The beauty and transformative nature of prayer

In the first episode for 2025 on spiritual practices, DAAJI offers us an inspiring and scientific explanation of prayer and its importance on the inner journey. He demystifies prayer by going beyond the religious connotations to its true purpose and the benefits it offers us as a means of evolution.

We offer prayer for many reasons: to repent for wrongs done, to reflect on defects and shortcomings, to resolve to do better, to seek help, and to find meaning through repeated reflection and contemplation. Ultimately, prayer is a very intimate way of connecting, communing, and communicating beyond this world. Prayer attracts the flow of the divine current, and in that flow a state of osmosis and oneness prevails. It immerses us in the love that is eternally springing forth from the Divine. In fact, Babuji once said that prayer is the most important and unfailing method for spiritual progress. 

So, prayer is not only asking for help, favors or gifts—in fact, that generally happens when circumstances are dire, when we have exhausted our own resources and have nowhere else to turn. Most of the time, prayer asks for nothing, rather, it gently directs the heart’s energies toward the Divine, and dissolves worries and wishes into an all-encompassing universal oneness—like small streams converging into a mighty river that flows into the vast ocean. As life’s worldly concerns fall away, a dynamic vacuum is created within the heart that naturally draws the divine flow, initiating the process of transformation. 

This sacred flow transforms our inner vibrations from human to divine. Just as water softens river stones, it gently refines and molds us. The process is simple and natural: humility, purity, and innocence create the vacuum in the heart, and the divine current flows into that vacuum. 

Prayer need not be a ritual or involve the chanting of words. Actually, it is most effective when it is offered in silence in a state of communion. 

The Heartfulness Prayer is offered twice daily, once before meditation in the morning, and once before sleeping at night. It is offered generously for all beings, not for us alone. You will find words like “we” and “our,” not “I” and “mine,” as we pray for the well-being of the entire universe.

The Heartfulness Prayer is offered in silence, and the idea is that you get lost in the words, and go beyond them to the feelings, the vibrations, from which the words originated. Those vibrations continue to resonate in your heart, and the divine flow will carry on during your worldly activities.

Heartfulness Prayer

O Master! Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement.
Thou art the only God and Power to bring us up to that stage.

Practicing this prayer at bedtime creates the most beautiful atmosphere for peaceful sleep and carries the connection throughout the night. Practicing it in the morning before meditation rekindles the same inner connection, enlivening meditation and the day’s activities. By beginning and ending the day with prayer, you will calibrate your connection throughout the day and night.

Prayer is also a potent way of offering your intentions, in which your focused thoughts are backed by the flow from the Divine; yet it is largely underutilized by many of us. It allows us to back any intention with both depth and subtlety so that it becomes potent and far-reaching. The subtler the better!

Prayer keeps the heart open, and only when the heart is open and pure are we truly aware of the deep current of faith that flows at the base, where there is steadfast changelessness. In this prayerful state, the ego cannot get a hold on anything—so prayer is the perfect antidote to any sort of egotistical thoughts or actions.

And prayer is also a support when circumstances in life challenge us. Sometimes we resist or react, for example, when we face injustice, or have to compromise the principles we hold dear. It can be painful and sometimes we hurt a lot. The simplest way to handle such situations is to go into the heart, prayerfully—yield, vacuumize, and let go. It is also a salve when we hurt others knowingly or unknowingly, and especially when we hold onto guilt. By going into our hearts, and genuinely repenting, we are able to let go of heaviness, re-establish connection so that love can once again flow. Over time, self-mastery develops through this inner connection.

What about praying or saying Grace at mealtime? This act of gratitude connects us with the Divine at the beginning of the meal, so that we can continue to hold that subtle connection while we are eating. It activates the divine current that is woven into the fabric of Nature, including every atom of the food we eat. Our prayerful thought combines with the food to promote physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. The channels of prana (energy) open up, allowing the happiness with which the food is charged to enter and purify the whole system. As a result, eating benefits our physical well-being and our spiritual progress. This is a very potent concept, which has huge implications for health, well-being, and happiness.

In yoga, food is valued as a form of prana, and the effect of eating percolates throughout the whole human system, not just the physical body. When the Divinity at the center of every atom of food resonates with the Divinity within us, food becomes a potent source of goodness.

Prayer invokes the parasympathetic nervous system, which brings calmness and stimulates the digestive enzymes. In a prayerful state, it is hard to be upset with anyone at the table, no matter what their mood or behavior. So there is peace and harmony, and this results in better digestion.

What happens when you are upset or distracted during a meal? If you feel fearful, you may get indigestion, because your blood moves to your limbs and your body’s energetic processes are busy with other things; they are diverted away from digesting food. Your digestion is affected by the state of your emotions, and so prayer at mealtime helps us to remain balanced and let go of any tension and stress.

Our prayerful thought combines with the food 
to promote physical, mental, 
emotional, and spiritual health. 

There is also a concept in yoga called sankalpa, meaning subtle prayerful intention, which is the foundation for all our spiritual practices and most of our goals in worldly life. We intend various goals and circumstances into being through the power of our thought. Setting an intention is like planting a seed, where the seed aligns our thoughts, feelings, and actions toward achieving our goals.

Prayer can also be used in our interactions with others as a subtler, more effective way of communicating and responding, especially when we are tempted to give advice (please consider this especially in your relationships with your partner and children). The first Guide of Heartfulness, Lalaji, used to say, “Never offer advice unless invited, otherwise it is likely to yield bad results. If you find any fault with anybody, pray for his freedom from it.” I have observed over the years that advice is always tricky, because people generally want their own point of view confirmed, even when they ask for advice. It is such a sensitive thing. So, I like Lalaji’s second sentence, “If you find any fault with anybody, pray for his freedom from it.” And sometimes it isn’t the other person’s fault that will be removed by the prayer, but our own narrow-mindedness!

The subtler the feelings during
prayer, the finer and more potent
the communion and the effect pf
the prayer, until it reaches the
ultimate state where there are
no feelings.

The subtler the feelings during prayer, the finer and more potent the communion and the effect pf the prayer, until it reaches the ultimate state where there are no feelings. Even before we reach such subtle states, however, we are reassured by Babuji that “When prayer is offered with a heart full of love and devotion, it shall never go unheard.” Once the connection is established, how could it go unheard?