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The Law behind Answered Prayer
by Paramhansa Yogananda,
Inner Culture, 1941
To bring response to your prayers, you must pray intelligently with a
bursting soul, seldom aloud, mostly mentally, without displaying to anyone
what is happening within. You must pray with utmost devotion, feeling
that God is listening to everything you are mentally affirming. Pray on
into the depths of the night in the seclusion of your soul. Pray until
God replies to you through the intelligible voice of bursting joy tingling
through every body cell and every thought, or through visible visions
depicting what you should do in a given case.
The increasing joy after meditation is the only proof that God has answered through the devotion-tuned radio of your heart. The longer and deeper you meditate and affirm, the deeper will you feel and be conscious of the ever-increasing joy in your heart. Then you will know without doubt that there is a God, and that He is ever-existing, ever-conscious, omnipresent, ever-new Joy. Then demand: “Father, now, today, all day, all tomorrows, every instant, in sleep, in wakefulness, all through life, in death, in the beyond, remain with me as the consciously-responding Joy of my heart.” The usual method of prayer is ineffective for the most part because we do not really mean business with God. He is the secret knower of our thoughts; He knows what selfish desires we have in our innermost mind; therefore He does not manifest Himself. While the demons of sensations and thoughts dance in the temples of body and mind, it is difficult to recognize God, who remains hidden behind the veil of silence within. Ordinary prayers consist of addressing our desires, half in belief and half in doubt, to an unknown God. If prayers are answered, a superstitious trust in God may result; if they are ineffective, distrust may follow.
Effective prayer must be scientific and definite in performance and must show intelligent understanding of all its factors. All those who want to demonstrate the scientific nature of prayer must first be sure that there is a God to pray to. How can this be known? By accepting the testimony of great souls such as Jesus, Krishna, Swami Shankara, Babaji, and others, who said that they found God, talked with Him, and solved the riddle of life after listening to the Truth from the Sacred Divine Lips. These saints have said that God responds to law. They experienced this response and said that all people who conform to the law can test and experience it for themselves. Physical laws have to be interpreted by the physical senses and judged by the understanding. Divine laws have to be comprehended by concentration, meditation, and intuition. You must not be discouraged because of ill health, poverty, or moral weakness. Remember, sin is only a temporary graft; in reality you are eternally a Child of God. Even if the world condemns you and casts you away, God will ever seek to find you and bring you back home. Never mind if you cannot see Him or hear His knock at the gate of your heart. Remember, for a long time you have been hiding from Him and running away in the marsh of the senses. It is the noise of your own rowdy passions and the flight of your heavy footsteps in the material world that have made you unable to hear His call within. Stop, be calm, pray steadfastly, and out of the silence will loom forth the Divine Presence. Perhaps you prayed for healing and you became well. Do you know whether your cure was due to natural causes or to medicine, or to your own or another’s prayers, bringing help from God? Sometimes there may be no causal relation between your prayer and your cure. Even if you happen to pray before an inevitable recovery, that does not mean that your prayer healed you. You might have been healed even if you had not prayed. This is the reason why we should find out whether the law of cause and effect can be scientifically applied to prayer.
Then comes the question: “Would a conscious God, Almighty in nature, subject Himself to be commanded by the law of cause and effect which He created Himself?” Why not? The maker of all laws certainly does not want to break the laws of His own creating. Of course, we must remember that, although God is approachable through the law of cause and effect, He has the right to respond or not to a mechanical prayer. God is something more than can be demonstrated in a laboratory. Solitude is the price of God-contact. Knowledge of the laws of tuning the body, mind, and soul radios to contact God is necessary. Since God is also above law, devotion is necessary to call His attention. The devotional call, if sincere, deep, and continuous, and if it is supplemented by sincere efforts at deep meditation, will bring divine response. Devotional demand is greater than law, for it touches the heart of God and makes Him answer His naughty and good children alike. Law is based upon mathematical precision, but devotion is based upon claiming God as our own true love, for did He not make us in His own likeness? Law is exacting in its demand, while love causes God to surrender Himself to the devotee. God can never hide from the person who exercises devotion, love, the law of meditation, and the soul-call.
Don’t be like the baby who stops crying immediately his mother gives him a toy, but cry unceasingly, rending the heart of the Divine Mother like a divine naughty baby, throwing away all lures and toys of name, fame, power, and possessions; then you will find the answer to your prayers. Pray until you are absolutely sure of the divine contact, then claim your material, mental, and spiritual needs from the Most High as your divine birthright.
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Ananda is located in the tranquil hills of Umbria, Italy on “Strada Statale 444” between Assisi and Gualdo Tadino. It is the largest retreat center in Europe for Yogananda’s teachings.
Ananda Associazione • Via Montecchio, 61 • I-06025 Nocera Umbra (PG) • ITALY