(Published in the Spiritually Speaking column of the Daily Guardian on January 25, 2021)
Every prayer, thought, word or deed involves a flow of energy. This energy has the power to lift us, heal us, comfort us, inspire us on the positive side. But it can also deflate us, hurt us, anger us, or make us afraid on the negative side. One of the best ways for us to build good energy is to pray and meditate. In these times, praying together is the best way to stay together. As the old saying goes, ‘a family that prays together, stays together’.
Every thought produces a vibration in the universe. The energy of the vibration produced increases as the intensity of the thought increases. These vibrations have power. They can change their surroundings and ultimately make the world a much better place.
Have you noticed that when you enter a room where there has been a fight or argument, you can ‘sense’ the tension in the air? Have you ever been in a place where you have had an eerie or uncomfortable feeling? We have all felt this some time or the other. It is natural for us to be able to sense vibrations.
Similarly, there must have been times when you have gone to a holy place where many come to pray or meditate and sensed a powerful feeling of love, peace, serenity and safety.
All of this shows that the ripples or vibrations produced by thought and intense awareness have an impact on their surroundings and produce vibrations that over time are absorbed in the place. The place then retains the energy of the vibrations.
Thought is powerful. So are its byproducts—words and deeds. A nice word can and does have a powerful impact on its recipient.
A word filled with love, kindness and compassion can create a powerful vibration of goodness that if powerful enough can change the way people around think. The power of mantras has been known for thousands of years.
There is a lot of power in thoughts and prayers. Thoughts are a form of energy and prayer is a form of communication with the Infinite source of all energy, or God; through our thoughts. Thoughts are like seeds which require nourishment to grow into fruit-bearing trees. The nourishment of thoughts is in the form of affirmation, concentration and attention. Prayer need not necessarily involve the usage of pious phrases.
Norman Vincent Peale describes a three-fold approach in his best-selling book, ‘The power of positive thinking’—1) prayerise, (2) picturise and (3) actualise. The first step involves simply thinking and talking to God informally, which is prayer. The next step is picturising or visualising it mentally. Create in your mind an image of the desired result: a healed love one, a more prosperous life, a happy marital life, a more healthy or confident self. Whatever you seek, pray to God and then visualise it to be so and then just say to God, “I have put it in Your hands, Lord.” After this, the actualisation will come in time either by the desired result or guidance.
Peale gives a glorious example of how we can spread love and goodwill throughout our daily lives. Just say a little prayer for anyone that you see. These are called flash prayers “shot” out towards people. Just send out thoughts of love and goodwill. There have been cases where the recipients of such prayer “shots” could feel a physical manifestation of the energy.
The world can be a lot happier if we all just continuously “shoot” each other with prayers of love and goodwill. Let us “shoot” out positive thoughts towards one and other. We could try to replace our hatred and anger filled thoughts with thoughts of love and goodwill. Just mentally send out peaceful and love filled thoughts of goodwill towards everyone that you see and they will feel it as well.
The energies around the whole world will change if everyone starts to do this. These energies are very powerful and the results will be seen and felt. But constant prayers are needed. Even prayers take time to be answered. Just be patient and have faith.
Prayer and positive thinking are also a very useful technique in creating a more confident and success filled life. Thoughts of success often attract success. Thoughts of failure often attract failure. Energy is like a magnet. It attracts. Positive energy attracts positive results.
Positive affirmations, especially at night time before bedtime is a very important tool to attract positive results. The age-old tradition of prayer before sleeping is so that the positive thoughts and prayers can sink into the subconscious mind during sleep.
As mentioned earlier, ‘a family that prays together, stays together’. The act of a family joining together every day at a particular time and praying together creates a loving powerful energy that strengthens the relationship between family members. This increases the loving divine energy present between you and your family and also adds positive vibrations to your house. This is a great habit that works wonders for family harmony and ultimately societal harmony. Try to do this with your family. Take turns every day. Each day a different person may pray. This increases the sense of involvement of all members, especially the children.
Avoid all forms of negativity. Nip it in the mental bud. One cannot stop negative thoughts from entering, but one can kick them out as soon as they enter. Positive thoughts can repel negative ones from establishing themselves in the mind.
Our planet today has a lot of negative energy that is manifested in the form of wars, violence, crimes, prejudices among other things. But that can change.
If enough people just stop what they’re doing for just a few moments every day and send out positive energy in the form of a prayer or mantra for love and peace into the universe. Let this positivity be guided specifically towards our planet Earth. This will begin the creation of a matrix of positive energy and vibrations.
If everybody just makes it a point to close their eyes for a few minutes and imagine our planet Earth floating in space. Imagine all the billions of people, animals and plants on Earth and just send a thought or word of love. After this, smile at the Earth and wait for the response – you will feel the Earth smile back. If you do not feel the response immediately, don’t worry. It will eventually come over time.
Soon the negative vibrations will be replaced by positive ones and this will be the beginning of a new era of positivity. Try it. Once a day for a few minutes to start with. It will make you feel great. If enough people do this, we will all change for the better and the Earth will change too.
Many of the world’s problems can be solved if there is more prayer energy generated. This energy will increase when we add prayer into our consciousness and make it a part of our daily life. Talk to God either verbally, mentally or even in written form. Yes, write a note to God. Everyday use flash prayers to increase the overall consciousness of peace and goodwill and soon if more people do it, we will transform into a much better, safer and peaceful world.
A selfless deed to serve someone else can set a very powerful example and permanently change the person helped by giving them a taste of love and compassion. An act of love or kindness makes both the giver and receiver experience a feeling of goodness and love.
Using prayer, thoughts, words and deeds—you can change the world!