Let me not pray

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Prayer! The bridge between human beings and God. It reflects the state of mind. It reflects our attitude towards life. Mostly the prayer is filled with demands, selfishness, helplessness, and fear. Either we are regretful of the past or worried about the future. And we pray to God to be saved from dangers. We miss the right understanding that how can we connect with God.  


One of the great philosopher, Rev. Spinoza, he stated once: we must cultivate the intellectual love towards God. When we try to develop it and pray, the prayer would be different. And it inspires all to develop in such away.   


Feeling incapable and begging the help is not the real prayer. Infirmity creates timidity. So let’s get developed and be strong. Here is a holy prayer by Rabindranath Tagore. It gives a rightful attitude towards life.  


Rabindranath Tagore has a real poetic spiritual heart. He doesn’t beg God. He prays to be fearless in facing dangers and heart to conquer struggles. Being puny is pitiful and being meek is miserable. Don’t feel feeble! Pray for might and main. Pray for brain and brawn. Pray for vigor and valor. Vitality and vivacity win, not misery. 


It’s a short and sweet one :   


Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers

but to be fearless in facing them.


Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain

but for the heart to conquer it.


Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield

but to my own strength.


Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved

but hope for the patience to win my freedom.


Grant that I may not be a coward,

feeling Your mercy in my success alone;

But let me find the grasp of Your hand in my failure.


~ Rabindranath Tagore 


*****


When we succeed, we feel happy and thankful. We may be grateful to God in good times. But when difficulties arrive, adversities presses, do we feel gratitude towards God? We may complain and be bitter in the heart. We may be agitated in chagrin. We may pray to God to be saved. It’s the real measure of an attitude. 


The real divine prayer flows from the bottom of the heart when we realize: Either it’s success or failure, either it’s joy or woe, either it’s profit or loss, everything is blessing not punishment, and being sent by God. That is the real divine progressive attitude.


So let’s cultivate intellectual love towards God. God gives everything to my upliftment. And if it’s failures and setbacks, it’s the process of development. No creation is possible without demolition. The volcano emits lava, it fires everything, but in the end, it gives birth to the new land. So have faith in God, and faith in self, and have faith in the process of life.    



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