THE INNER WORK OF THE DISCIPLE

[Ani]

THE INNER WORK OF THE DISCIPLE

 

Prayer is the most powerful act of human existence. It brings into a singular focus one's thoughts, feelings, and will. Such a prayer is powerful. It works miracles. Prayer is the most beautiful work! It is a conversation with God. There is no more important moment than this: when a man beholds God's Face! How beautiful it is upon rising in the morning to talk with the Immortal One!

 

He who is not interested in God gradually loses his energy and falls behind. While thinking about the Angels, you are in the Angelic World. While thinking about God, you are in the Divine World. We live in whatever world we are thinking about.

 

One environment tolerates you for a certain period of time, but after that, you move into another one. Fish were in the water. After a while, the most advanced of them went into a less dense environment. Because of the great limitations under which they found themselves, the idea entered their minds that another, more favorable life existed in a less dense environment above the water. And in such a way, they became birds. When man finds himself living under restricted conditions, he also strives towards God. You strive today, again tomorrow, and finally you enter into a more sublime life. The idea creates the form.

 

The Law states: If you think about a good person: into your mind, light will appear; and into your heart - warmth. If you think about a bad person: into your mind, darkness will appear; and into your heart - cold. This Law concerns our relationship with God. When you connect with God, light will enter your consciousness, and profound peace — your soul. Should you connect with the Angels, again you will be filled with luminous thoughts and noble feelings. When you think about the plants and animals, they also will influence you. The Law states: You connect with whatever you are thinking about.

 

Through prayer, man communicates with God and the Advanced Beings. God will then tell him about Love and about the Sentient Beings. When you arise in the morning, direct your consciousness to the Higher Reality. After that, regardless of what you are doing — be it studying or hoeing — address the Invisible World for help. Conversely, should you immediately begin to labor in the morning, you will forget about the Great Reality, about the Sentient Forces of Nature. There is a Law that states: When man directs his consciousness to the Higher Reality, it abides within him; and when he directs his consciousness to the shadows, he lives in the shadows.

 

Prayer and contemplation are the soul's strivings to ascend to a higher place. In this way, an influx of mental energy will come, and with this, the work of the conscious human life will become easier. To pray and to contemplate — this indicates the transmitting of your report to that Supreme Center from which, you have descended. What will you report about? About the work you have accomplished. In response to your report, a correct exchange between your thoughts and feelings and those of the Beings of the Sublime World will occur. If someone thinks that prayer, contemplation, and meditation are not necessary, he is on the wrong path.

 

When you pray, you determine your own status. When you pray, you are in continuous connection with the whole Genesis of Creation. Knowing this, do not obstruct that natural process within you.

 

Through prayer, man acquires energy from the Divine World. The Law of Prayer is similar to the Law of Nourishment. When deprived of food, man feels something lacking. When the soul is deprived of prayer, a need is also felt. Prayer is the inner necessity of the soul.

 

Prayer is a reality, not a shadow. That which at any given moment gives strength to the mind, heart, soul, and spirit is something real.

 

Prayer is the conscious work of the human soul. When one prays, the soul steps beyond the ordinary consciousness. We can describe this process as "the emergence from the narrow confines in which one lives."

 

Prayer resembles the extending of the ameba's pseudopodia to catch its food. This is a continuous process. For the new to enter into man, he needs to direct his mind each morning towards the Great Center of the Universe.

 

Prayer is similar to the Law of Providing Water. Through it, all good influences are attracted. When man is praying, everything around him grows and develops. When one understands the Great Law of Prayer, he will become a real man; he will become one of the Great Initiates.

 

Are you aware of how the Angels pray?

 

Prayer is the first method through which we begin to learn the Divine Language. If you do not pray, you will never learn this Language. Through prayer, we study God's Language. We still do not know God's Language.

 

Real prayer implies concentration and seclusion. Nobody should be aware that you are praying. When the merchant is praying, he should forget about his business and all of his dealings.

 

Prayer is one of the methods through which one comes to know God as Love. It leads to Love, that good and sublime state that you have attained. That you help and forgive your fellow man; that you uplift the fallen one — this is the result of the time you have spent in your secret chamber.

 

Man must pray, so that God does not turn His Face away from him. It is terrifying when God hides His Face from man! Then such a darkness, cold, and solitude will come which he has never experienced in his life.

 

The Saint receives his Knowledge through prayer, contemplation, meditation, and experience. He prays for a long time, until he receives inspiration and obtains new ideas.

 

Wherever you are, in whatever situation you may be, take a half-hour or an hour to think about God. In such a way, your consciousness expands. To think about the Great Omniscient Cause - about the Supreme Center of Creation - is worth more than all the material wealth on earth. Thinking about God also renews and rejuvenates the physical body, because its energy extends to the body well.

 

If someone says that he does not need to think about God, he becomes like an orphaned child without a father or mother, who goes around in torn clothes, homeless, and friendless. Then the vermin begin to attack him, and he loses his bearing in life. I am speaking figuratively. I will explain: when someone ceases to think about God, he becomes vulnerable, and the dark, inferior beings begin to attack him.

 

Man cannot attain anything, if he does not pray. Pray that more Light may enter your consciousness.

 

There are no beings more highly developed than the Angels. The next phase that humankind will enter is the Angelic Phase. Then our heavy bodies will be transformed into ones that are more dynamic. They will be composed of matter that is more refined. How will these be created? Through prayer, contemplation, and meditation. In other words, prayer is a method of organizing the spiritual body - the new body - in which man will live.

 

I ask modern scientists and philosophers how many times a day they think about God. The cause for the misfortune of people today is that they do not remember God. Prayer is a method of resolving the most difficult tasks. Doubt, suspicion, skepticism, and many other negative thoughts and feelings are the cause for most of the diseases of humankind. Through prayer, man overcomes these negative conditions. There is a miraculous power in prayer.

 

For someone to recite a verse from the Scriptures with the will to understand is sufficient for Christ to come and help him. He will introduce Light into his mind and will improve his affairs.

 

Prayer increases the vibration of the human aura. In this way, one becomes immune to the inferior influences surrounding him. Through prayer, man can insulate himself from the anxieties and fears of the world. They cannot penetrate him.

 

When man prays that one of his good desires be fulfilled, the Invisible World always helps. You are ill. Pray to God, and very soon you will recover. There is nothing in the whole world that man desires that God has not made. The world represents the desires of these small beings. God has granted all their desires.

 

If everyone would address God with the supplication: God, we have used all methods of putting order into the world. Show us the way of doing this - and if they prayed from the heart, the course of action would follow. This method is very simple; but when applied, God will come into the world and help people.

 

There is no living being in the world, small or large, whose appeal God has not answered. There is no case in which God has not answered your mail, regardless of its disorderly state. Put your mail in order! The mail from the Invisible World leaves on time; but while it is en route to earth, the letters get lost somewhere and are delayed for months.

 

How beautiful it is for man to realize that he occupies a place in the Mind of God. When he has this awareness and addresses God with a plea for something, his prayer is received.

 

Ask God to abide within you and to reveal Himself through you. The only One who transforms people is God.

 

All people are searching for the meaning of Life. The meaning of Life lies in one's communication with God.

 

The most favorable hours for prayer are the early hours after midnight, for example 3:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. The psalmist wrote, "God, I summoned You at early dawn." This means that I will occupy myself in the morning before sunrise with the most sublime work — communion with the Great Center of Creation — to acquire the necessary energy to accomplish my day's work.

 

Wherever one goes, whatever work he begins — man needs energy. If he lets the world influence him, the mundane affairs will pull him off the course of his life. When you arise in the morning, you need to have one essential thought — that you may open like a flower. Christ spent the whole night in prayer. Why? Because during those hours, He was replenishing Himself with energy — as one would recharge a battery — for that which He had expended during the day.

 

Man needs to pray. He should work on himself to be ready for the new which is coming into the world. How long should you pray? Continuously. Prayer does not imply that you need to stop and pray the entire day. You can be in motion and pray at the same time. Work does not exclude prayer. You can pray constantly. Only the one who abides by the Law of Love, and he alone, has the disposition to pray. Whatever he is doing, he is always in prayer. In other words, in the life of a loving person, everything is prayer.

 

A mother says that she has no time left for prayer because of her children. The one who cuts trees says that he has no time left to pray because of his job. The one who writes says the same. People say that they have no time for prayer, contemplation, and meditation. In reality, the prayer comes first, and then all other things follow. First you breathe, and then you work. Otherwise, you cannot finish your work.

 

Those who do not pray are not good students. The laziest, the least capable, and the least talented students are those who do not pray. Give a topic to a student who is limited, and he will say, "Where did this topic come from?"

 

You need to pray when you are in good spirits as well as when you are in a conflicted state or when there is darkness in your consciousness.

 

Anyone can create seclusion even when among others. Seclusion is not only an external process.

 

I will give you one rule: for every person, there is a Divine Wave which uplifts him. When you rise in the morning, do not hurry to go and immediately work in the field. Stop and work inwardly, that this Divine Wave may come, and then you may go and begin your work. You could be the most ordinary of people, but when the Divine Spirit visits you, you will achieve something beyond yourself.

 

If thought, emotion, and will do not take part in prayer, it is not a real prayer. To go into your secret chamber means to enter into your virgin soul. Only then will you understand the deep meaning of all things and the reason why you exist. The higher the consciousness - the more discernable the prayer.

 

When you are in difficulty, I say: pray that you may connect with the Sentient Beings who can help you. Someone says that he is praying, but has received no answer. The reason is that his consciousness is not yet awakened. The human consciousness is similar to a radio which is transmitting and receiving sonic waves from the universe. Scientists say that there is a belt above the earth which deflects the waves and obstructs them from rising. This could be used to explain why the prayers of some people are unable to rise sufficiently. The more awakened and the more evolved a man's consciousness is, the greater the possibility is for his prayer to be received.

 

What is required of man for him to connect with the Invisible World? He needs to have his own radio. He has it. When you address your devotional thoughts upwards, you should protect yourself from hostile waves. Doubt, disbelief, and a lack of Love are waves of an unfavorable character which are formed in the astral world. They have a harmful impact upon the human spirit. The difficulties of human existence result from attacks by these hostile waves. They influence one's prayers and hinder them from ascending. They obstruct the good desires, as well.

 

Man prays better when he is persecuted. When you are put to great suffering, trials, and persecutions, then you pray as you should.

 

Until the furnace of the heart is fired up, a prayer cannot reach God. Man cannot pray in an impure place. You need to go to a pure place. Prayers need to be transmitted from a pure place. When someone is praying to the Invisible World, he must be exact. Otherwise, a prayer is like the application form that does not state what is being requested. In such a case, it remains without consequence.

 

If I were to pray now, I would ask God for Strength, Knowledge, Wisdom, Love, Truth, and Freedom.

 

When someone prays, he should ask for the least thing that is — at the same time — the most essential. A prayer is received when God's Will is taken into consideration. Conduct the following experiment: concentrate on that which is deep within yourself and say, "My Lord, I am ready right now to fulfill Your Will which motivates every living being in the world." Or say, "If I have found favor in You, let me feel Your Joy in the Name of Your Love, Wisdom, and Truth." Do you know what you will feel? You will feel such an excitement as you have never felt before. You will feel reborn. In a moment, man can transform his countenance.

 

Turn to God and say, "My Lord, place me in the Fire of Your Love." Or say, "My Lord, what do You want me to do that Your Kingdom may triumph over all the earth and Your Name be sanctified among all people?"

 

One very important Law states: When you pray for someone, your prayer gains miraculous power only when it is accompanied by love for that person.

 

Now, let's concentrate for five minutes and send one good thought throughout the whole world. The Law states: If you send this thought rightly, the work which you will accomplish will be equal to all of the work that you have accomplished throughout your entire life.

 

From The Wellspring of Good