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Summary of Question:	Dont Pray Properly
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Monday, 7/19/2004 11:59 AM MDT

hi im a sikh but i dont pray "properly" like i dont do sukhmani sahib BUT i do pray to God and i ask God everyday to bless my family and to protect them and show them better dayz i never pray for myself because i dont think its right so what i need to know is

1.is God listening to me even though i dont pray "properly"
2.is it right for me to pray for things for myself?

PLEASE reply as quick as thanks. and God


<<<<< REPLY >>>>>

Sat Nam! We often forget just how powerful our prayers are. The world and everything in it was made of our prayers. Every thought we have is creative and it is our thought forms that produce the world we live in.

Many of us were raised with immature ideas of the role of prayer and were told to use it to get what we want. We may have prayed for a good grade on an exam, a new relationship, or whatever it was we thought we didn't have but needed in order to be happy and fulfilled.

But what if this particular modality of prayer, i.e., asking for what we don't have, is the very thing that keeps it from us?

There are certain laws of energy we must follow if we are to actively promote our own creative processes. One of those laws is: "What we focus our minds on increases." When we pray "for" something then we have made a very important decision that influences the prayer. We have started off admitting that "the thing I desire is not present now... I must somehow create what is not there."

Therefore, it is the "not-thereness" that actually increases, not the desired effect, because our attention is focused on the fact that we don't have it now.

True prayer is the heartfelt expression of gratitude given with the knowledge that everything we need and want is actually there already. Why? Because it is. It may be hidden - blanketed beneath layers of hatred and mistrust, but is present nonetheless. Know the truth in your heart, and that truth will surely extend into the world. The truth is that God provides for all his creatures - every single thing each one needs at all times.

"RAG GUJRI, FIFTH CHANNEL OF LIGHT: Why, O my mind, do you worry and plan, when God is taking care of your every need? Even those tiny creatures that live in the rocks and stones, God has given them all their food."
(Sodar Raag Asa - Guru Nanak Dev Ji SGGS p.12)

This is not magic, though you may sometimes have magical results. When we pray with full and complete gratitude we are cooperating with the force of creation, and we become a co-creator with the Divine. This is our destiny, and this is the time to claim our right.

.....G