Jainism

Author(s): M R Gelra
Publisher: Createspace

Page 21

CHAPTER - 1
PRAYER
Introduction
Most religions give utmost importance to prayer but their methods of prayer are different. Those who believe in a creator God, pray for happiness and peace in life. Some religions, including Jainism, deny the existence of an omnipotent creator God. Jains believe that every being is a God in its essence. They pray to recollect the virtues and invoke the wisdom of enlightened souls within themselves. Jains entreat those perfectly pious souls, who have attained the highest state of consciousness i.e. achieved the state of liberation of soul from karma.
Ancient Buddhist wisdom reflects that we all have a Buddhist nature seeded deep within us, for some more easily accessible than for others. This is not just a philosophically possibility, but possibly even empirically verifiable.
Regardless of any religious labels, there is an instinctive spiritual hunger amongst humans to lead a peaceful life. Prayer helps to satiate this desire; Prayer is the spark from which the fire of faith is ignited bringing light into our lives. Let us learn the significance of prayer through narration. Narration helps in understanding the subject more explicitly.
Narration
There was once a fine young man who had been deceived by many of his friends. Hurt, disappointed and angered by this deceit, he prayed to God. He prayed fervently, night and day, he neither ate nor drank to seek revenge on those who had cheated him. The story says that the Angels saw this man praying with such intensity, and they could not ignore his prayers for help. They asked the man, "Young one, what is the reason behind this vehement prayer?"
He responded "I need the Almighty's great power to help me in destroying the people who have tried to destroy me. They deserve no less than death. Give me the strength and the ability to do this."
The Angels knew that the young man was asking to receive the deadly weapon 'Vajra' to annihilate his enemies. Unmoved by his prayer, the Angels decided that this young man did not deserve their help and therefore they left.