What's a prayer

For years I had been trained that when you want something and you badly want it, go to the God and pray him to grant your wish. And for years together my prayers have echoed the sentiment of deficit in my life. As if there was never enough and as if there will be never enough. I have prayed hard, I have fasted long and with one motive that my wish be granted. This wish could be for a family member or for myself and the wish had been granted more often than not and when that happened, I would have believed more in the power of prayers. I had not believed in the joy of praying to God for expressing my gratitude. For me prayers were like a spare tyre that I would pull out whenever an emergency came in my life. When everything went right, I wouldn’t pray that much, I would think that if I am doing my duty well and trying to be compassionate and kind to fellow beings, I am praying to God in my way. If this be the case then why did I need to deviate from that in situations of crisis? May be extreme situations demanded extreme answers.






While talking of prayers, now I am realising that prayers are a way to say 'thank you' to God for the small or big blessings that He has endowed us with. Life is all about miracles and they happen only to a believer. You think of someone and he calls, what is that? If you wish, you can term it as small ‘miracle’ of the life. I am beginning to believe in gratitude, which is being thankful to something when you get it. For many years, when I got a present, my first feeling would be how could I repay it back. Now I am learning to quit that attitude and say a simple ‘thank you’ when I get gifts and actually mean that too.



Now, that I no longer believe in prayers as a way to ask God for something, rather thank Him for what He has given me, my prayers no longer fall in the ritualistic pattern. I can sit still and smile for a while thanking God for everything that I have. I can listen to bhajans while I drive and thank God for a bright new and wonderful day that He has given me. It took me a while, but when I realised that as children, we need to thank creator for what He has given us. If we constantly crib about what we don’t have, we are creating feelings of negativity around us and negativity creates negativity. In fact, thoughts reflect in our mental status and body’s health and prayer is a wonderful way to cleanse your thoughts and calm your soul. It allows you to connect to your creator. Go ahead, choose whatever way suits you and express your gratitude to GOD.