical situation or I am in danger.
Sir, one more question, please, does God hear your prayer?
I don’t know. Sometimes my prayer fulfils, sometimes I feel dejected.
We pray
Yes, we pray. We pray to God for ourselves and for our family members. But, our prayer is limited. We only pray for ourselves and not for others. Actually, we pray to God to fulfill our desire. All of us are busy with our outer environment. We are not looking into our inner world. We must remember that we are not only a body-mind complex. If we want to make our life beautiful, want to make our character perfect, we have to pray sincerely to God to give us strength. There are different types of difficulties we have to face when we are going to reshape our life. We think we can overcome all the difficulties through our physical and mental strengths. But these are not sufficient. A sincere and regular prayer is essential.
Pray for others
Break your narrow boundary of limitation. Pray for others. Don’t always pray for yourself or for your family members. We are not alone. All the brothers and sisters are my brothers and sisters. Pray for their continued welfare. Swami Vivekananda said:
``Sit in a straight posture, and the first thing to do is to send a current of holy thought to all creation. Mentally repeat, ``Let all beings be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let all beings be blissful.`` So do to the east, south, north and west. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make ourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make ourselves happy is to see that others are happy.`` (CW 1: 145-146)
When we sincerely pray for others, we will feel oneness as our heart gradually expanding. We can feel joy with the joy of others. We can feel sorrow with the sorrow of others. This is spiritual development, which develops us internally. €
