Power of Prayer: Prayer Lifts The Spirit

By Ezekiel Isaac Maleka

Every one of us should find the time for meditation and communion with the Creator. We should judge and determine if our actions are correct, whether they are appropriate before the Lord who has granted us life, and who is gracious to us every moment. If we find we have acted properly, we should fear no one. We should live in a manner that material considerations and personal benefits dont matter.

Meditation lights up your heart, and liberates you from all desire for evil. In meditation you may discuss your tribulations with God; you may excuse yourself for your misdeeds and implore the Lord to grant you your desire to approach nearer to God. Devote some time each day to commune with the Lord in solitude; converse with Him. If you cannot concentrate, continue to express your thoughts in words. Words are like water which fall upon a rock until it breaks; words will break through your flinty heart. Words are the shell, meditation the kernel. Words are the body of prayer; meditation, its spirit.

Nothing can be accomplished without concentration which is the beginning of meditation. Mystical inspiration will automatically flow, once the power of concentration is acquired. Meditation is diving deep within yourself. In meditation, we communicate with our inner silent life. The knowledge of self is like union with God. Self-realisation is spiritual attainment. The Bible speaks of self-denial. People think it means not eating and drinking, giving up all that is beautiful and good in life, going somewhere in solitude never to appear again.

Self-denial, however, comes from self-forgetting. If you study your surroundings you will find that those who are happy are so because they have less thought of self. If you are unhappy, it is because you think of yourself too much. A person is more bearable when he thinks less of himself. The greatest misery is self-pity. That person is heavier than rock; heavy for himself and heavy for others.

Meditation in Jewish experience represents a rich treasure of wisdom of special interest to us today. Meditative wisdom focuses on your inner self, the spiritual dimension of your nature and deeper hungers of your spirit that cannot be satisfied on the material or sociological planes alone. Like Abraham, Moses and Daniel there are many examples in the Bible who observed the principles of meditation. Prophet Elijah, King Solomon, King David and others also practised meditation.

A Talmudic sage once taught: If a man prays only according to the precise text of the prayer and adds nothing from his own heart, his prayer is not complete. After we have recited the traditional prayers, beautiful as they are, we often have the feeling that in our hearts there linger some precious sentiments to which we have no expression. These are our own personal yearnings, our most intimate thoughts. Sometimes we are not able to find the words, for there are thoughts that lie too deep for words. At such a time, we pray without words, as Jewish people do in a moment of silent prayer called Amidah.

Baal Shem Tov once declared: When wood burns it is the smoke alone that rises upward leaving the grosser elements below, so it is with prayer. The sincere intention alone ascends to heaven. Sincere intentions find wings without words. The Psalmist tells us, - To you silence is praise. - We can praise in silence, we can petition in silence, we can pray in silence.

Ezekiel Isaac Maleka is priest and honorary secretary at Judah Hyam Synagogue, New Delhi.