Power of Prayer

In the divine fold of Bhagavan since she was born, Geetha Ram Mohan of Washington, DC, shared powerful stories at the Manhattan Center in New York City recently. A Sai Spiritual Education teacher, in two years she turned the SSE program in Washington into a school with 70 children and 60 teachers. Speaking during the National Prayer Week, she started with a prayer from the Gita.

I had learnt this prayer as a child; it meant: “Oh Lord, with Your grace You can make the dumb eloquent and cripple cross a mountain.’ That is me! I never imagined that one day I would stand in front of people and talk about Swami, whom I have loved since my childhood.

When I was ten years old, two renunciants from the Ramakrishna group came to my house and stayed with us for ten days. Every day when I came back from school, they would tell me stories about Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. During their stay I represented my school at an inter-school elocution competition. I was to pick a topic from a hat and speak on it after ten minutes. These monks saw that I was nervous, so they taught me the above prayer. They told me that I should really believe in it and do my duty with love and devotion to accomplish anything in the world. So I prayed very sincerely, and on the day when I picked the topic, it was “Swami Vivekananda.” This is how prayer works.

One day in Trayee Brindavan (Swami’s Bangalore residence), we were in a meeting where Swami was sitting with the boys, and from where I was sitting I could not see Him. One of the boys asked Him, “Swami, when I see all the problems in the world, I feel so helpless. I want to drop everything and go and help out. Is this the correct thing to do?” Swami said, “No. You are a student, and your duty is to study and work hard. When your time comes, then you do your seva (service).” The boy then said, “So I should just watch helplessly.” Swami said, “No. You are not helpless. You have the most powerful tool—prayer!”

Global akhanda bhajans [24 hours of continuous devotional singing] were started by my grandfather in 1945. Swami used to come to our house and stay with us from Wednesday on because bhajans would start on Thursday and go on through Friday. During one of these visits, I saw with my own eyes the power of prayer.

This particular time, a young man came to our house and requested my father to talk to Swami on his behalf about the patches that he had on his face. My father said that he could not be a go-between with him and Swami, but as he was a good singer, he asked him to sing at the akhanda bhajan. He also asked him to pray to Swami. So akhanda bhajan came, and Swami spent a few hours at the auditorium. He returned at about 8 p.m., had His meal, and sent my mother for bhajans as He did not require anything more ’till the next morning.

The few of us at home sat around Him sharing the evening. Suddenly, He turned to my father and said, “Padmanabh, get the car out. I have to go back to the bhajan.” So my father, being a little protective of His physical form, said, “You have just come back after so many hours and it is raining, so why don’t You go in the morning?” Swami said that He had to go. He asked me to accompany Him.

As we entered the hall, the same young man was singing with eyes closed: “Darash dikhao mere Sai Nandalala [show me Your form my Sai Krishna].” Swami walked in very gently, and went and stood right in front of him, with His hands at the back, swaying to the tune. Just as he finished singing, he opened his eyes and saw the Lord standing before him. Swami gently touched him, and in front of our eyes we saw the white spots disappear. This is the result of prayer uttered with love and devotion.

There are times when He has answered my prayers and times not. Once I said to Him that I feel my prayers are sincere, yet they remain unanswered. He said, “I have come in this form so that you all grow spiritually, not to answer all your prayers. I am like a mother. If the child asks for a knife, however much the child may plead and cry, will she give the knife to her child? Some times your prayers are not good for you, and sometimes I answer them at my own time.”

I remember when I was a little girl, Swami would come to our house and we would play games like chutes and ladders, and other board games. We would complain, “Swami you will always win.” He would let us win a few games and then suddenly, with the roll of the dice, He would be on 100. Then He would explain that the goal was to reach 100: “In life there are ups and downs, but you have to keep the goal in mind,” He said. So even at that tender age of ours, He was teaching us while playing with us.

When I speak, I always start with ‘salutations at the ever-present lotus feet’ because I know that He is always there. Some years back, I spoke at a public meeting in Chicago wearing a crumpled cotton sari, as there was very little time to go to the cabin and change. Six months later in the interview room, Swami asked me why I had spoken wearing a crumpled sari. He said that the first impression that you create is very important and when you stand and speak of Swami your outer form and inner form should both be presentable!

Once, in Brindavan, somebody asked Him if He really heard what all the people assembled there said. He said that he could hear the footsteps of an ant like thunder in His ear. Imagine, if He can hear the footsteps of an ant, what must be happening to our lamentations and wailings?! He is always with us, but as we really don’t believe this, we don’t make the connection. He says that when there is no harmony in our thoughts, words, and deeds, then there is no connection. Further He says that there is nothing wrong with the magnet. It is the iron filings that are rusted. It is our fault that we are rusted with anger, hate, jealousy, etc., and, so, He is not attracted to us. But when we clean ourselves, we feel His presence, and, as we get rusted again, the presence is lost.

Many years ago, Swami told us a story from the Mahabharata in which Arjuna developed a sense of pride because he was always with Lord Krishna. Immediately, the Lord did His duty of cleansing the iron filings. One day as they are walking in the garden, Arjuna saw cartloads of flowers (used for worship). Arjuna asked Krishna why there were so many flowers and what was so special on that day. Krishna replied that Bhima, his brother, had used the flowers to worship Him.

Arjuna became jealous and said that as it was his responsibility to worship and offer flowers, and he asked, “since when Bhima had started taking over his duties.” Krishna said, “I don’t know what he is doing, but let us go and see what is happening.” As they went along the path, they saw that every time Bhima passed a tree laden with beautiful flowers he would say, “Krishna arpanamastu (I offer this to Krishna.)” He did the same when he passed an apple tree. Krishna explained to Arjuna that wherever Bhima went, he saw the Lord and His creation; that is true devotion. Swami says that you don’t have to sit in one place and pray. You can pray to Him wherever you are. However, that does not mean that discipline is not good for us.

Ever since I got married, after cooking a meal I would say, “Krishna arpanamastu” and then serve the meal. About a year ago, Swami came to my mother in Brindavan and said, “How is Geetha? Yesterday when she did ‘Krishna arpanamastu’, her sambhar (lentil curry) had no salt!”

What is a prayer? Is it a lot of words in a language that we don’t understand? Swami says that prayer is a conversation with the Lord. Just talk to Him. So many times He asks us to practice at least one of His teachings. We do it for a few days and then we forget. But He is such a compassionate Lord that He forgives us our faults and urges us to start afresh.

I am a kindergarten teacher. One year when the new set of students came to my class, all the teachers who had been with them told me that I was getting a young lad who was a terror. I laughed and wondered how a five-year-old child could be such a terror. They warned me that all my educational degrees and psychology would fail.

Fall came and, true enough, my problems began. I came to know that this child came from a broken home. Every day there would be an injury in my class due to his bad behavior. I tried everything, but nothing worked. As the days went by, I began to dread going to class because of the complaints from the children and their parents. I would come home and complain to my husband, and his quick solution was ‘quit your job.’ But how could I do that?

One day, when I lit the lamp in the evening, I did not say my usual prayers, but talked to Swami. I told Him that I had tried everything that I knew, but did not know how to solve the problem. I complained that as He had asked me to be a teacher, He had better handle it. I gave Him an ultimatum that if by the next day there was no change in the child, I would quit because He wanted us to teach the children with love, and I didn’t have any love for him. I handed my responsibility to the Lord.

The next morning, the child came and, as usual, asked me as he entered the class, “Ms. Geetha, do I look nice today?” I said, “You look handsome but you should be handsome inside also.” He ask-ed me what that meant, and I explained that being handsome inside meant that he had to be nice to everyone.  Fifteen minutes later he came and asked me, “Do I have to be handsome inside even if they annoy me?” I said, “If they annoy you, come and tell me.” “Does it mean that I cannot beat them up?” “Yes, you cannot beat them.”

All through that day, every time something annoyed him and he wanted to react violently, he would come and check with me if he was being handsome inside. On that day, for the first time in my class, there was no injury. Things improved! Five years have gone by and the last time I met him he had a new job at school as a “Conflict Resolver.” When you talk to Swami and pray to Him for others, He, our beloved Lord, helps. A year later when I went to Parthi, Swami asked me, “How is the rowdy?” That is Swami’s love for a child who has never met Him and probably never will.

When we pray to Him, we must surrender completely and have faith that if it is good for us, He will grant it and that, too, only at the right time. Once we ask Him, then we should leave it at His feet.

In 1969, when the Vice President of India visited Parthi, Swami asked me the previous evening to speak on non-violence the next day. I was very happy because I had enough time to prepare the speech. Next morning when I saw all those eminent people sitting there, I became nervous and complained to my mother that I did not want to speak. Swami came and said, “Why this castor oil face, Geetha?” I said, “Swami I don’t want to speak.”

At that time, I forgot the Gita verse about the dumb being able to speak, which I had been taught in my childhood. Then He looked at my paper and said, “You are going to speak so much? If the talk is not good then it is not only your ten minutes that are wasted, but of all the people who are there.” He went inside and brought out a newspaper cutting that had a beautiful quotation called “Smile” and gave it to me. It said:

“A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in business and is the countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature’s best antidote for trouble. Yet, it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile, give them one of yours, as none needs a smile as much as he who has no more to give.”

He gave me the quotation and said, “Non-violence should begin with your thoughts. How do you do that? First smile at least, because when you smile people will come to you and share their problems with you. I’ll tell you a secret. If you smile all the time, you will not get wrinkles when you get old!”

Once we went for a ten-day trip with Swami to Ooty, a hill resort in South India. Swami would take us for walks, He would talk to us, and we had a blissful time with Him. While we were there, due to water shortage, two buffaloes would ferry water to and from the base of the mountain for our use. They were just doing their job and, anyway, who worried about them? When the time came to leave, just as Swami was getting into the car, He got out and went to the back of the building.

As I was curious to see where Swami was going, I quickly followed Him. Professor Kasturi, too, went to see what was happening. Both of us met at the back of the building, and we saw Swami heading for the barn where the two buffaloes were housed. Swami went to the buffaloes and patted them on their head and talked to them just as He would to any other human being. He thanked them for the water that they had brought for all of us, and tears were flowing down the eyes of these buffaloes. Swami materialized some vibhuti and put it on their head. Then He turned and saw us and shooed us to the car.

Swami says that if you are in a crowd, it is easier for a person to find you by calling your name rather than by the description of your clothes. Similarly even if you don’t understand the meaning of a prayer, as soon as you utter the name of the Lord, He will turn to you. “Sairam!”