How to pray

Guru: When we help each other then we open the door for others to come and help us. But we must make an effort first. That is what Christ said, “Open the door and I will enter into you.” To open the door means to serve humanity. To serve humanity.

Devotee: I think bhajans are very important for a group. 

Guru: Very.

Devotee: It brings a common unity.

Guru: Oh yes.

Worship is very important because people come and become one.

But whilst bhajan is very beautiful, it can become competitive. This should never happen. You must always be mindful of that. We are not here to compete, but we are here to sing and bring the ‘anandam’ – the grace of the Lord – to each other. Sharing everything. 

Devotee: There are many aspects of God – there is the Divine Mother, there is Christ, there is Shiva. There are so many…

Guru: Aspects, yes.

Devotee: If you pray for world freedom, for instance, is it better to pray to the Divine Mother or to another aspect?

Guru: All the aspects that you know of the Divine Mother are embodied in Rajarajesvari – of the Divine aspect of the totality of the Divine – Parvati. You can name many aspects that embody the totality of Divine Mother. [Then] there is the Father – Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshvara – and all of them are embodied in God the Father and the Shakti, so instead of going from one to the other, you can pray to Almighty God. 

If you want to specialise in any avenue of spirituality, then you can go to a particular field. Supposing you want to make a lot of money, my advice to you is to pray to Maha Lakshmi; if you want knowledge, my advice to you is to pray to Sarasvati. She’s the embodiment of that aspect of Knowledge – Universal Knowledge.

If you feel that you are ever threatened by very bad vibrations, you can always approach Divine Mother Durga and Kali. If you chant the name of the Divine Mother Kali, no bad force can ever come near you. The moment you start chanting the Divine Mother Kali‘s mantra – or Durga – immediately, the force that has come to interfere with your life immediately leaves. 

So, my advice to a lot of people who want to conquer the difficulties in life is to begin to chant Her name when you have problems. Just chant Her name.

Om aim hrim srim klim 
camundayai vicce camundayai vicce 
maha-bhadra-kalyai namah

Devotee: What is a Kali mantra?

Om aim hrim srim klim 
camundayai vicce camundayai vicce 
maha-bhadra-kalyai namah

Or,

Om kalikayai ca vidmahe smasana-vasinyai dhimahi
tanno ‘ghorah pracodayat
Om maha-bhadra-kalyai namah

Or you can chant, 

Om kali namo namah kalika-kali namo namah kali namo bhadra-kali namo ugra-kali namo smasana-kali…

And by that time the demon has vanished through the air! 

Devotee: Can people pray just as powerfully in Swiss?

Guru: Why not? Why not? You know, what is prayer? Prayer must come from your heart, not from your lips. You can say, “I love you, my God; my Father; my Mother” without a whole string of words.

Can you imagine if you go to your mother or father and stand in front and say, “Mother… Om aim hrim srim klim…” Your mother would look at you and say, “Don’t be funny!” You can stand in front of your mother and say, “Aaaah! I love you!” and put your arms around your mother, no problem. It’s come from your heart. That is what we have to do.

From all that format of formality, we have to change it to the feeling of the rapport of love.

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