Over the past few weeks, I have taken more interest in the thoughts and ideas behind karma yoga and, as a result, was unable to allot time for the practicing of bhakti yoga through prayer, bhajans, or meditation. My parents had brought me up to do prayers at least twice a day and before every meal. However, since I have come to college, I found that I was not doing any of my daily prayers. How did this happen? What was so important that I could not take 5 minutes out of my day to perform prayers?
I thought about the days during my high school years when I prayed every day and wondered about the effect prayers had on me. It’s not as if my life has drastically changed from then to the present, when I don’t pray as much.
Why did I pray to begin with? What was so special about prayer that kept me praying throughout high school?
Prayer seemed to be a way through which I could have my personal conversation with God. Singing bhajans and hymns in a prayer room was one way I could show my bhakti towards God. Simply being in the prayer room gave me comfort.
I realized that as a college student, it would be in my best interest to have a small area in my dorm room where I can pray — even if it’s just for five minutes.
What do you feel about praying in the college environment?
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Sanatan Dharma is, in my experience ,a great inquiry by man into the nature of the divine- inquiries engaged in by our forefathers and a dialogue and inquiry, we ought to continue, not burdened by previous inquiries but in cognizance of it.This makes Sanatan Dharma an body of knowledge about the divine, which is living, which is not fossilized.In Sanatan dharmic praxis, prayer is a form of engaging with the divine – and as the forms of such enquiry and engagement are varied, so is the variety in prayer styles, times and the engagement of the being(us) with the divine forces.Personally, I am a believer in a disunity of the divine- which is Judeo-Christian parlance is polytheism( though it is a bad translation).What is the content of such prayer or engagement- that is also based on the nature of inquiry one has, the nature of relationship pne has or feels with the divine- for that permeates us all- how much we are in touch with it determines the nature of our engagement.In providing this frame, Hinduism or Sanatan Dharma is a path, whose followers are truly blessed.It has space for all engagements with the divine.Certain ritualisms or forms may be more conducive to this engagement/prayer but no form is negligible.Our forefathers might not have had such formal spaces or might have access to spaces that where special divine connections ( sthhan mahatya).We are in the USA but the engagement through prayer is universal- it not of an Indic divine or a Burmese divine.So, it does not whether it is 5 minutes or 15 minutes, as long as the spirit of engagement is there.What is the role for ritual prayer then ? I would stay that it is a time-tested method to connecting with the divine forces, but our faith system allows open inquiry, which means non-formal inquiries- what is needed is the genuineness of the endeavour.The various divinities are all around and within – and the prayers to deities reinvigorates special connections one might as beings with such forces.I, for one, dont pray to a single idea or entity of God.
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