Power of Prayer: How to pray effectively - Action Spurred by Heart-felt Prayer  

By Ajit Singh  

Power of Prayer: How to pray effectively - Action Spurred by Heart-felt Prayer  

John Sullivan, the English collector of Coimbatore was camping at Dimhatty, a jerkwater hamlet near Kotagiri. It was the year 1819. As the evening drew on, he stood on the jerry-built embankment, surveying the hutments below. His worst fears came true when he heard a distant rumble in the skies. In no time peals of thunder rent the air and jagged flashes of lightening criss-crossed the skies. He could see sheets of rain water advancing rapidly towards the village. "O God, the whole village is going to be washed away," he moaned. He fell to his knees and prayed, a lump in his throat, eyes brimming. In a while the water storm receded into the distance, and the last rays of the sun touched his sombre face.

In 1978 Baba Muktanand, the sage of Ganeshpuri, was camping in Delhi for the inauguration of a chapter of his Ashram, in Bhatti Gaon. As the sky was clear, food had been prepared alfresco for a couple of thousand devotees. The weather suddenly turned inclement and as there were no arrangements on standby, a chill went up the spines of the organisers. In their desperation they made a beeline to Baba and begged his intercession. Baba withdrew to his room to meditate. After 20 minutes, when he emerged from his room, there was not a trace of rain clouds over the area, though rain could be seen falling on the other side of the fence. These two events separated by a time span of 159 years and a distance of about 2,800 km, are remarkably similar in their construct.

Sceptics are likely to dub these incidents mere coincidence and brand the believers, superstitious, but Mahatma Gandhi spells out his deep-set conviction unequivocally: "The sky may be overcast today with clouds, but a fervent prayer to God is enough to dispel them".

He reiterates: "Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

A number of studies conducted by medical scientists, over a time, have tried to make a case for the salutary effect of prayer on people suffering from cardiovascular, immune, and other disorders.

Herbert Benson, a Harvard Medical School professor told a conference recently that saying a few prayers can trigger the mind, lower high blood pressure and even cure infertility. However, the prayers had to be emotionally surcharged to be effective.

This agrees marvellously with what Mother Teresa says: Our words are useless unless they come from the bottom of the heart. Prayer to be fruitful, must come from the heart and must be able to touch the heart of God.

Mother Teresa, for whom everything starts from prayer born of the silence of the heart defines prayer as simply talking to God. She enjoins us to speak to God from the fullness of our heart and to keep our hearts silent, empty, expectant and motionless to receive God's voice because God speaks only in the silence of your hearts.

Today, researchers are putting their heads together in a bid to validate scientifically certain ancient truths. Recent studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, claim that the whole universe or rather the multiverse, at the quantum level, is a conglomeration of electromagnetic vibrations of various frequencies.

Our body has also been found to be an electrical system exhibiting two types of electromagnetic fields. While the internal organs such as the brain, the nervous system and the heart emit low frequency electrical impulses of the AC type, the outer shell, our skin, exhibits a high frequency energy field.

This outer energy field radiates a luminous 'aura' which engulfs the whole body from top to toe and also acts as a screen against any onslaught of unfavourable vibrations from the outside.

For the prayers to be heard, they should be broadcast on thought fields of very high frequency - which is possible only when thoughts are surcharged with emotions - to facilitate their passage through the auric field, finally to reach out to and resonate with the higher frequencies of the Cosmic Intelligence.

If on the other hand, our prayers lack intensity, that is, if they ride low frequency thought waves, they cannot get across the auric field and therefore remain unanswered.

However, in the case of prayers larded with impure emotions, it was found that while the amount of electromagnetic energy was enhanced and the physiology stimulated, the frequency of vibrations could not be increased and as such the prayers remained unanswered (Hunt).

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More from same author see: Ajit Singh  

See also: Power of Prayer, Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)