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Prayers and Self-love

Often we pass through tough phases of life and we pray to the divine to help us. Most of the time we pray for the change of the situations so that we feel comfortable. We are happy in our comfort zone and pray for the restoration of the comfort zone. However, if the comfort zone is restored, how will we evolve? Most of the good things in our lives happen when we step outside our comfort zone. 

I feel that the divine is always providing us with the opportunities to grow. Most of these opportunities come in the form of difficulties. We perceive these opportunities to be difficulties because our intellect is quite limited and unable to make out how these seemingly tough situations will result in growth and expansion. Therefore, generally, the mind reacts to these situations as difficulties. However, as we connect to the divine, we can observe the reaction of our own mind. We can see how our own perception changes as the mind gets exposed to the greater plan of the divine.

Prayers form a very strong mode of communication between the mind and the divine. If we pray for the restoration of the comforts, we are probably sending signals to the divine that we are not ready for growth. Like a stubborn child throwing all sorts of tantrums, we make the task of the parents difficult. Parents are always concerned about the growth of their kids and make all possible efforts for their growth and evolution, even if these efforts are disliked by the kids. Similarly, the divine makes all possible efforts for our growth by creating challenges to take us out of our comfort zone.

There are a lot of theories in the market about self-love and all. There is no doubt that we all love ourselves. But we need to first understand what we really are. If we identify ourselves with the mind and its content, are we not confining ourselves to quite a narrow part of our grand existence? The moment we start loving ourselves, we feel suffocated in the limited mind and wish to break free of these imitations and in fact make active efforts. A self-loving person prays for freedom from the mind's cage to realize the wideness of existence and in the process prays for the strength and courage to set free of the bondage of likes and dislikes.

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