Pray For What You Want

Zen in it's simplicity, a note in a fortune cookie gave me much to ponder. Could the universe be trying to tell me something? Today it seems even my food was preaching Vedanta philosophy. This bold demand to pray was fascinating to me especially coming from a cookie. It sounded a lot like what my Swami would say. For by definition, prayer is talking to God in a spirit of love. Through daily personal prayer we connect with our spiritual reality and develop virtues that enrich our lives and purify our spiritual channel to God. Prayer empowers us to take control of the way we respond to any of life's given situations. Through prayer and meditation our spirits are guided on a purposeful journey. As a result, prayer naturally extends to our actions (i.e."Work"). A fundamental teaching in all the world's religions is that our actions should reflect our prayers so that our deeds, our very lives, may be purposeful, virtuous, and beneficial to our fellow man. Living in a prayerful state occurs when every decision we make, every action we undertake, every word we say, is motivated by the remembrance of God. And that's the way this cookie crumbles!

Power of Prayer lecture by Pravrajika Vrajaprana

There is None Except the Divine

Swami Vivekananda 
Ramakrishna Monastery Trabuco Canyon

The soul has neither pain nor pleasure. It is the witness of everything. The eternal witness of all work, but it takes no fruits from any work. To work properly you first must give up the idea of attachment. Hold yourself as the witness and go on working. Everything is evanescent and changeful. Knowing this the sage gives up both pleasure and pain and becomes a witness of the panorama of the universe without attachment for anything. He sees the world as a picture knowing that nothing affects him. Then he enjoys its beauty. Whenever there is any bliss, there is a spark of the eternal bliss, The bliss that is the Lord himself. The essence of our own soul. He's the light and life of the whole universe. He's the eternal witness of the universe. O Lord and Mother of the Universe, Thou flowing stream of nectar, How many forms and aspects does thou play in manifestation. The soul has neither pain nor pleasure. Hold yourself as the witness, then behold nature's beauty.

Believe that you are the children of God, the heirs of infinite strength and bliss. Believe that your body and mind are sacred temples. Believe that God pervades every man, and every woman. He pervades every tree and creeper, every sentient and insentient being. The presence of God must be realized everywhere. He is the personal and impersonal, with and without form. He dwells in all beings. He pervades land and waters. He pervades hills and valleys. He pervades the sky and stars. He pervades all things. There is none except the Divine in the entire universe. See God in the blue of the sky, the waves of the sea. See God in the face of a friend, in the simplicity of a child. See God in the horrors of death, in the steadfastness of the saint. There is none except the Divine in the entire universe.

-- Except from "Vivekananda Oratorio 150 : His Ministry" a classical oratorio by Swami Atmavidyananda, composer and lyricist, of the Vedanta Society of Southern California and a monk of the Ramakrishna Order of India. The lyrics he derived from "Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda."

Listen to Vivekananda Oratorio 150 Recording