Yesterday’s The
Hindu carried a story of an atheist teacher in Nashik, Maharashtra, who
refused to fold his hands in prayer in the school assembly and so invited the
wrath of the government-aided school’s management. He has been denied
promotions and increments over the years. He is currently fighting his school
management’s actions on a constitutional plane through a case in the Bombay
High Court.
I have nothing to opine on constitution rights or on religion.
But I do want to share what I think and feel about this word/action called “prayer”.
Prayer is often referred to as a religious expression of
a wish, or even as a thanksgiving, to a higher energy – “a” God who ostensibly, as many will have us believe, resides
outside of us. I too started my Life on such a premise. But over the years, I
have come to realize that Life is the highest energy we can all relate to.
Because Life is what keeps us alive. If we didn’t have Life we would be dead,
won’t we? So, isn’t being alive, living, that too in human form, the greatest
of blessings? Why, you or I, or both of us, could have been created as the
swine that gives the flu and not as the human who gets the flu? The fact that
we have been created human, that we have been ordained with a set of faculties,
that work normally in a large mass of us, is a gift. Further, Life is the
biggest teacher. Each moment a test is being placed before us. Every test has a
lesson that we discover, infer, after we are through with that test. And each
lesson is humbling, making us grow and evolve better, through the experience of
living and learning. So, in effect, isn’t Life the
Almighty? And so, shouldn’t we bow, even if we find the concept of a ‘third
party God’ hard to digest, to Life – in reverence, in gratitude?
In Sanskrit, and in Indian tradition, we are encouraged
to greet each other with the word “Namaste”.
It is commonly understood, and even used, as “Welcome” or “Good Bye”. But
Namaste really means this: “Namah” =
Bow in obeisance and “Te” = To you.
The scriptures explain the significance and meaning of “Namaste” thus: “The God within me
bows to the God within you!”
My understanding is that Life is the God that is resident
in each of us. And any prayer must rightfully be to Life. In reverence for the
might and beauty of creation and in gratitude for the opportunity to be human –
for this lifetime and this experience!
Namaste!
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