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THE LOGIC OF PRAYER
Prayer must be a tool to rise from belief in, to the experience of, God; to realize God. It is a step in the process of our awakening, as Swami Vivekananda points out:
"Arise, awake! Awake from the hypnotism of weakness. None is really weak. The soul is infinite, omnipotent, omniscient. Stand up, assert yourself: proclaim the God within you; do not deny Him... Teach yourselves, teach everyone, his real nature. Call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is raised to selfconscious activity."
-The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. III, p.193
The concept of 'self-fulfilling prophecy' is well known to the students of management. It is a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true. We all form 'self-fulfilling prophecies' for ourselves, whether or not we are aware of what we are doing. What we perceive to be true about ourselves eventually becomes true through our own self-induced bias. We have to truly believe that our soul is omnipotent and has the potential to attain divinity, to be able to ultimately rise to that level. We must improve our thinking, changing our outlook on life to be more positive. The way in which we see ourselves has a powerful effect in changing our behaviour. With the strength of conviction in our own inner powers, our prayers are bound to produce much better result than otherwise.
As it is difficult to concentrate the mind on the invisible Godhead, or Self, we make use of the visible, tangible images to assist us in our worship. But the ultimate goal is to reach to the heights of bliss, of perfection, to which we can aspire. The Bible urges: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," and, "...That ye be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
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