Original subtitles

It’s always a joy to

greet you all during our Convocation

and to welcome you in God and Master’s name.

I often think of us all as being

a part of Master’s army

spread throughout the world.

And we’re here

bonded, you might say, soul to soul.

We’re all united

whether we know it or not.

I think outwardly we become so

— what shall I say —

we know each other’s names and what we look like,

our personalities and so on.

But there’s something much deeper

that bonds us, that ties us together,

and creates, you might say,

a certain kind of subtle power on earth.

Now I understand we have a subject tonight to discuss.

Many of you have heard stories that I’ve told

of our Gurudeva over the years,

there on the tennis court at Mother Center.

But our tennis court tonight has expanded somewhat.

When Master gave lectures

he often started by saying,

“This is a vast subject.”

And it was interesting because

no matter what the subject was

it was vast.

And when he started you would think

that he was not really talking about

that particular subject at all.

But when he finished

he had circled the universe, shall we say,

and pulled it all together

so that we could understand

the in-depth meaning of every subject.

Because where do those come from,

where do they have their base?

They have their base in spirit.

So tonight we’re going to talk about prayer —

trusting God in every circumstance of life.

Now we all know that Master’s written

quite a lot about prayer;

and many of us here — I suppose there

probably is no one here

who hasn’t had some kind of personal experience

having to do with prayer.

And we think of prayer — what is it exactly?

Master said that true prayer

is the expression of the soul.

You might say it is a call from our soul to God.

Prayer. And the more we pray, the more

we create an intimate relationship with God,

a stronger bond, a stronger connection with Him.

And Master said to talk to Him

in the language of our own hearts,

in the language of our own souls.

And our revered president Sri Daya Mata said,

“To me, conversation with God,

talking with God,

to God as a near and dear friend,

is a more natural, personal, and effective form of prayer.

And so as we pray,

we become closer to God.

He becomes for us a greater reality.

And what do we do in prayer, as a rule?

We ask for God’s help and for His guidance;

realizing that He is the divine power,

the One who can help us to fulfill all our needs.

He’s the Source of all that we seek.

And Master always guided us to go directly to God,

to consult Him, shall we say, personally

rather than relying on outside sources

or on our own abilities.

I think we can all relate to this.

The moment we have a difficulty we think,

“Oh, who can I go to?

Who will know about this particular problem?

Who can give me help, guidance?”

Or we think, “Well, what can I do about it?

What are my resources to help the situation?”

That’s all right,

but we do need to remember

that we cannot do it alone.

We need the help of God and Guru

in all that we do in life.

Why? They are omnipresent,

all-knowing, all-powerful,

and they can do more for us

than anything or anyone else.

Master said, “The superconscious law of success

is put into operation through man’s prayers

and by his understanding of the Lord’s omnipotence.

Do not stop your conscious efforts

or rely wholly on your own natural abilities,

but ask divine aid in all that you do.”

And so as we pray and try inwardly

to follow the inwardly guiding voice of God and Guru,

we need to remember,

make it a point to remember that God is the doer.

Our part is to try to be in tune with Him

and to allow Him to work through us.

i think so often each day there are

little things that take place,

sometimes you scarcely notice them.

I remember recently I had to attend a meeting

at, shall we say the last minute,

and I had an appointment with someone.

That person called shortly thereafter

cancelling the appointment because she couldn’t come.

Things that are so much a part of our daily activities

that we scarcely think of them

as being a part of God’s plan;

and He often plans for us much better

than we plan for ourselves.

So we need to make prayer

a constant part of our lives, daily part.

And it’s good to begin our days with

a period of meditation

and to pray deeply thereafter

in order to attune our consciousness with Him;

and throughout the day

to stop occasionally to reflect

on how things are going —

are we yet in tune, are we allowing God to guide us,

or are we guiding, shall we say, ourselves?

And at night we should pray and meditate again,

and then give to God,

leave with Him our burdens, any difficulties,

tremendous difficulties, that we may have.

For two years after entering the ashram,

I had the very good fortune to work with

our president as her first secretary.

We occupied a tiny office situated off the landing

between the second and third floors

of our administration building.

And at that time we didn’t have an elevator,

so Master often stopped by

when he was on his way in or out of the building.

And on one occasion I was answering a letter

and he so sweetly said,

“Always take the time to say a little prayer

for the person you are writing to.”

And obviously Master was never in a hurry

when it came to the divine help

that he gave to devotees throughout the world —

those that were seeking his help through letters,

through phone calls, through interviews —

and it was obvious that that help he gave them

came from God,

you might say, not from himself.

He always consulted God.

And sometimes, not often but sometimes,

I remember on one occasion one person came

who was in a very, very complex situation.

Master was upstairs and he sent word down —

he was seeing some guests at the time —

and he said, “I am so sorry

that God does not permit me to help her.”

Interesting.

Interesting because

we have lessons to learn

from every circumstance that we find ourselves in

no matter what it may consist of,

no matter how bad it may seem.

Someone contributed the following example of a prayer

from a person asking for God’s help.

“Dear God, so far today I’ve done all right.

I haven’t gossiped and I haven’t lost my temper.

I haven’t been grumpy, nasty, or selfish,

but in a few minutes, Lord,

I’m going to get out of bed

and that’s when I’m going to need a lot of help.

Master talked to us about prayer-demands.

He said throughout his teachings that we should pray

with the consciousness of being the children of God;

that we belong to Him, we’re His own,

and we should not adopt the role of being a beggar.

He said, “God does not wish us to pray like beggars,

wielding Him to give us what we want.

Like any other loving father, He delights

in fulfilling our worthy wishes.”

That’s a sentence to remember:

He delights in fulfilling our worthy wishes.

"Therefore, first establish your identity with Him

through meditation.

The secret of effective prayer

is to change our status from beggar

to child of God.

When you appeal to Him from that consciousness,

your prayer will have both power and wisdom.”

He said, “God is not a mute, unfeeling being.

He is Love itself.

If you know how to meditate, to make contact with Him,

He will respond

to your loving demands.

You do not have to plead.

You can demand as a child.”

And that brought to mind

the part of the biblical quotation,

“Seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given to you.”

In “Whispers from Eternity,”

Master said, “My purpose in presenting these sacred demands,

received in the course of my various

fruitful communions with our Father,

is to enable my fellow beings to contact Him effectively.

These sacred demands are logical,

devotional, deep soul-outbursts.

If one prepares the mind by concentration

and then deeply, with ever increasing faith and devotion,

affirms these scientific divine demands,

one is bound to receive results.

To reestablish your unity with the Divine Father

as the son of God

is your most important demand.

Realize this truth and you will have received everything.”

So he’s telling us to first

to reestablish our unity with the Divine Father.

By so doing,

we automatically are the inheritor, shall we say,

of His blessings.

Master gave in “Whispers from Eternity”

prayers that he himself had spiritualized.

He had used them until he received response from God.

And they give us some, shall we say, food for thought,

something to concentrate on, something to focus on,

and they help us to guide our thinking into deeper realms.

And he said also to pray with determination

and with faith — faith that our prayers will be answered.

He said, “You must believe in the possibility

of what you are praying for.

If you want a home and the mind says,

‘You simpleton, you can’t afford a house,’

you must make your will stronger.”

Do you ever use such language with yourself?

“You simpleton, you can’t afford a house.”

He said, “When the ‘can’t’ disappears from your mind,

divine power comes.”

In other words, we abolish

that possibility of can’t — “I can’t do this. It’s not possible.”

He said, “A home will not be dropped down to you

from heaven.

You have to pour forth will power

continuously through constructive activity.

When you persist, refusing to accept failure,

the object of will must materialize.”

Why? This is in accordance with the laws of God.

You’ll remember in Master’s “Autobiography,”

the concerns he experienced when he received

an invitation to serve as a delegate from India

to an International Congress

of Religious Liberals in America.

He immediately sought the guidance of his guru

Sri Yukteswar, and asked if he should go.

And Yukteswarji replied, “All doors are open for you.

It’s now or never.”

Master didn’t know English too well.

And of course you remember

his own father was dismayed at first.

But Master’s greatest concern

centered around the stories he’d heard

about the West — that’s us.

“To survive in this atmosphere,” he thought,

“an Oriental teacher should be hardy

beyond the trials of any Himalayan cold!”

India is different in its temperament,

very different.

In another excerpt from this part of the book

he said, “Early one morning I began to pray

with an adamant determination to continue,

even to die praying, until I heard the voice of God.

I wanted His blessing and assurance

that I would not lose myself

in the fogs of modern utilitarianism.

My heart was set to go to America,

but even more strongly was it resolved

to hear the solace of divine permission.”

Now Sri Yukteswar had already said yes to this,

but Master, being Master, required more.

He said he prayed and prayed,

muffling his sobs,

but no answer came.

“At noon I reached a zenith;

my head was reeling under the pressure of my agonies.

I felt that if I cried once more,

increasing the depth of my inner passion,

my brain would split.

At that moment there came a knock at the door.

Answering the summons,

I beheld a young man

in the scanty garb of a renunciant.

He entered the house.

‘He must be Babaji!’ I thought,

dazed, because the man before me

had the features of a young Lahiri Mahasaya.

He answered my thought. ‘Yes, I am Babaji.

Our Heavenly Father has heard your prayer.

He commands me to tell you:

‘Follow the behests of your guru

and go to America.

Fear not. You shall be protected.’

After a vibrant pause,

Babaji addressed me again.

‘You are the one I have chosen to spread

the message of Kriya Yoga in the West.

Long ago I met your guru Sri Yukteswar

at the Kumbha Mela.

I told him then

that I would send you to him for training.’ ”

When you think about these stories that Master has told us,

You realize the extent of the divine plan

or at least some minor portion of it,

that is in the ether

for the welfare of all mankind.

But for us to really realize that

we must be in tune with the Divine One

who has created this, shall we say,

vast universe of which we are a part.

And it’s interesting to note also

that Gurudeva wanted definite assurance

that he would, shall we say, be able to manage

in these United States.

And he put forth all the power he had

possible effort in his prayers from within,

and, as a result,

the great and blissful Babaji paid him a visit.

He didn’t give up until his prayer was answered;

and we, too, must learn to develop

that kind of persistance,

and I would say insistance.

You remember in the book “Mejda,”

authored by one of Master’s brothers

Sananda Lal Ghosh,

he wrote that as a small child

Master could not understand why

his parents and his older brother

received letters from others

but he received none.

So he decided to write to God

and ask Him to send him a letter.

And on a sheet of paper he wrote,

“To Your beautiful lotus feet, my Bhagavan.

How are You? Are You ill?”

It might be a good idea to check in with the Lord

now and then to see if all is well.

“I talk to You every day

and ask You to send me a letter.

Probably You have forgotten my request?

I am very hurt.

You know that many letters come to my father and mother

and eldest brother; but no one sends a letter to me.

Certainly You will send me a letter.

Please write quickly.”

Demand?

“Don’t forget about it.”

Another demand.

“What else shall I write? Father and Mother are well.

Thus bowed, Mukunda.”

So he carefully folded this letter and posted it,

addressed it “To Splendid God, Heaven.”

Ten days passed and no answer came.

Impatiently Mejda [Master] prayed,

“Is it so difficult to run the world

that you cannot find time to write a few words to me?”

He was quite hurt by this,

so he resolved not to write to God again.

But he didn’t give up his prayers.

“Why are You so cruelly silent?

I talk to You every day and sent You a letter,

but You did not reply.”

More days passed.

But Master did not cease his one-sided

argument with God.

So one night Master was awakened suddenly

by a great light in his room.

God replied to his letter in that divine light.

I think that would be the best way

to receive a letter, don’t you?

No postage required. No paper to write on it.

So, we have to think in terms of how

to develop faith and determination

through effective prayer.

Master taught us that will power,

and in-depth thought,

are essential.

If we pray and affirm,

sending out positive thoughts,

this sets into motion subtle forces

that bring about what we want or we need.

Now this doesn’t mean to

anxiously force what is needed.

But calmly, steadfastly, to proceed in our efforts;

and sometimes thinking, “All right Lord,

if it is not Your will that I

receive whatever it is I’m asking for, so be it.”

Not too easy is it?

But we leave the matter in His hands.

When I speak about forcing, and always being in a hurry,

I reflected back on — I was reminded of

one of our older sisters — years ago.

I remember being impressed by the way she drove a car.

She would slowly go around to one side.

In those days we didn’t have the devices we do today.

She would open the one side for the passenger,

walk around on the other side, and open the other side.

She would get in and adjust everything before starting the engine.

So we would get off onto our trip.

And you’d think, “Well we might be late, you know,

with this approach,” shall we say.

And she didn’t drive too fast.

But each time I was totally amazed.

We always got there before anyone else did.

Master said, “God does respond when you pray deeply to him,

with faith and determination.

Sometimes He answers by dropping a thought

into the mind of another person

who can fulfill your desire or your need.

That individual then serves as God's instrument

to bring about the desired results.”

And I’m sure you’ve seen this too.

Others step forward and give you something you need.

And, there’s been no exchange of communication there.

But the need is fulfilled through someone.

He said, “You don’t realize how wonderfully this great power works.

It operates mathematically.

There is no ‘if’ about it.

And that is what the bible means by faith.

It is proof of things unseen.”

So when we pray, we may not necessarily receive exactly

what it is we’re praying for.

Or it may not come in the way we expect it to come.

But we can be sure

that if we keep trusting and doing our part,

the answer will come.

Master said, “The Omniscience alone,

who knows the hearts of His children,

answers their prayers in many ways.

Devotion shown to God always evokes

some kind, some form, of plain or mysterious response.

No true devotee is ignored by God.

Never think that God does not answer your prayers.

Every word you have whispered to Him,

He has written in His heart,

and someday He will answer you.

If you keep watching for Him

in the many ways in which He does respond,

you will know that in fact He answers you all the time.

If you are very eager, He will answer you in greater ways.

Only by persistence can He be persuaded.”

And we need to trust, too, that God knows

what is really best for us.

Sometimes He allows us to go through certain

experiences or challenges

that are not easy for us, at all.

But why?

We need them in order to grow, spiritually.

We develop spiritual qualities and inner strength

by going through such experiences.

And when we go through them,

then we better see, how God guides and sustains us.

And this, in turn, strengthens our faith.

So we have to use common sense

and take necessary action,

all the while praying, as did Master,

“I will reason. I will will. I will act.

But guide Thou my reason, will, and activity

to the right thing that I should do.

When we have to make decisions, it’s best

to think about them, maybe make notes,

and then distance ourselves a little bit from them for a time;

and then go back to them, later,

and see what we think then.

Basically we’re turning all of it over to God and Guru.

And we’re saying to them,

“I will do the best I can,

but You know what is right for me.

I leave it in Your hands.”

And then when the time is right,

the right solution is found.

I came across this story,

someone brought it to my attention.

And I think it is a very good example

of how God does not answer our prayers

always in the way that we want,

but in the way that we need to have them answered.

This is our story.

The order had come down at last.

The ground invasion of Kuwait

was about to commence.

My battalion would cross the Kuwaiti border

as part of Operation Desert Storm.

I was the second in command of 130 brave marines

who were about to face the most daunting challenge

of their military lives.

We’d already dodged heavy artillery fire

and now we’d likely face more dangers

like land mines and oil fires.

Thousands of Iraqi troops

waited just beyond the Kuwaiti border.

It was time for us to make the final strategic push.

“Dear God,” I prayed, “help me to lead my troops wisely.

Watch over us. Keep us safe.”

I walked from one group of marines to another,

talking to them about the mission

and trying to keep their spirits up.

Hunched against the dry, biting desert winds,

we wrote letters home — maybe our last.

Just before dawn the next morning

I gave the order to move out.

The skies were clear.

We slung our gear into our humvees

and began advancing toward the border.

I felt a drop of rain,

then another.

In a matter of minutes it was pouring.

The rain came down hard and fast,

so thick we could barely make out the desert landscape

ahead of us.

It went on for days.

Each morning we’d awaken soaked to the bone

after another night with only camouflage netting for cover.

Bad enough we had the enemy to worry about,

now the elements were against us too.

I prayed, “Father, please make this rain stop;

and protect us.”

The rain continued to pound us relentlessly

until we finally neared the Kuwaiti border.

There the battalion halted.

On the other side the enemy waited.

Rain or no rain we’d soon be going in.

We awoke on the day of the invasion

to to clear skies and glorious sunshine.

As we closed in on the border,

we couldn’t help but stare at the astounding sight before us.

The torrential rains had washed away the sand

to reveal metal disks planted all across our path.

It was an Iraqi minefield.

I thought that was marvellous,

because that relentless rain revealed

those mines that had been planted in that field.

Otherwise, they would likely have all been killed.

And I would imagine the tremendous responsibility

that anyone in the army would have

in order to maintain the safety, shall we say,

of his troops.

To try to cover a few more points,

remember that meditation

increases our receptivity,

our faith, and our attunement;

and thus it strengthens our faith.

It’s the most potent and effective way to do this.

It gives us the experience of God’s presence.

It makes Him real to us.

And when we feel His presence,

it deepens our connection with Him,

our faith in Him, our trust.

So the results of prayer are real.

There is no limit to what God and Master can do for us

when we are in tune with them.

In one of his recorded talks he said,

"The best time to pray is after meditation,

after you have stilled your restless thoughts and feelings,

and have focused your inner concentration,

and your will power, on God alone.”

Master said, “God’s voice is silence.

Only when thoughts cease can one hear the voice of God

communicating through the silence of intuition.

That is God’s means of expression.”

Sometimes we have the tendency

to feel that we need to think,

to do and to act all the time.

But this isn’t necessarily so.

We need to take little breaks in between,

to see where we’re going

and what really is happening

and what we really should be doing.

What should we pray for?

We should pray for attunement with God’s will,

His understanding.

Master said, “It is not wrong to tell the Lord

when we want something.

But it shows greater faith if we simply say,

‘Heavenly Father,

I know that Thou dost anticipate my every need.

Sustain me according to Thy will.’

Sometimes the Lord denies our little prayers

because He intends to bestow upon us a better gift.

Trust more in God.

Believe that He who created you will maintain you.”

There’s a wonderful little prayer from someone

who, in growing older,

had gained some unique perspectives,

and was sharing her thoughts with the Lord.

She said, “Lord, keep me from being talkative

and particularly from the fatal habit that

I might say something on every subject on every occasion.

Release me from the belief that I can

straighten out everybody’s affairs.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details.

Give me wings to get to the point.

Teach me the glorious lesson

that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken.

With my vast store of wisdom

it seems a pity not to use it all.

But Thou, my Lord,

knoweth that I want a few friends left in the end.”

This is acquired insight that comes with age —

I can attest to that.

Sister Gyanamata was a wonderful example to all of us.

She was once kneeling in prayer in the chapel,

and she said, “I was thinking of something

that was coming into my life

that filled me with apprehension.

I knew that it was not the will of God that

I should be saved from the experience.

Even at that moment it was moving toward me.

Suddenly God told me the prayer He would listen to,

and I said quickly, ‘Change no circumstance of my life.

Change me.’ ”

And instantly she felt a change within herself.

What happened in that situation?

Gyanamata was listening.

She was receptive to what God wanted for her

because she heard Him,

she heard the prayer He would listen to.

And I thought that was so interesting

that He would tell her what He would be listening to.

That’s good communication.

So there’s an old saying, to “Let go, and let God.”

I’ll tell you one of the stories that

someone reminded me of today.

Master used to take several of us out on little trips with him.

Anandama, Ma's sister, would take him

on little sojourns shall we say:

drives to old Pasadena, old Altadena

beautiful places,

just so he could get away from the pressures of his life.

And usually he would go into samadhi.

And then, when he came to, occasionally,

he would look out and see a tree in someone’s yard.

And he would send one of us

to knock on the door

and find out the name of the tree,

what kind of tree it would be.

That was very embarrassing.

But Master was never embarrassed about anything.

He knew. He knew exactly what he was doing.

But, as a rule, he would take two of us at the same time,

one on one side, one on the other,

and — I think there were six or seven of us that during that period —

that he would take on these little sojourns.

And

one day in the office I was sitting there

— I hadn’t seen master for a while —

and a thought dropped into my mind,

“You haven’t seen Master lately, have you?”

And I thought that’s ridiculous,

of course I haven’t, why should I? He’s busy.

So I went on with my work, and about two hours later

I went up to my room,

which was then in the Annex there in the Administration Building.

Lord doesn’t leave you alone you see.

So I had to turn to the left,

briefly; my room was right there on the corner.

And I was prompted to turn around

and I saw two devotees at the end of the hall there

looking at me. And I picked up their thoughts:

“She must not be in Master special group anymore.”

So I thought, “Oh, strange.”

I was just down in the office about two hours ago, and

came this thought I hadn’t seen Master lately.

What’s happening?

And as I moved on into my room I knew intuitively

that they were on their way out to be with him.

Well, that started a lot of thoughts in my mind.

“What’s wrong?

I’ve done something wrong,

and Master isn’t pleased with me.

What have I done?”

Now I have a very special gift for this type of thing, you see.

You can ponder an issue until it’s not recognizable.

Now, how long this went on only the Lord knows;

but it seemed like an eternity.

One day I was out walking,

back and forth to the gate, getting a little exercise,

and I stopped at one point.

I looked up at Master’s window

and

I’ve never figured out if it was my own

inner mind speaking to me, or him,

but

he said to me, “Look at you.

When you came here

you never thought of ever being privileged

to go with Master anywhere.

And now that you aren’t going out with him,

you think something is wrong.

But is it?

Why were you so happy when you first came?

You were thinking only of God,

only of what Master manifested so perfectly,

in everything that he did.”

And with that, it was as though the top of my head slid back,

and my whole being, my soul,

flew into space,

into spirit,

way beyond the things of this earth.

And when I walked back to that gate,

I was in a totally different frame of mind.

I was happy.

I was free from those

endless thoughts of thinking I’d done something that was

horrendously wrong,

and no one was telling me about it.

I got to the gate,

and one of those two disciples that was in the hallway that day

was running down the circular drive.

And I thought to myself,

“Is she coming toward me?”

And sure enough,

when she arrived

she said, “Master has asked us to meet him

in about an hour. He was in the city

and we were to meet him at a particular place.

And I thought, “My this works fast.”

Sure enough, when we got to the car

Meera Ma was sitting in the middle seat

and there were three or four of the younger

devotees in the back.

Master was in the front seat with Sahaja Ma

and he moved over to the middle

and had me get in beside him,

and he turned, playfully, to push her a bit against the car door.

And he looked straight into my eyes.

and I heard him say,

“You finally got my message.”

Took a while but that message was,

“Don’t depend on me in an outer way

but remain in tune with me, from within.”

Does that story make sense to you all?

Okay.

I wanted to leave with you a few thoughts of our Guru,

Master said, “God says, ‘When my children think

they do not receive from me any response to their prayers,

they know not that I do answer,

only differently from what they expect of me.

I will not always respond according to their wishes

until they have attained perfection.

Only when they are perfect

will their request be governed always by wisdom.’ ”

It’s another reason we may not hear a response for our prayers.

God bless you.

Jai Guru.