Do prayers or mantras work
Few weeks ago, when I posted on chanting mantras, I got a query from one of my visitor on no effects from chanting of mantras or prayers. This was followed by series of questions like why my prayers are not answered? When prayers work? How it works? How to make prayers effective and so on...So, this is the post for all such visitors who doubt the working of prayers. Theoretically, this post would cover all the concepts related to working of prayers.
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Why my prayers are not answered?
Types of Prayers
Broadly, prayers can be classified into two types:
1) Prayers for worldly pleasures
2) Prayers for spiritual growth
Praying for salvation or world peace are the kind of prayers enacted by the ones who are situated at the highest level of spiritual level whereas the prayers for worldly pleasures are performed by the ones who are situated at the lower level. Lower level prayers like asking for job, wealth, illness cure etc are answered by lower level deities while the higher level prayers like social causes, self-realization, natural calamities etc are answered by higher level deities.
When prayers don’t work?
Both kinds of prayers are never guaranteed to be answered. This is because answering of prayers depends on the spiritual level, intention and karma of the seeker. For Ex: If a person convicted of numerous murders prays to god for bailing him out of jail, it is very unlikely that such a prayer would be answered by god. Moreover,it is very important to know that prayers are answered by different aspects/levels of god and spiritual level of the seeker is the sole most factor in determining whether the prayer would be answered or not.
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If my son asks for an ice cream and seeing him suffering from cold, if I decide not to give him, then does that mean I do not exist? Of course Not. Similarly, if a seeker prays for something from god and the god feels the intensity of prayer is not good enough or the prayer demanded by seeker is not good for him, then the prayer is best to be left unfulfilled. This is what the seeker should expect from the infinite wisdom of god, Give us all that is good for us and take away all that is bad for us.
When prayers work
In scientific terms, prayers can be better understood by law of reflex action. When one prays, he accepts his inability to solve the problem himself and therefore, there is a reduction in ego butincrease in spiritual level. As a result, communication with god increases asthe seeker continuously expresses gratitude in his/her prayers and reveals something very close to his/her heart.Deities also shower the same love and gratitude to their devotees by positively answering their prayers.Prayers are generally answered for seeker with spiritual level ranging between 20%-60%. Prayers of seeker with spiritual level less than 20% are rarely answered.
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What decides the effectiveness of one’s prayer?
Some of the factors that decides the effectiveness of prayers are:
Spiritual level of the devotee- Higher the spiritual level, higher are the chances of prayer to be answered. Whether the prayer is for selfish pleasures or for worldly benefits directlyinfluences the spiritual level of the seeker.
Intensity of prayer- seeker praying should do it with full devotion and high spiritual emotion.
For whom seeker is praying- When our prayers are directed to influence large number of people in the society, spiritual strength needed to achieve the desired result is higher. Only saints and sages of the topmost order have the spiritual strength to bring a change in society.
Ego and arrogance- Higher the level of ego or arrogance in the seeker, lesser is the effectiveness of prayer.
Posture of the seeker while praying- Harder the posture exercised during praying, higher is the effectiveness of prayer. For EX: Prayer of the person standing on one leg would be obviously more effective than the person praying with just folded hands.
Who prays to God?
Prayers are mostly sought by person situated at a lower spiritual level. Seeker with 60%+ spiritual level doesn’t pray at all. They believe only in their karma and accept the destined events gracefully as god’s will.
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Do prayers work?
Prayer is a process that demands time, commitment, devotion, submission and discipline. Prayer is the lifetime ongoing communication with god and hence, is not meant for only adverse times.
In bible, prayer is equalized to confession as
“If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” [1 John 1:9 <https://biblia.com/bible/niv/1%20John%201.9>]
Those who believe that prayers don’t work, let me explain them with a help of an example:
How will you feel when I abuse you verbally? What reactions my bad words would have in you? How would your mind feel listening to my abuse? What my abuse creates in you? Anger!!! Uncontrollable outrage! If my abuse can create negative vibrations in your body, why something sweet like a prayer or a mantra can’t create a positive effect on your body? Why can’t it create some bodily sensations that removes headache or relieves stomach pain?
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Noise and vibration frequency of factory machines is very irritating and disturbing. Many workers wear ear plugs to avoid the damage to their ears. Such noise fills you with so much negative energy that you later drown yourself to degraded thoughts like sex to freshen up your mind.
Let’s take one more example...There are some people you don’t want to meet or talk. For ex. Competitors, enemies, superiors etc. Dealing with such people creates a negative vibes in your body. On the other hand, there are other kindsof persons you love talking to.Ex: close friends or girls. Talking to your girlfriend (especially when she is new) fills your body with positive vibes andfills your mind with extreme joy and happiness. Prayers or Mantras also work in a similar way.Mantra chanting creates positive vibrations inside the body thereby resulting in a peaceful state of mind and other positive effects like curing of diseases.Paying attention to the sound emanating from mantras is a form of meditation just as the paying of attention to the breathing activity during meditation.This meditative technique helps our mind vibrate with increased strength, joy and conviction.As the temple is continuously filled with positive vibrations generated by prayers of million+ devotees, one is best advised to start chanting in temples.
Yes, Mantras and prayers do work
Man is a cosmic transducer that can transmit and receive electromagnetic waves. Indian sages have mastered the art of producing different frequencies to attain a peaceful state of mind and consciousness. They have been using it for thousands of years and ancient texts like Vedas and Bhagavad gita have plenty of evidences for such events. Powering an arrow by password protected mantras was very common among ancient warriors. Arrows like brahmashtra was targeted on a place by chanting some words, very similar to modern nuclear weapons that are launched by a voice protected password.
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So, it is very unscientific and naive to think that the mantras don’t work or do nothing to your body. Mantra in fact causes a flow of positive energy inside your body. This is perhaps the reason why there is a term called “mantra kavach” which means “Mantra creates a defensive armor around your body”
I would try to explain scientifically how mantras work in my next article.
Prayers can alter destiny by increasing the spiritual level
More than 65% of the events that occurs in our life are pre-destined as per the karma in our previous life. These are the events that the pundits lists out during your birth in the form of kundli(Horoscope). Those who thinks that destined events can’t be changed are definitely wrong. Good or bad events that are a part of your destiny can be altered only by good karma. Changing destiny by karma was confirmed by lord Krishna during the Mahabharata war. Most of us prays to god only during bad events. This actually decreases the spiritual level and is the reason behind most of the prayers remaining unanswered. Prayers are answered only when the intensity of the prayer is more than the intensity of the destined events, else the prayer is answered partially or is never answered at all.
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How to make your prayers effective?
To make the prayers most effective, seeker should note down the following points
1) Keep your body bowed while praying. Don’t erect the body till the prayer is over.
2) Relax your fingers and keep it parallel to forehead. All fingers should touch each other.
3) Thumb of both hands should touch your mid brow chakra (area of third eye).
4) Don’t harden your hands. Press your hands gently and Keep a slight space between the joined hands.
Experienced conscious souls knows the benefits of prayers
If I explain to a child about the effects of touching fire, he would not understand it correctly unless and until he himself experiences the effect of touching fire. Similarly, the effect of prayers/mantras can be understood only by conscious souls who have experienced it in their infinite wisdom.
For a moment, just close your eyes for few minutes and listen in a quite environment. You would hear sound of wind, birds, construction, random noises etc. It is improbable to escape the noises of the external world. Similarly, sages meditating in a silent environment of the Himalayas were able to divert their mind from surrounding sound and was able to hear the subtle sound flowing in their body.
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Prayers and mantras in all religions
All religions have some melodious song, prayers or chants though none of them have the vibrational intensity of Vedic mantras. Talking on Hinduism, there are chanting classes all around the globe especially America where the attendants are taught chanting mantras like ‘Om NamahShivaya’,’ Om Namo Narayana’, ‘Sri Rama Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram etc. Of course, there is an issue with their pronunciation. For ex: Chinese says ‘Ladhe Ladhe’ instead of ‘Radhe Radhe’. Though such spiritual seeker pronounces differently, one can see submissive devotion in them.
Prayers are not meant for worldly pleasures
Businessman and professionals around the world are using the power of innovative thinking, positive affirmations and creative intuition to become popular, wealthy and successful. However the real purpose of yoga is not so degraded as it aims for nothing less than enlightenment .i.e merging of mind and body with Supreme Consciousness. Thus the process of meditation is complete when we subside our ego to let the mind realize “I am one with that. I am Infinite Consciousness”
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Why once in a while mass prayers won’t work?
When you hear a prayer call from organizations for noble causes such as prevention of floods, earthquake, global warming etc, it is better not to respond to such calls as overcoming the natural events needs a strong spiritual basis and can be attained only through yagna (Sacrifice) by spiritual saints situated at the highest order. The best we can do to address such issues are to take preventive and environmental-saving steps to avoid such disasters.
Yagna(sacrifice) for social causes
Atheist who says prayer don’t work are highly superstitious
Atheists who attack religious beliefs as stupid superstitions are themselves highly superstitious. I regard them highly superstitious due to the fact that they believe god does not exist and all this massive creation happened by itself. Their claims are extremely invalid as there is no valid argument or evidence that goes against god existence. Hence, their belief of god non-existence is also held by faith and a devastating faith that has blinded their mind to filter out all the godly existences they see in their daily life. Atheists are in fact a bunch of individuals who demanded something from god but later went on to attack god as their wishes were not fulfilled. When such atheist criticizes godly beliefs, they are indirectly expecting god to give them what they have asked for. However, they are far from understanding that prayers doesn’t work this way. In short, in my opinion, atheist can be defined as “A group who challenged the existence of god by claiming their non-answered prayers as evidence of god non-existence”
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Conclusion:
Each thought of us have some effect on the mind. Effect of our thoughts may be positive or negative but the effect from correct repetition of mantras is definitely positive and diverts the mind from all problems and distractions. Mantra or prayer is like a spiritual food that nourishes your spirit. So, chant Mantras/prayers to soothe your mind and experience the sweeping out of feelings like clutter, anger, hatred, depression and jealousy.
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