The modern mind is becoming more and more averse to prayer. It makes a parade of its scientific and rationalistic temper of mind and sacrifices at that altar the great joy-giver and purifier of life. Prayer implies a mental falling back upon the contemplation of the eternal elements in life and the realization of God’s power and mercy and love. It is not a selfish appeal to the God of Battles, but an unselfish trust in the God of Love.
The fact is that though the law of conservation of energy is in operation in the material world, there is not only a law of conservation of value but also a law of augmentation of value in the spiritual world. The soul of man is eternal and its ascent of self-realization implies an ascending scale of values. This does not mean that the soul acquires a new value or a new bliss but that the soul realizes its infinite value and bliss more and more and in an ever increasing measure. . .
It is by prayer that this increasing self-realization of the soul is attained. Nay, it is by prayer that we are put into moods of rhythmical adjustments with others. Anti-social endeavour is a moral disease. Moral health depends on love. He who does not love God, is not likely to love man with a full and unselfish love. Why should he do so? Why should he not use others as mere instruments of his pleasure? It is only he who wants to go through love of man to love of God—God who is in himself and his neighbour and in all—that will have a pure and disinterested loving moral relation towards others.
It is impossible to understand why the existence of suffering should be incompatible with prayerfulness. Suffering is purgation for evil done. Prayer is a mood of love for God, which purifies our sins and prevents future sins. If suffering is only sin in effect, why should it prevent prayer which is the only means of triumph over sin?
Further, the appeal to God in prayer is not like a humble petition to an autocratic emperor. It is a child’s raising of trustful and loving eyes to its father or its mother. The answer to it is not a capricious giving or withholding of bounties, but the removal of the inner hindrance, caused by sin, to the flow of His Love and Grace. The answer to prayer is thus primarily in the soul. Prayer is hence a knocking at the door of the house of Light. The opening of the door takes place inside the heart. When the Light of His Love streams out, the darkness of sin, which cannot abide the Light of His Love, flees away.
Source – The Vedanta Kesari January, 1921-22, Pp. 278-279 The Golden Link to God
BY K. S. Ramaswami Sastri, B.A., B.L.