We human beings live in families. Family is the center of our existence. We work for the growth of kids and to take care of the parents. Every household in India does prayers of different kinds. We all pray to different Gods and Goddesses. I somehow wonder that our prayers too are the reflection of our state of consciousness.
I remember my childhood. Ramayana was my favorite TV serial of everybody. We all used to watch TV series on Sundays. We listened to the stories of Hanuman. How powerful he was and he carried out so many seemingly impossible tasks. There are so many temples of Hanumana in the town and we used to go to pray Hanumana every Tuesday. Since there are so many fears we have, we used to pray for Hanumana to protect us from all the dangers. A fearful mind always prays to God for protection. If there is a power cut and complete darkness inside our home, we will go inside chanting Hanuman Chalisa.
No doubt it works. It works because most of the fears are just the stories that we have created in our minds and such stories appear to be true since they are validated by society. It is because the entire society is suffering from the same fear psychosis. When we watch or read the stories of Gods, the fearful mind looks at different Gods, we believe in, as the saviors and protectors and that is how the brain has created a counter-story that helps us fight the fears. The mental villains are fought by the mental heroes.
As we grow up, we have different prayers. As school-going kids, we want to perform well in the examinations. Sometimes, we have prayers around our friends. Then we have prayers to get a good job at the campus then to get promotions and hkes in the pay packages. As we grow as an adult, we have prayers for marriage, kids, the well-being of the family, money, positions, and powers. Thus, we have prayers either to get rid of our fears or to possess or achieve something we desire.
God becomes just a means to get what we want in life. To such a mind, prayers appear to be like the consideration for getting what we want. As if God is hungry for our prayers and we can ask anything in exchange for paying attention to Him and praising Him. We would never like to be Rama, Hanuman, Krishna, or Shiva. Because that will require getting rid of our possessions.
Over a period of our lives, we get so attached to ignorance that we start behaving like stupid. Rama is God because he was not attached to anything be it his kingdom or kids or wife. We lived a life of duty. He followed his duty as a son when his father asked him to go to the forest for 14 years. He followed his duty as a king when people in Ayodhya commented on Sita and he asked Sita to move out of Ayodhya and remained away from his unborn sons for such a long time. People judge his life from their own perspective. They feel that his life was full of pain and that is why they pray for a happy life full of all types of pleasures failing to realize that we seek these pleasures only when we are in pain.
When we are not connected inside, we feel an emptiness and craving. We seek objects outside such as tasty food, pleasure trips, money, and social validation to fill that emptiness. However, the more we try to fill that emptiness, the more we feel empty. We do not learn from Hanumana that the real joy is in surrender to Rama. We do not learn from Rama that the real joy is in devoting to the Swadharma. We do not learn from Shiva that the real joy is in non-possession. We do not learn from Krishna that the real joy is in equanimity. Rather out of our stupidity, we make all these role models to be Gods who will just listen to their praise and grant us what we want. Why would God grant us more arsenal to destroy ourselves? We have already gathered enough for ourselves. In the name of prayers, we just end up insulting these ideals. We just need to pray to give us the strength and courage to walk in the footsteps of these ideals and if we live life accordingly, joy and happiness are just natural outcomes.
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