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Posted on: Jan 01, 2014

'Oh Lord, Take My Love'

- a New Year special audio offering

'More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of' said the great English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. Indeed prayer is man's greatest strength and God's greatest weakness.

The Power of Prayer – Old Approach, New Wonders

An article in New Realities magazine in May of 1990 entitled The Power of Prayer; Old Approach, New Wonders, written by Larry Dossey, MD, described some fascinating experiments conducted by an organization called Spindrift. They used sprouting seeds as a biological medium to measure the effects of prayer. When two groups of identical seeds were placed side by side and one was prayed over and the other was not, the prayed for group always yielded more shoots. The results were reproducible and consistent.

When the seeds were stressed by adding saltwater, simulating a health crisis, the difference between the two groups was even more striking. Different types of seeds and different types of stress produced the same results: prayer became more effective the worse the situation got. When different control groups were prayed over for varied amounts of time, the germination count was proportional: more prayer equalled more sprouts. They also found those experienced at prayer could produce greater results than a novice. Therefore this suggests prayer is something you can learn and get better at.

There are two basic types of prayer: directed and non-directed. Directed prayer is when you have a clear image in mind – that good paying job for instance – or use visualization techniques to produce a specific outcome, such as healing an illness.

Non-directed prayer is when you release your personal agenda and ask for the highest good in the situation or use the classic 'Thy Will Be Done' approach. When the Spindrift researchers compared them, both worked, but the non-directed technique was more powerful and often twice as effective. Thus it is so clear that when we step out of the way, more can come through. Trying to control the results through our concept of what’s best merely places a limit on what can happen.

The more selfless our prayer is, the greater is its effect. In a conversation with Dr. John S. Hislop, Swami explained prayer should not be equated with begging, and though the divine is aware of our needs, it is still our duty to approach God and ask for those needs to be met. Baba used the analogy of a mother who knows her child must have milk to survive but only gives it when the baby cries.

That is why we should never feel ashamed to pray, for it is not only OK to ask, in fact it is required. And should we find ourselves to be so fortunate as to have no pressing needs or difficulties in our lives, then as Swami says we should pray for peace. We have no clue what world of good we can do to others (and in the process to ourselves too) with a sincere prayer emerging from a space of total unconditional love.

Let us play our little roles in this beautiful mission of the Divine by putting our palms together and opening up our hearts. And to help us in this endeavour, on this New Year Radio Sai team offers for your use and reuse this sublime prayer set to a soothing tune.

Thanking you and Wishing You a Happy and Holy 2014,

With Much Love
Radio Sai Team

What do you think about this Radio Sai Offering? Please let us know by writing in to h2h@radiosai.org. Do not forget to mention your name and country.

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