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Prayer

Devotees at Chottanikkaram Makam
Image from Mathrubhumi


Today’s newspapers in Kerala carried images of devotees at the Chottanikkara Temple. The best image was the one in Malayala Manorama in which a young girl was shown praying to the deity with tears streaming down her cheeks. I couldn’t get that image online because of Manorama’s copyright possessiveness.  The intensity of the fervour in the eyes of that devotee struck a chord with me. I am not a devotee of any deity and I can’t stand crowds even in places of worship. But the image made me question the meaning of prayer.

I guess prayer means a whole range of different things to different people. Most devotees must be praying in order to influence the deity, to make the deity change his/her mind, to alter the existing unpleasant reality. Most devotees expect miracles, I’m quite sure, though the degree of the miracle may vary widely from getting a good spouse to curing someone’s incurable ailment.

Can we really influence a deity that way? Can our prayers make a deity change his/her mind? Logically that sounds quite bizarre. The fish prays to god to save it from the fisherman’s net and the fisherman prays to the same god to give him a good catch of fish. What will the god do? Whose prayer deserves to be answered? How does god judge that? Pretty tough job, I should say, being a god.

I don’t think there is any god sitting up there listening to any of these, anyway. Who can be so callous as to watch all the agony of his/her creatures and yet be so indifferent in spite of being supposedly omnipotent? There are too many unanswerable questions when we reach that milieu. Then the religious friend tells me that I should take it on faith. Faith is a problem for me; it refuses to be faithful. So I have quit that arena.

But prayer has its uses, I’m sure. I find myself praying almost every morning. Not to any god but to the mystery out there that is cracking through the eastern sky with the stars fading away into the dark infinity. I pray to let goodness prevail. I pray to enable me to bring in as much goodness as possible at wherever I will be during the day. I pray to keep myself good in spite of all the evil I may encounter today.

Prayer, for me, is an exercise in self-improvement. All the rest are just wishes placed before mute and blind deities with the faith that they will hear and see one day.


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Comments

  1. जितेन्द्र माथुरFebruary 20, 2019 at 10:21 AM

    You are absolutely correct Sir.

    ReplyDelete
  2. dee NambiarFebruary 20, 2019 at 11:38 PM

    These are some of the questions that have been on my mind for a very long time. True, prayers mean different things to different people. I've come to understand that it is healthy if you see it as something that soothes you and gives you the confidence to go on. And if it is your way to be thankful for each day and for all that you have.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 21, 2019 at 6:41 AM

      Spirituality is a personal affair. The outcome is what really matters. If it helps one to be a better human being, the process doesn't matter as long as no harm is done to others.

      Delete
  3. Sonal's PalletteFebruary 21, 2019 at 9:49 AM

    Faith with knowledge is good. But mindless faith and ignorance, are not. I feel as long as prayer soothes the mind and helps us be a good human everyday, it is okay. But then again as you said, Prayer means a whole range of different things to different people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 21, 2019 at 10:54 AM

      I know many people for whom religion is the ultimate solace. They use it as a balm or a drug, an illusory oasis in life's desert. The resultant joy compensates for the illusion! I won't dare to question such faith.

      Delete
  4. voicesFebruary 24, 2019 at 1:47 PM

    Faith in oneself also could result in a prayer. Very thought provoking as prayer is only wishing for the best or asking some force to bestow the best or thanksgiving

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 24, 2019 at 5:04 PM

      Goodness all around should be the natural outcome of good prayers.

      Delete

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