Prayer helps, but do not pray because you cannot do. Pray because that is one of the needful things, not because you failed: “God, I can’t do anything. Therefore I’m praying to You. Otherwise I wouldn’t have anything to do with You.” Prayer should be very realistic and substantial. Do your practices, do your own efforts, and pray also: “Lord, lead me from sleep to Awakening.” Prayer gives a lot of power. Because we are humans, our potential is everything; but in our expression or dynamism we are not great. Therefore we need to pray so that our power awakens and substantiates our efforts.

HENEVER YOU ARE TIRED, when you think you cannot do much or if you find yourself weak or incapable, just pray. This doesn’t need efforts. If it is a sincere prayer, in a few minutes you will see it will give you energy. Somehow power comes in. If your ego does not obstruct when you are praying, doubting underneath, it works. “Lord, I have a lot of potential in me. I have heard and read and I believe it. Please awaken my potential of Light and Joy and Beauty and Love and Truth. Show me the way to do what is right.” You may also pray to the Lord, “Please give me insight so that I do not ask nonsense from You.” If you can get Awakened, you will be blessed. It is the potential of everyone. That is the biggest secret.
      Start the day with prayer, then meditate. Your meditation will be more fruitful. Try it. First bow down to the Lord in your heart when you sit down in the posture. Pray, “God, make my efforts successful. Show me the way. Guide me. Whatever practices I do and will be doing, make them right.” And then start your practices. There is no clash between prayer and meditation. It is in our mind only.

      Many times it happens that we may follow the great ones, Who we call the Messengers, but we have to also listen to Their message. Following is easy, but listening to Their message and doing that is more important. See that you take a vow—not an egotistical vow, but in a good way—“Before I leave my body, I will fulfill my human birth and get Awakened.” This supersedes all other vocations and accomplishments. Whatever has happened has happened. Pray to God, “Please erase all my slate. Let me be a new person.” That is Conscious Being. Once you touch this fringe of Pure Consciousness, it is so beautiful! There nobody is a sinner, nobody is weak, nobody is going to hell. Even though you might have done ten sins, a hundred sins, there is no guilty conscience. You are free. It is for your joy, for your peace, that I’m telling you this. It is all love, peace. Life makes sense then. So it will be on the earth as it is in the heaven—life Divine on Earth.
      You can do it. I am not differentiating between young and old, fat and thin, sinner or virtuous, child or adult. It is possible, under any circumstances, if you dedicate your heart and mind to that Goal to get Awakened, to do the Lord’s Will. The rest of the vocations will carry on, but see that life gets fulfilled, that this human birth is not wasted. And God will be pleased. That is what He is waiting for us to do. That is His dream: to bring the Kingdom of God on Earth so that we dedicate all our efforts—body, mind, soul—to Him. Jesus said: “Love thy God with all thy heart, mind and might.” Five thousand years ago, Krishna said the same thing in the Bhagavad Gita: Sarvadharmanparityajya mamekam saranam vraja… “Surrender everything—mind, might, and soul—and take refuge unto Me. I’ll free you from all sins, guilt, obligations, commitments, karmas, and make you Awake.” That is the promise.

Edited from a Satsang entitled, Prayer For Awakening (P-55), given on December 7, 1990, during the Fourteenth Annual Spiritual Retreat, Quantum Spirituality, available on CD and Audiocassette. Please see the Audio Satsang Catalog at truthconsciousness.org