Why should we praise God, pray to God and sit near Him? What all these mean and what are the benefits we are going to get from all these? What are the correct methods to praise God, pray to Him and sit near Him?
STUTI OR APPRECIATION
To call qualities of a thing as qualities and to call dis-qualities of a thing as dis-qualities is called स्तुति. To say so, may bring pain to some but it is okay, if it is beneficial for the mankind as a whole. Opposite to स्तुति is condemnation, where qualities of a thing are called dis-qualities and dis-qualities of thing are called qualities. We can very well say that truthful speaking is woven in स्तुति. The word ‘स्तुति’ is used for appreciation of attributes of God. By स्तुति or praising God, we tend to love Him and reform our character in accordance with the attributes of God.
‘If a man sings laudation to God very loudly like a court-fool and does not reform his conduct, a स्तुति or prayer is meaningless.’
-महर्षि दयानन्द
(Book – Light of Truth-English Translation of ‘सत्यार्थ प्रकाश’)
स्तुति or appreciation is of two kinds – Positive and Negative. Positive appreciation or सगुण स्तुति means contemplation of those attributes which God has, for example, he is omniscient, omnipresent, all–pervading, all–powerful, ever living, changeless et cetera. Negative appreciation or निर्गुण स्तुति means contemplation of those attributes which God does not have, for example, He does not come into a body, He does not take physical birth, He has no defect in Him, He does not submit Himself to the limitation of nerves etc. The purpose of स्तुति is to imbibe the attributes of God.
PRAYER
‘Just as a man who serves is called a servant and not an idler ; just as a thing is shown to a person who desires to see and has eyes, not to a blind man, similarly God helps in prayer for public benefaction and not for public injury. A man, who merely says that sugar is sweet, never gets sugar, nor does he taste sugar. Only that man gets sugar, sooner or later, who tries.’
-महर्षि दयानन्द
(Book – Light of Truth-English Translation of ‘सत्यार्थ प्रकाश’).
‘The prayer should be accompanied by a likewise conduct. For example, if a man prays for wisdom, he should have no stone un-turned in acquiring wisdom in accordance with his capacity and capability. It means that prayers should follow exertions’.
-महर्षि दयानन्द
(Book – Light of Truth-English Translation of ‘सत्यार्थ प्रकाश’).
Help is called for from the one, who is capable to help. There is no one, who is equal to or more capable than God. For worldly objects also, we should pray to God and to no one else. God does not in exchange of prayer made to Him forgive worshiper’s sins. Since, prayer is a good act of man, as a result of such prayers, the time of getting the fruits of bad deeds may get changed.
Prayer destroys ego and makes the worshiper humble. Prayer of another cannot do good or bad of a person. According to the principle of कर्मफल, fruits of the actions are obtained by the DOER only.
Yes! it is true that prayers of others can help or motivate a person to do a particular act. But actually, mentally we have become so weak that we get easily affected by the prayers of others done with the objective of some harm to us and do some unrighteous act and accordingly we have to bear pain as a fruit of our unrighteous act. Because of ignorance of meaning of Prayer and Principle of ‘कर्मफल’, we start believing that reason of our pain is Prayer of others done with the objective of harming us. The fact is – despite the Prayer of others done with the objective of harming us, we can do good and we are, in no way, bound to do bad or in other words prayers of others cannot deprive us of our independence to act.
उपासना
To make soul to dip in the bliss of God is उपासना. The word उपासना or communion means to sit close.
महर्षि पतंजलि has given the preliminaries that are necessary for starting योग in his योग सूत्र.
‘The result (of उपासना) is that just as chill-striken man is cured of his chill by going close to fire, all impurities and sufferings are shaken off and the qualities, actions and nature of the soul become similar to those of God’.
-महर्षि दयानन्द
(Book – Light of Truth-English Translation of ‘सत्यार्थ प्रकाश’).
Related Topic
–What is the methodology to approach God?