If somebody knows the glory of prayer, the glory of chanting the Divine Names, they know the value of it....

As it is said in the Shrimad Bhagavatam “It doesn’t matter how you chant My name, how you recite the name of the Divine.” Some have a beautiful voice, some don’t have a beautiful voice. But, it’s equal to Him. The main thing is that you chant, that you pray. Prayer: that’s what transforms somebody. Through prayer, people find solace; some to attain the lotus feet of the Lord, some to achieve whatever they desire in life. But the main thing is to pray: that’s what transform you, what gives you this inner glow, so that you can call yourself spiritual. People, humans are always on a search. They are always searching for something. Some people search for it in the outside world. Some people search for it in the inside world. But, only few really know the importance of prayer. In the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas said “The value of a stone is known

only to somebody who knows about gems”. Then they can value how precious the stone is. The same thing: if somebody knows the glory of prayer, the glory of chanting the Divine Names, they know the value of it.

Only a few really know the importance of prayer......

Prayer: that’s what transforms somebody. Through prayer, people find solace; some to attain the lotus feet of the Lord, some to achieve whatever they desire in life. But the main thing is to pray: that’s what transform you, what gives you this inner glow, so that you can call yourself spiritual. People, humans are always on a search. They are always searching for something. Some people search for it in the outside world. Some people search for it in the inside world. But, only few really know the importance of prayer. In the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas said “The value of a stone is known only to somebody who knows about gems”. Then they can value how precious the stone is. The same thing: if somebody knows the glory of prayer, the glory of chanting the Divine Names, they know the value of it.

When He descends, when He comes on Earth, He comes for everybody equally....

Say “Lord, take possession of me completely. Get rid of all this negativity.”  All of you want to get rid of all the negativity. It’s good that you all want to get rid of the negativity. So don’t hang on it. Offer it to Him happily. Say “Look, Lord, You have come, so take it as a gift!” We´ll start with an invocation. First, we´ll start by praying for the world, that there will be peace everywhere, that there will be peace with each one of you, in each one of you, in your mind, in your intellect, in your Self. Then, we´ll chant the mantra for the peace of the world, because prayer is not only for oneself. When one prays, of course one prays, also for oneself, because one has to advance, one has to get rid of all of one’s things. But above all we pray also for everybody – the people we know, the people we don´t know,

the people we like, those we don’t like, the people who are sick, the people who need help. When He descends, when He comes on Earth, He comes for everybody equally. When He comes, when we invoke Him here, we’re also invoking Him for the whole world. Even if there are a hundred people here and millions of people living in the world, He’s sitting in each  one’s heart. Whatever they do, there’s Him inside of them. So we invoke this Higher Consciousness. When we invoke this Super- Consciousness to come, in each one’s heart also, we invoke Him. We invoke Him to awaken peace in the heart of Man.

“The value of a stone is known only to somebody who knows about gems”

Prayer: that’s what transforms somebody. Through prayer, people find solace; some to attain the lotus feet of the Lord, some to achieve whatever they desire in life. But the main thing is to pray: that’s what transform you, what gives you this inner glow, so that you can call yourself spiritual. People, humans are always on a search. They are always searching for something. Some people search for it in the outside world. Some people search for it in the inside world. But, only few really know the importance of prayer. In the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas said “The value of a stone is known only to somebody who knows about gems”. Then they can value how precious the stone is. The same thing: if somebody knows the glory of prayer, the glory of chanting the Divine Names, they know the value of it.

Before I said: prayer distinguishes one from other people outside; it distinguishes why you call yourself spiritual and why the other person is not so spiritual, because there is spirituality everywhere in different ways. In spirituality you reflect the glow. And the more you chant the Divine Name, the more you start to reflect the quality of the Divine, the qualities of love, compassion, joy, happiness, calmness. You start to reflect all these qualities, which the Divine has, through prayer, through the chanting of this Divine Name. So you start to become alike the Divine. And you don’t need to say this joy to somebody, you don’t need to express to somebody that you are happy. This joy that you will be having inside of you, it will reflect itself.

The same when you take the life of Saints. Take the life of Mirabai, Bhakta Prahlad, any Saints who have attained the Divine, they glow this light of the Divine. They glow, they reflect the Love of the Divine through them. They don’t need to talk about God, but they just need to be around. Same with all of you: the more you chant the Divine Names, the more the Divine will start to reflect on you. Then you can call yourself spiritual, because when you become spiritual, all the negative quality is removed from you, all the negative karma that you have created through many lives before, it get removed. And what takes place is this joy – the joy of serving, the joy of really being here, the joy of trying to attain the Lord, you know. And this joy starts to appear with you the more you attune yourself to the Divine. But you have to do the first step, because the Divine is already there. He’s waiting for you.

Prayer, can turn all your life into gold. It can turn all your negativity into purity.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about........

It is said, “If you take a bath in the Ganges, or other holy rivers, you get purified of one birth”. But, when you are bathed in the divine name, whatever name, whatever deity you feel close with – the name of Jesus, Muhammad, Rama, Krishna, Devi -, if you get bathed in that divine name, you are released from many births. Misery is removed just by chanting the divine name. Liberation is granted just by realising the connection that you have with the Divine within you. This is where Kriya comes from. When you do Kriya, what you experience is through sound within your body, which, later on, gradually, will reveal itself as light also. Very often, when we talk about the spirit, when we talk about the atma, we have an image of a light. Where does this light reside? It resides within our Self. So in all our spiritual practice, we need to do that only, even if we take many lives, we will attain the lotus feet of the Lord. When praying, what do we pray for? We pray, we ask, and the Divine is not deaf. The Divine always hears the prayer of everybody. If He can hear even the small anklets on the feet of an ant, of course, He can hear our prayer also. But very often we expect, if we pray, that we have to have it very quickly. We are not patient. But the Lord has created us. He knows what is best for us, no? So, why don´t we trust Him? Why don`t we trust in His will? Christ has said, “Let Thy will be done, not my will be done”. This is a great statement that He Himself, being part of the Divine, teaches us to be patient and trust in the will of God. Of the whole of our search, the basis, actually, is trust. To trust what? To trust in whom? To trust in God. But yet, some will say, “I don`t know Him”. But it doesn`t matter; even if we don`t know Him, know that He knows us. When we start trusting in ourselves, trusting in the inner voice, trusting in the light within us, trusting in the inner sound inside of us, then He will start to reveal Himself.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda

"Prayer can turn all your life into gold."