Words from the Master

One day a poor man went to Emperor Akbar’s palace.
He wanted to request Akbar to give him some money for his son’s studies.
Akbar was known for not turning away anyone who asked for help.
When the man reached the palace, he saw that Akbar was offering his prayers to God. So he waited with the others outside the prayer hall.
When Akbar came out, everybody made their requests and received help from him.
Only the poor man turned away, without asking for anything.
But Akbar spotted him and called him back.
He asked him, “Why are you leaving without asking for anything?”
The man replied, “Your Majesty, I came to ask you for alms, but saw that you yourself were begging!”

If you observe our prayers, you will realize that all of us are actually beggars. We simply ask, ask and ask. Our prayer is nothing but a begging bowl. We beg for material things, for smooth relationships, for power, for achieving our goals, for physical beauty, and what not.

We are all the time asking for something or the other continuously in our minds. In fact we are so much in tune with asking, that it has become an unconscious process within ourselves and we might not even accept that we are asking. We might argue that we are not asking, because we don’t see it as asking. We see it as a natural way of life! We have become so involved in it and therefore unable to distance ourselves from it and see it with a fresh mind.

Understand: There are only two kinds of religion in the world; religions based on prayer, and religions based on gratitude.

The religion of prayer is all about asking God for something or the other. It can be followed by the masses, because it is very much in tune with our asking attitude. It is in tune with the conditioning that has gone inside us from a young age. Asking is the prayer that we have been taught from when we were children. It seems like the most natural way to approach God or Existence.

On the other hand, the religion of gratitude, is based on just an overwhelming gratitude from within, towards God or Existence. It is quite contrary to what is taught to us from childhood. We have always been taught to thank only for what has been received, that’s all. We have been taught gratitude as social etiquette, nothing more than that!

How then can we be thankful all the time? It becomes too much! That is why, these religions of gratitude are followed by a select few.

Only a few meditative religions, like Buddhism or Sufism, are based on gratitude. These religions have very few followers, but the quality of the followers is high.

You see: There is nothing wrong with prayer, but getting stuck in the act of asking while praying, is where the trouble starts. Prayer should be used as a jumping board to enter into meditation, a meditation where gratitude becomes prayer and your Being becomes bliss!

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.