Secrets of Effective Prayer

Watch this inspiring Sunday Service talk with Nayaswami Ananta, recorded at Ananda Village on November 5th, 2023.

Paramhansa Yogananda showed by his own example that prayer is a power, provided we believe deeply in that power. What we pray for has to be united with the divine plan, the divine will. Nayaswami Ananta shares the secrets of effective prayers and how we can attain anything and everything when we have the power of Divine Mother behind us.

Transcript

Nayaswami Ananta:

I am extremely glad to be here today. Welcome. Thank you for coming. Thank you for watching on the internet.

I would like to read a prayer demand from Whispers from Eternity. And the title is, "The Prayer Demand, Asking God to be President of the United States of the World." This is not a political statement. I do not indulge in political statements. Ananda does not indulge in political statements. And when I read this, you will understand.

"Our Father, President of the United States of planets, galaxies, stellar systems, and universes, Thy democratic rule of free choice and individual evolution is bringing Thy citizen children nearer and nearer to Thy high ideals. Born in thy states of democratic free will, we inherited our celestial birthright of eternal, everlasting freedom. But alas, we squandered that inheritance, though receiving it would have meant attaining omnipresence, and imprisoned ourselves in debt consciousness, behind bars of sense enjoyment, evil deeds, selfishness, and small-minded narrow patriotism.

"Teach us, Father, to melt the fancy frozen boundaries of family, society, and national identity with the warmth of our love and understanding. Bless us, O all-wise Father, that we may live in a United States of the world with Thee as our President, elected for eternity by the free choice of all good citizen qualities of our hearts, ruling ourselves through our own self-clarifying discrimination. Teach us to enrich our souls, our abundance, and our understanding by broadening the circle of our patriotism to include all Earth's inhabitants of every caste, creed, position in society, and color.

"Oh Cosmic President, bless us that we obey Thy laws of life and respect Thy kindly hearts of freedom of all thy children, fellow citizens with us, not only the good but the error intoxicated, even the animals, birds and fishes, the frail flowers, the mute grasses and the jungle weeds, low crushed by the tread of cruel unheeding feet."

We hear this reading from the Bible, and it says that we can "cast mountains into the sea if we have faith." I won't go into the permits required for such a movement of earth, but in California it would be very difficult. But not impossible with the grace of God.

There's one phrase in here that I'd like to reread. Maria read it, but it's the core of this faith is a call to prayer. Paramhansa Yogananda showed by his own example that prayer is a power, provided we believe deeply in that power, we've got that when our thoughts and feelings are strongly focused, and then united in growing awareness to the divine presence within, they can bring even seemingly unrealistic wishes to fulfillment.

When united in growing awareness to the divine presence within, that is the key that I'd like to impress upon us today, because we can't pray for whatever we want and expect God to give it to us. It has to be united with the divine plan. We can't pray for whatever we want and expect God to give it to us. It has to be united with the divine plan. It has to be united with the divine will. Then it can occur. So, what is the divine plan?

The divine plan, in case you've forgotten, is that all beings realize the Self, and that we move into the realm of Spirit, and we leave behind the maya. The maya is all the divisions, all the duality, all the illusion of the senses. The divine plan is that we leave all of that behind and we merge in the Divine. And in that direction, in that state of consciousness, we can attain anything and everything because then we have the power of the Masters, the power of God, the power of the Divine Mother behind us, in favor of this direction.

If we just pray for what the ego wants, you can imagine the dilemma that God would have, the Giants and the Dodgers. I mean, what's he going to do? It's the reality that we are one and in that we do have the faith that we can achieve anything.

When Swami Kriyananda set out to bring Ananda into manifestation, he never questioned the divine will. He never questioned Master. He knew from the start that this was what God wanted to happen and we were going to put our full energy into it and we never doubted. We never doubted that Swamiji was leading us in that direction that Master wanted, and that Master was expressing what Babaji wanted, and that we would bring Ananda into manifestation.

Now, we are here in the Temple of Light. We have manifested, or God has manifested through us this temple, we are on Ananda.org, we are broadcasting these teachings to the world. Now, many, many, many years ago, 50-something years ago, we, a little group of us with Swamiji, would hear from Swamiji at the meditation retreat, at the meditation retreat temple, that Ananda would spread throughout the world. It was one of the most important things happening in the world. And we all had faith in Swamiji because he vibrated truth. He vibrated the consciousness that this was what Master wanted and we believed in Master. We knew that Master was guiding us.

And only once in a while we kind of look around and go, "there's only 25 people here, you know, are we really going to reach out to the whole world?" I'd never been anywhere in the world, so I... But I had faith. I had faith in Swamiji, always, and I had faith in Master. And I had faith that Swamiji's faith in us was well-placed, that Swamiji believed in Jyotish and Devi and Vidura and Durga and Parvati and Seva and Jaya and Sadhana Devi. I had faith in them and I knew that Swamiji had Master's faith in them. And so we can pray and manifest that.

It's the 20th anniversary of Ananda India. Here we are. Can you believe it? I don't know if all of you know that Ananda India was a very exciting adventure. Swamiji was guided by a discussion with a couple who were in India, who came to Italy, and he said, Master's not known in India. And Swamiji inside felt, now is the time for us to go to India, let's go. And so they bought plane tickets and they flew to India, and they rented a house. a house. No funding, no corporate sponsorship.

We did have friends in India, true, because Swamiji has had friends in India from the '50s, '59 to '63, I believe, he lived in India. So yeah, he had friends in India. But you go to India and you just start a worldwide work with no money, and Maria spent one day on the sidewalks of Delhi selling books. She doesn't speak Hindi. She had books. Guru, Guru, Guru. Big sales. Crystal Clarity is going to pick up some of these techniques. Why? Because we have faith. And then our prayers can and will be answered.

So what can we pray for and expect it to come true? Truth. God's will. So a lot of times our prayers are not demands for how the movie script should be written. They are requests for us to participate in the divine will. That's our prayers. Those prayers are valid. Our prayer at Ananda was, "Master, if you want this to happen, we'll do everything we can. We'll try as hard as we can. We'll give our whole lives to this. Because it's your will, we'll do it. We'll do everything we have. You have to guide us. We don't know what to do".

Well, Swami knew what to do, but we didn't know, but Swami would tell us. And so our prayer was answered in Swamiji guiding us and helping us, each one of us to develop the parts that we could do, however humble, to make this huge movement of Ananda occur. And it does occur. And it occurs all the time. It occurs all the time. There's people in this room that should have been on another planet, and God said, "No, no, give her more time. You know, there's more we can do here," and they're here. And others have left, because it's the divine will.

So when we pray for healing, part of the request is, "If it's your will, Father, help Seva to go when she needs to go." So she came up from the Shrine of the Masters, went to her house, and left, because it was time to go. Swamiji went to his computer, answered the emails, and then left, because it was time to go.

Was our prayer, "Oh no, stay. Patch him up"? We did that for quite a while. We kept patching him up and patching him up with God's power. Yeah, those were miracles too. You can ask the medical miracles, you can talk to Dr. Peter about the medical miracles, but the faith is in the will of God. And so our prayer is, "Help us, Father, help us, Mother. Help this situation, this event, to help humanity move towards its goal."

Ananda India exists because it is helping people learn Sanatana Dharma, realize the Self. Ananda Village exists, Ananda.org exists, Ananda Portland, Seattle, Dallas, all the countries of the world. What are we, 108 countries now that are reached by Ananda.org? If it's God's will, yes. If it's not, no. We really don't want it. We really don't want our own egoic movie to play out. It won't work. If our goal is to be, you know, some movie star and it's not our Dharma, it'll only hurt us. It will only lock us in delusion. God can't give the power to that. God's got to give the power to the movement toward Self-realization. That's what we can pray for.

And so we're always praying. We're praying for Crystal Clarity, Master's Market, Ananda. We're praying for world brotherhood. Did all the wars stop when Jesus died on Easter Sunday? No. No, because of this reading, that's why I chose it. Free will. We have free will. We can choose to ignore God, to push God to the back. We can ignore spirit. We can indulge the senses. We can indulge the whole duality if we choose to. And God gives us the choice. But if we pray, "Please guide me," the next step is, "Please give me the strength to do it, to change." And we can do it.

And we've been given teachings. We have Kriya Yoga. We have chanting. We have things that we can do to get in tune with the divine will, to change our lives, to perform miracles. We are performing miracles as a sangha every single day. We have a high school in Palo Alto, California. That is a miracle. We have an online high school that is in, I think it's nine countries, I stand corrected if it's more. That is a miracle. This temple is a miracle. Every day is a miracle.

We are teaching people Kriya Yoga, just like Master said we would when he came to the West. Kriya Yoga will eventually spread to all lands. It's spreading to all lands. And those 20-year-old kids, Jyotish and Devi and that gang, it worked. Worked because they're brilliant? They are brilliant, but that's not why it worked. It worked because God helped us. Babaji helped us. Krishna helped us. Christ helped us. Is helping us. Is helping you.

So whatever the dilemma that you're facing, whatever the addiction or the phobia or the just fear or the poverty or the illness or whatever, if you give it to God in prayer, it will be answered to you. That's what Christ is saying. Not that you will get your script revision, I want to be a millionaire, I want the winning lottery ticket, I want to be the next Taylor Swift. No, Taylor Swift is Taylor Swift. You're you and you're a child of God and if you can realize that and hopefully Taylor Swift will realize that she is the daughter of the Divine Mother through fame and fortune. I hope so. I don't pray for that, to be honest with you, but I'm much more concerned with you guys than I am with Taylor Swift.

But the point is that God is there, and God is trying to help you. This is November. This is Thanksgiving month. How are we going to have more faith? How are we going to use our prayers to have more faith? How are we going to use our faith to have our prayers be answered, be effective? Well, you could start by thanking God. Would that be okay?

"If you want to fly like the birdies fly, look to the world, say, 'Thank you.'" Colors, beautiful colors on the trees, sky, rain, people trying to make the world better. People trying to bring peace to the Middle East. You can say, "Well, that's hopeless. They don't want peace." Okay, but people still need to try. People need to do what your part is. Look to the world, say thank you.

Thank you that you know about Paramhansa Yogananda. Thank you that you know about Paramhansa Yogananda. Thank you that you found Ananda.org on the internet. Thank that you know about Crystal Clarity, that there's tapes and books and you can hear what Swami Kriyananda had to say. You can read Anandi's writings. Thank God that Bharat found them, you know?

It's all part of a request that we all have to realize that we are all children of God. So pray believing, and it will happen. You will realize what every saint in every religion said. You are a part of all that is. realize what every saint in every religion said, you are a part of all that is. You're not separate, you're not small, you're not the ego, this is not your body, you're not a man or a woman, you're not the limitations, you're not your resume, all that stuff that the world glorifies and impresses is not true. What's true? God who is infinite is life. It's all around us.

So immerse yourself in the teachings of the great masters. Read books by Yogananda, by Kriyananda, by the great saints. Listen to music that's uplifting. Chant. When you don't have anything to do, chant. You're driving to work, chant. Chant the names of God.

Think about God. Realize and recognize in all beauty, and all efficiency, and all power, and all wisdom, God, God, God. That's where it's coming from. If we practice it, now you can go into December still doing this, you know, but at least in November, you know, be grateful, and then we'll get to Christmas, and we can think about Christ, and we can think about Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 8th. We can think about God.

Keep your consciousness in that realm that affirms reality and let the secondary arguments and discussions fall at least to the background, theoretically, or off the table entirely if you can. That's why we have Ananda, that we can just not worry about all this maya. Think about God, pray to God, do business with God, as Rajarshi said. Serve God and see whatever your service is, as service to God. Pray for that. That's a good prayer. God will answer that prayer. Knock and it'll be answered.

Every prayer that moves you towards Self-realization can be answered. Not every prayer that you make. So you're mountain moving and stuff? No, not happening. But I would like to read a prayer to close. I'm using two Whispers from Eternity [today] because the topic is prayer.

Okay, so this is the Prayer Demand for Illumination. This will work too. "Oh Spirit, beloved Father, Oversoul of the universe, Spirit of spirits, Friend of friends, teach me the mystery of my existence. Teach me to worship Thee in breathlessness and in deathlessness. In the fire of devotion, burn away my ignorance. In the stillness of my soul, come, Spirit, come. Possess me and teach me to feel Thy immortal presence in and around me. Come, Spirit, come. Come, come, Spirit come."

God bless you all, have a wonderful week.

This Week's Reading

"Faith Is a Call to Prayer; Prayer Is a Call to Faith," from Swami Kriyananda, Rays of the One Light 

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within. The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapters 7 and 21, we read:

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. . . . Verily I say unto you, if you have faith, and doubt not…if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

Paramhansa Yogananda showed by his own example that prayer is a power, provided we believe deeply in that power. When our thoughts and feelings are strongly focused and then united in growing awareness to the Divine Presence within, they can bring even seemingly unrealistic wishes to fulfillment. When Paramhansa Yogananda was in charge of his school in Ranchi, India, he took the boys on occasional outings to the surrounding countryside.

“There was a waterfall not far away,” he told Swami Kriyananda, “where I took them sometimes. It was dangerous to cross there. But I would cry out to the boys, ‘Do you believe in God?’ ‘Yes!’ they would shout back enthusiastically. And so we always crossed in safety.

“Years later, after I’d gone to America, one of the teachers tried to do the same thing, but he lacked spiritual power. One of the boys slipped on a rock and was drowned.”

Thus, the Master explained, belief alone is not enough. It must be united to one-pointed awareness, which leads to Self-realization. The Bhagavad Gita, in the sixth Chapter, underscores the necessity for such one-pointed concentration:

Whenever the mind, fickle and restless, wanders off from its concentration, let the meditating yogi withdraw it resolutely, spurning every distraction (no matter how alluring!), and bring it back again and again under the control of the Self. 

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.