I especially love to pray when I am outdoors in nature. In nature, I so easily feel surrounded by the presence of God. Sometimes my husband and I make an outdoor fire, and we sit before it and offer prayers—for ourselves, our family, our friends, our community, the earth’s creatures, nature, and for the whole world. We take turns speaking our prayers aloud. I find this practice deeply fulfilling. I love the creativity I experience in articulating my prayers and the relief that comes from unburdening my heart by asking for God’s help and protection for everyone and everything in need of blessings and healing. I feel so close to God when I pray.

California, United States

Sometimes prayers arise on their own from my heart, fully formed and without any editing. These are the prayers that feel the most real to me. In those moments my heart overrides my mind completely and articulates what I am longing for before I can get in the way. I talk to God just as if he is standing right in front of me. I feel that Gurumayi’s grace is revealing to me what I really want in the deepest part of my being. It is so freeing and it fills me with gratitude. And whenever this happens, without fail, that prayer is answered.

New York, United States

Eesha asks, “How have you experienced the power of prayer in your life?” My first response is, “How have I not experienced the power of prayer in my life?” Every significant turning point in my life has been the result of a heartfelt prayer. The most significant turning point occurred just a few months before I encountered the Siddha Yoga path. I was at a painfully confused point in my life, and I remember praying distinctly for clarity and strength. Just a few months later I was invited to my first Siddha Yoga satsang. In the more than thirty-five years since that moment, I have never looked back. Yet I have also come to understand with increasing clarity (yes, that word again) that discernment and refinement of my prayers is what offers me the most beneficial and lasting of boons. So, I am grateful to Eesha for reminding me of the absolute truth of the words, “Ask, and you shall receive.”

Virginia, United States

I have been saying a prayer for peace multiple times daily since last summer. I had been feeling rather ineffectual in my efforts. Then, for the past week, the words, “Stop… Open… Receive…” have been arising spontaneously within me. Multiple times in the day, this has been reminding me to stop and to connect with my own heart, with Gurumayi, and with my Self. When I do this, I can feel a wave of expansion in my body, bringing me back to the experience of love, to my heart, to my Guru.

Doing this has been making my prayers feel more meaningful and sacred. I feel as though I am adding my voice to those of so many others across the world. When I read Eesha’s words about prayer, I realized that I had been truly receiving the fruits of my prayers in my own heart. I am recognizing now that the space of connecting to peace starts within me and then radiates outward.

New Mexico, United States

Prayer is an essential part of my sadhana. In Gurumayi’s talk “Food is God” on June 25, 2016, she invited us to pray for the world to be united and for everybody to feel nourished. I was in Shree Muktananda Ashram when Gurumayi gave that talk, and I was deeply moved and motivated by her words and continue to re-read this talk on the Siddha Yoga path website.

The day after hearing the talk, I formed a prayer, and I have repeated that prayer every day since then. When I finish my meditation practice, I open my eyes and look at the picture of Gurumayi on my wall, and I offer my prayer:

May there be peace, health, and harmony in our world.

May everyone, everywhere feel nourished, loved, and protected in mind, body, and spirit. Om Namah Shivaya.

I feel so much love and connection during and after making this prayer. I sense Gurumayi’s loving presence, along with my own connection to the light that shines in us all. Through the power of prayer, I also experience the wonder of darshan.

Llwynygroes, United Kingdom

My first experience of the power of prayer was as a child. I was left alone with four younger siblings and an emergency occurred without an adult nearby. I instinctively fell to my knees and prayed to God. I don’t recall what I said, but immediately a steady state of calm came over me, accompanied by a delicious sense of support and assurance that all would be well. And it was. I was able to take care of the situation without it escalating. I realize now, from reading Eesha’s words, that I must have voiced what had to happen. I asked, and I received!

Maine, United States

My three-month-old nephew was born with a heart issue and was going to have heart surgery for the second time in his short life. After reciting Shri Guru Gita and meditating, as I do most mornings, I felt this deep prayer emerge in my heart asking God for my nephew to make it through this operation. About an hour later, I went to pick up my medications from the store. On the way back, I was driving on a fairly busy road, when I looked up and saw this enormous rainbow in the sky. As I watched, the clouds parted and the rainbow seemed to become more brilliant and defined. In that moment, I knew that God was answering my prayer. I pulled my car to the side of the road and took a picture. I was so overwhelmed with love and awe that God was talking to me. When I got home, I texted the rainbow picture to my family to reassure them not to worry and that everything would be okay. As I looked at the image, I saw the distinct presence of God in it. Inwardly, I thanked God.

New York, United States

When I am praying from the deepest part of my being, I feel as though my heart and God’s ear become one. I feel a soothing calmness that extends to my entire being.

New York, United States

I am so grateful to Gurumayi for teaching me early on in my sadhana about the power of prayer and how to pray.

When I was recently in Gurudev Siddha Peeth, I made it an early morning ritual to bring a prayer stick to the morning svadhyaya and after this practice, to sit quietly and allow a prayer to arise. I then wrote it on the prayer stick and offered it to the sacred fire.

Two prayers that arose a number of times were for the Siddha Yoga Vision Statement to be fulfilled, and for world leaders to experience their heart energy, to experience compassion so that they make their decisions from this place.

Now that I am back in my home city, I have found that following my daily practice of “booking darshan” has led to a powerful experience of prayer. It’s a feeling of a gentle and loving energy flowing out from my heart for the well-being of all beings and our beautiful Earth.

Canterbury, Australia

The power of prayer plays a very significant role in my life. Every morning after waking up, I pray to Gurumayi with gratitude for granting me peaceful sleep. I pray that her grace may guide me throughout the day to do all my duties and responsibilities not as work but as guruseva.

Mantra repetition is a very powerful tool that also helps me to pray to Gurumayi. The mantra helps me to be alert at all levels—mental, physical, and psychological—to what I should be doing and what I should not be doing. Whenever I am in a “Catch-22” situation or other dilemma, prayer to Gurumayi comes to my rescue, bringing me guidance and help. For me, Gurumayi is always in my heart, so praying to her is easy.

As the day ends, it’s time to thank Gurumayi for listening to my prayers and guiding me to do good deeds. Closing my eyes, I repeat the mantra and drift into the inner world.

That’s how prayers have been helping me in my sadhana, and my professional and personal life.

Lucknow, India

Prayer is what allows me to connect with my purpose, with my reason for being here, and with the highest vibration available in this world to move through it. Prayer is my gift from Gurumayi, my way of giving thanks, my way of loving God back.

New York, United States

I feel that the things I ask for from the heart—not from the mind or the ego—come to pass. Sometimes I’ll say a vague or very general prayer, and I feel I should reflect in my heart on what I truly want and formulate a more specific prayer. At other times, the “perfect” prayer appears in my mind.

When I’m connected to my heart, I feel that the shakti guides me in my prayers.

Barcelona, Spain

When I got to the paragraph that began talking about the power of prayer, I thought, “Yes!”—because prayer and its place in my sadhana have been front and center in my mind this whole year.

Very recently, I also had the experience of a prayer coming out in a way I hadn’t planned, just as Eesha described. I was in the Temple in Shree Muktananda Ashram standing before Bade Baba. When I got to the end of my prayer, the next thing I asked Bade Baba was “Please let me surrender.” It wasn’t anything close to what I thought I’d wanted—but it was exactly what I needed, and now I keep coming back to those words.

Wisconsin, United States

What a beautiful reminder: “Ask, and you shall receive.” This has been something I have experienced my whole life; especially when I am feeling longing for the Guru, I receive exactly what I need.

This is also something I’ve understood over the years: what we ask for may not be exactly what we get, but the Guru does answer all my prayers and I have always received exactly what I need (whether or not I know what that is at the time). This installment is also a beautiful reminder that Gurumayi is always with us, and ties in so beautifully with the story in “Booking Darshan.” The gentle reminder that Gurumayi hears the prayers of our hearts is such a wonderful way to renew the practice of daily prayer.

Michigan, United States

I remember hearing Gurumayi speak about the value of intention and, specifically, of offering the blessings of our practices before we engage in them, and also about how we naturally become a recipient of grace when we do so. I feel that bringing this intentionality to offering blessings fuels my efforts with greater vigor, clarity, and light.

When coming before the Guru or Bade Baba’s murti for darshan, I always have so many things I feel I wish to ask for. Yet inevitably, each time I come before the Guru, my eyes well up with tears, and all I can say is “Thank you for the priceless grace of being on this path.”

New Jersey, United States