Murshida Vera Corda
Why Pray?
Prayer has many purposes, the chief one being to make God a reality in our
Being. The first stage of prayer, Inayat Khan teaches us, is to confirm us
in being a follower of the Divine will. In this type of prayer we pray as
a flock the formal prayers of our Order. Saum and Salat are both prayers
of power and of blessing. These paired prayers are the means of creating
and experiencing the underlying unity of all beings; the unity of Creator
and creation. We are taught to always say them together for balance.
Regular disciplined times for these prayers enable us to trace the
different stages of our advancement on the path. In this practice, prayer
then becomes an effective exercise for the attainment of the presence of
divinity. According to our state of consciousness in prayer our message
reaches God. It defines and makes clear our needs. Prayer can develop
insight into the different natures we meet in the world. The cause of all
things becomes clear and one begins to know the causes of all disharmonies
among nations and peoples. This kind of prayer confirms us in the unity
through praise of the Divine Being, the divine authority in our lives. It
is the witness we make to our Sufi brothers and sisters and all those
within hearing. The purpose of prayer confirms our faith. It makes God
great and good.
The second stage is belief in the Only Being as dominating our thinking,
our speech and the deepest feelings of the heart. It affirms our absolute
trust in divine guidance. The urge to pray, to speak to the God within is
a necessary step for the beginner in prayer to affirm that although the
beginner may not trust him or herself s/he can trust the divine authority.
At this stage prayer is the work of the heart, “I am not, Thou art.”
The third stage is reached when one begins to reason internally within
oneself; “arguing with God” it is called. In this prayer, as with the
child, God is reminded of one’s good intentions and deeds. This prayer
bargains with the divine being for favors and grace. It produces
self-confidence to talk with God and leads to conviction that one has
produced the love of God and by so doing has lost oneself. Ultimately, the
lover and the Beloved become one.
The fourth stage is reached with a sense of conviction that God is a
reality and that He indeed lives with one, ever present to talk to. Hazrat
Inayat Khan says that this shows that one has discovered through faith in
the practice of prayer that one has a firm conviction. The one who has
this kind of conviction already is on his way as a mystic. “God is seen in
you. You can know him.” It comes from the divine element in humankind;
love and intelligence, the two aspects of which in reality are one and
which impel us to pray. It cultivates and prepares the human heart for the
acceptance of divine love.
Prayer expands consciousness. So Inayat Khan describes in the Vadan,
“First believe in the God who is all-exclusive and then realize the God
who is all inclusive.” In this consciousness of the divine presence in
prayer, we lose ourselves and gain our real selves. It progresses from
loving God to looking for God and then to finding God in many names and
forms. Through prayers one eventually arrives at a dualistic stage where
one experiences the true unity.
One cannot force prayer. But if prayer is preceded by a contemplation of
the chain of murshids, what Inayat calls “the unity of illuminated souls,”
the divine knowledge of prayer is passed from one soul to another. That is
why prayer must be in silence at this stage if one is to hear the voice of
silence that answers prayers, as in a two-way conversation.
Some prayers that discipline mind may be very short as this one from
Inayat Khan in the Vadan; “Expand my heart Lord, to the width of the sky,
that the whole cosmos be reflected in my soul.” This enables us to outgrow
limitations in life. When short prayers are repeated to the point of being
lost in them one finds the body swaying as an expression of the divine
rhythm. Prayer then becomes a dance with God. This demands complete
concentration and sincerity.
Creating the God-ideal within raises the consciousness and personality
through the form of prayer we practice. First, we wrestle with our limited
ego in telling God what is happening in the difficulties of life,
advancing to the glorifications where thankfulness for the grace of God
enters; then wrestling with the sins of omission and commission and
forgiving those who hurt and fence us off from communication with the God
within. Finally, one reaches the joyous stage where God is no longer in
the highest heaven with the angels and archangels but within us and every
attribute and name disappears in the presence. Every atom of the body is
in our prayer posture and every atom of the mind is centered on the core
of the heart. Prayer then is an art.
Prayer demands concentration and is “an act of will in which the mind
actually sees, during which the seeing faculty of the mind acts as well as
the hearing faculty”, Murshid says. One must be tranquil, at ease, and
have the keen desire to talk with God. Doing the purification practices
before prayer frees one from the captivity of the day’s events and enables
one to contemplate on the divine being, and to open the heart to the light
of truth. At this stage, Inayat Khan’s beautiful prayer may be used;
What I may not see, let me not see;
What I may not hear, let me not hear;
What I may not know, I ask not to know.”
In the end, really great individual prayer becomes meditation.
Ongoing archive project: veracorda.com
