Prayer of alpha to omega
– I think that I caught the importance of transmission, of cleaning-rejuvenation also, is there anything else which could help me, spiritually speaking? , asks Theophil the Younger.
– Many times, replies Theophil the Elder, the practitioner remains at the surface of the heart though the recommendation to be in contact with the source of light. This light is divine. It comes from the Center. So I invite you to a “heart-of-the heart” based intense practice, on sublime love which emanate from it. When the Masters speak about divine light, they aim no more than the Ultimate.
– I understood it, but am I capable?
– Yes of course. During the three introduction meditations, the spiritual Master directly connected you with the source of divine energy, through so-called “pranahuti”. What we often ignore is that the spiritual Guide’s heart is used as an energy transformer so that the power of transmission is modulated and adapted to the aspirant’s capacity.
– Do you mean that we receive 220 volts instead of 10 000?
– This is actually quite a fairly image.
– Why do you use the word “aspirant”? What does it mean?
– Well! If the practitioner does not aspire, not really being inquiring, he will remain on the surface. The more he will progress in the regions symbolized with stars, the easier the connection, his capacity will increase also and the more powerful the transmission will be.
A help is there also, all at one powerful and subtle, it is prayer. It is an important spiritual tool, of high efficiency.
– I am not very attracted by prayer, I have the feeling that I am begging. Such as you often told me, the soul chooses its destiny before coming on Earth, we just have to follow it. What do we use prayer for?
– That is right, but do we really let ourselves be guided?
All genuine prayers connect us to the Divine. Words are inspired. They emanate from higher planes and carry the vibrations of the latter. The Sahaj Marg prayer, offered by Babuji, directly connects us to the Center.
– The prayer would be such as a switch, in a way, on/off, interesting.
Would you mind making me live the prayer?
– If you like. Please begin by getting into a meditative state and listen to the prayer “through” the heart.
Theophil the Younger, self-confident, high dives in his heart, is immediately overwhelmed by the light.
The Elder starts whispering to him the Sahaj Marg prayer.
– What do you feel?
– The prayer picked me up. Multiple dimensions opened in me. I had the feeling to switch to superluminal speed. The rest is indescribable.
– We are going to explore all the levels of the prayer.
Theophil the Elder states the propositions one by one, leaving a long time between each; his peaceful and assured voice alternates with deep silences.
– Say the prayer out loud so that it can fill the whole room …– The young man obliges. (Silence.)
– Pray again but fervently, such as the words had to make their way up to the heavens … (Silence.)
– Now, say it within yourself. It fills your whole inner space … (Silence.)
– Tell the prayer inside your heart, let it enter into its depths … (Silence.)
– Now, pretend your heart is reciting it … (Silence.)
– By now, say it without a word. Only the vibration of the prayer remains … (Silence.)
– Erase this vibration. You are connected now to the essence of the prayer. (Silence.)
– Erase this essence. You are into divine silence …
For a very long time the two friends remained into this meditative state initiated by the prayer of the heart.
Prayer and offering
– Can you tell me more, about prayer? Theophile the Younger asked.
– There are several forms of payers. They all have to be said whole-heartedly. In this domain, very few requests will ever be fulfilled if they come from the mind.
The Offering prayer for instance is based on a heartfelt sense of gratitude. There is a reason for your being thankful. Your thanks come spontaneously from your heart. You can feel it quite easily: just remember an event when you had the impression that a horde of angels saved a young child who had put his life seriously at risk.
He had neared the worst, and the disaster was only narrowly avoided. Feeling relieved, you gave thanks.
Observe your inner condition. A state of gratitude is naturally emerging from your heart. Do you understand?
There are still other forms of ‘Offering prayers’, for thanking and praising the Ultimate spontaneously. They are impulses of the heart, a mystical momentum. There is no particular reason for it, no request; ‘that’ is mere thanksgiving. It can be a formal prayer, or said with the words that come naturally from our heart. But remember, the highest form of prayer needs no words. Do you want to try?
Theophile the Younger gets absorbed in a silent prayer for a short moment, and when he opens his eyes, his face looks different.
– What did you feel?, the Elder asks gently.
– It was as if transmission had come from my heart and arisen above, towards the Source. An immense, near ecstatic joy was there. Giving thanks makes us feel really good, the young man says.
– When we give thanks, we forget ourselves. Our entire being, all our energy is addressed to the Ultimate, to “the Beloved”, as mystics would sometimes call It. It is a relation of love that goes to the Source and lets out the Love that is in all. Hence the impression you have of a transport, an ecstasy.
Giving is the highest act. Self-giving is supreme since it leaves within us only the manifested divine presence. Your personality fades away naturally, for its highest benefit. Even the rebellious ego is fascinated. Love makes it happy. Peace and harmony reign in your entire being and all your subtle bodies are bathing in them.
– Finally, I like giving thanks, Theophile he Younger adds, for it makes you give grace back to the Source that bestowed it on you. That gift is free, unrelated to merit. On the TV channel ARTE I saw a program called “An altruistic world”: some scientists have studied the effect a gift has on your feeling happy and well. They gave a twenty dollars banknote to different persons. A group had to use the money for themselves, the other group being supposed to redistribute it as they pleased. The first group drew no extraordinary pleasure from it, whereas the other group felt much joy and contentment when giving to others. By doing so they had largely increased their individual happiness capital and their propensity to feel happy.
– Of course. Altruism is self-giving. He who gives often receives more than the one he gives to. Giving sincerely, without expecting anything, will prime the pump of love within us, and then the pump flow may grow exponentially.
– And what of prayers for the sick, for the persons experiencing hardship?
Prayer and faith
– And what of prayers for the sick, for the persons experiencing hardship?
– I am happy you present it that way. You did not mention prayer as a personal request. The most efficient prayer is the one concerning other people, of course. You will feel helpless when faced with a very bothersome situation and turn for help towards the Divine with a prayer. You explain the situation, mentioning the person concerned, her soul.
– If you agree, I’d like to try in your presence.
– All right. Think of an intricate situation, one where you feel totally powerless.
The points of the heart region.
– I have a friend who is seven months pregnant. She suffers from eclampsia. The baby is not viable yet. Both are potentially at risk. I am very worried and there is nothing I can do. I should pray for them, shouldn’t I?
– First of all, you must know that you won’t be able to pray efficiently if you are in a state of intense emotion, anxiety or grief. Your prayer would then come from your head or from the most superficial part of your heart, the one that is related to emotions. It would have very little chance of success. Your conscience must be at least placed in the dimension of Point 2, in the heart region, the area that concerns the soul, the seat for love. Then you will feel at peace, and your prayer will cross all dimensions, in the way a particle does it when moving across the cosmic vacuum to go towards infinity.
Have the attitude of someone who exposes, submits to a higher force, to a higher dimension. You advocate for your friend and her baby. It is an act of trust, of faith, and you are full of gratitude as if the miracle had already happened. Faith, when associated to gratitude, works wonders.
The esoteric symbol.
– Do you mean I should thank God as if He had already achieved that miracle?
– With an absolute conviction. For me, all the points in the heart are at work and to them I add those of the second star, for good measure. The law of time is suspended. The effect transcends the cause.
Prayer and the Word
– We have already talked about prayers of different kinds. In fact, There are four levels of prayers: a gross prayer – the most heavy-laden one – then a subtler one, and a very subtle one, up to the one that is absolutely subtle, Theophile the Elder said.
– What does it mean?
– The subtlest prayer needs no words. It is nothing but a vibration, he explained. Here, Babuji would have mentioned a ‘vibration without vibration’, the equivalent of the Word that Created, the OM.
– Have you experienced it?
– Yes and No. Only when I thought I was spiritually stuck. Any other request seemed to be out of place. God provides for everything, so, why should we ask?
– I sometimes say so to myself. But what do you do, then?
– I expose to God my soul or the soul of the person I intercede for, without asking for anything. It is as if my joined hands would hold a cup at the level of my heart and raise it above my head in an act of offering. Consider it is a movement, an impulse, a metaphor.
Now, let us pray for your friend and her to-be-born child.
Theophile the Younger made out the slow, harmonious movement of his joined hands rising from his heart towards the sky, thus offering the two souls to God, without any request or expectation. He felt confident and his heart was full of love for God and for these two creatures in difficulty.
Much to his surprise, he felt their souls become one and melt into the Divine, transmitting silently what could be heard as, “Thy will be done, oh Lord. Our faith is forever in You.”
Grace and blessings flowed over them and spread over the hospital, over the city, over the whole country, eventually including the whole planet.
Then Theophile the Younger understood that through prayer he could enter into a loving communion with the Divine, wherever It is. He said to the Elder,
“Now I realize it is not only mystical impulses or deep meditations that can create such effects. A profound sense of despair, when there is no issue but asking God for help, can also bring them about. Then nothing else will matter any more. Worries will give way to faith and gratitude.”
After a long silent moment, as if he was absorbing the experience he’d had, the Younger added, “So far, I thought prayer was a mystical, or even a sheer bigotry akin to religion or to a sort of superstition. I considered it was emphatic, miles away from my real concerns; but today, after what I have just lived, words seem to be poor and tasteless. All the Beauty, the Dignity and all that Love leave me speechless.”
Sankalpa
– The other day, you defined prayer as “sankalpa”. Could you elaborate on what you meant?, Theophile the Younger asked.
– At the highest level, our spiritual guide captures and transmits “pranahuti”. Then prayer becomes “sankalpa”.
– What does it mean?
– It is all about making a suggestion in order to end up with creating something. When God is at the job, the result is absolute and spontaneous. When it is our work, the result is more or less efficient according to the performer’s degree of subtlety.
– Isn’t that rather dangerous? An extremely subtle sankalpa could be highly effective. There, as you say, the Creator’s power is at work; so I suppose it is all about creative energy. But couldn’t it be used negatively?
– Creative power is neither positive nor negative. It IS. It is non-dual, and good and evil don’t exist. It is where the power of the original sankalpa came from. The other sankalpas are only the declination of that first principal the ‘Word” is. Human beings have carefully adapted it into sound, prayer, mantras, music or words. Everything that lives has a specific vibration, a sacred name, a sound, a note that is or is not in harmony with the primary Word. The first languages derive from it, their words are pure magic, being all related to the creative force. On being uttered, they are remedial, since they immediately get attuned with the Word.
– Could you give me one example of a sankalpa?
– In the Bible, God says, “Let there be light”, and there was light. Or, Lalaji would say, “Atcha”, and it was immediately done. That is the divine will being expressed. And it is the reason why our Masters say that will is stronger than love.
“EVERYTHING SURROUNDING US,
THE AIR PARTICLES, PEOPLE, THE TREES, …
EVERYTHING AROUND US IS DEEPLY ABSORBED
IN GODLY REMEMBRANCE.”
Kamlesh Patel
The way of Love
– You say that for masters, will is better than love. What do you think?, Theophile the Younger asks.
– I fully agree, but for me, supreme love is Everything. Many years ago, I opted for the Way of Love–Wisdom, and of surrender to the divine force. As I have already told you, in love, there is no ‘higher’ or ‘lower’; in a love wisdom approach, knowledge has become wisdom through love.
– You keep saying that a strict practice helps develop one’s will and that I have to acquire some knowledge. Why shouldn’t I just surrender directly to Love, and only to Love?
– Because we are multiple, and an aspirant should practice regularly in order to attain the balance that leads to divine Simplicity. Here is the reason why we practice raja–yoga. It covers all the plans in your existence: daily life, family life, societal life. It concerns all aspects, so that action (karma–yoga), devotion (bakti–yoga), knowledge (jnana–yoga), will and thoroughness develop every day. That is the way to attain a state of surrender, a balanced mind and a strong will. Babuji also offered us the ten Maxims as human and spiritual beacons to help our souls and our personalities stand in their proper place on the path to evolution.
– Then why did you choose Love–Wisdom?
– Out of intelligence. Before, my approach was based on knowledge and its dangerousness.
– What do you mean?
– Knowledge makes you access to powerful means, which requires an increasingly strong and sharp mind: the ego always tries to get a hold on such attributes for its own use or for any other good reason. Discernment, supported by an intense consciousness, is absolutely necessary for avoiding the pitfalls of the ego. As for love, it subdues the ego and changes knowledge into wisdom. Then the mind is more contemplative, more intuitive. It puts the powers aside and considers they are mere toys that can be used from time to time, but in a spontaneous, innocent and factual manner. Once used, they are forgotten about.
A disciple travels light and he is devoid of any object but the Divine. He is as innocent as a child, the Gospels would say.
– You do not really look childlike, do you? Theophile the Younger remarks jokingly. There are even times when I find you are rather clever at making me understand something.
– Innocent does not mean stupid. It means you have lost your self–consciousness to make room for a consciousness of the Self, the Divine consciousness.
– Then why did you give up following the highest way, the way of the will, the nearest way to God, to the Ultimate?
– For me, it was the wisest way, since I am not naturally humble, the Elder answered with a smile. I knew my ego could divert me from my spiritual Goal, as he already did in my former lives. The Way of Love is the surest way. Its only disadvantage is that it often comes together with suffering.
– Why?
– Because the fire of love will burn in you all that is not Love.
– But you have often insisted on the cleaning process, which is there to purify us, make us feel lighter, to bring us to light. You have even told me that the bogha, the process to get rid of impressions (samskaras) allowed us to develop humility. So, where is the problem?
– Well! You are perfectly right!
– Please, help me understand the meaning of our suffering.
– That would be useless; my doing it would be like the mothers who will tell about their most painful childbirth moments to a woman in her first pregnancy. That will only frighten her. They had better tell her about all the beauty there is in the act of giving birth, about the incredibly powerful wave that is invading mothers at the moment of delivery and about the sense of wonder they felt after having given birth. All the pain leaves after the birth of their baby. It is the same with spirituality, when we die to ourselves to be born to our Self. The process may be painful, but the result is sublime.
– Still, this is worrying. People seem to suffer a lot in this world.
– Chariji used to say that the sufferings we endure to develop spiritually represent only twenty per cent of all our pains, that we always benefit from them and that they are a sign of growth. They are pains we can handle; they are adapted to our needs. When parents see their child suffer from a severe bone–pain when he or she is teething, they accompany the child, they sympathize, they try to alleviate the pain: however, they know it will pass, for it is a natural process. It is the same with our Masters of Wisdom; they accompany us in our development, they sympathize, but they know that all our trials make sense and are a sign of our growth.
– Now what about the other eighty per cent?
– The human beings create all these sufferings, which are totally useless. Humankind should not suffer as much as it does.
– OK, but that doesn’t explain why you did not choose the way of the will.
– Each soul, each spiritual adult has to make a choice. I chose Love–Wisdom. It suits me perfectly. Don’t forget that the goal is the Ultimate. The Masters are endowed with will. They have to face colossal tasks. They are the nearest possible to God whose Divine Plan they carry out, as angels and archangels do; they obey His Will.
– What is required to follow the Way of the Will?
– The highest level of Purity. We have already talked about the divine simplicity. It is prior to the stage of Purity. I remain confident that Love can do and change everything, the old man concluded, with a kind smile on his face.
Theophile the Elder
An excerpt from Dialogs with Theophile the Elder
Theophile the Younger’s initiation