My Prayer to you

- by: Gurpreet Bhatia

This delightful verse of the Avtar Bani (Verse 50) is a prayer, directed to the Almighty formless Nirankar.  It deals with the relationship of the divine with the individual seeker.  A unique and different kind of relationship to shoes that we observe with people who walk into our everyday lives.  The devotee is infused with a sense of love which expands in his heart to become oceanic and eternal, bringing an unending love for the formless hence reforming his life.

How to Pray?

The Pray commences by feelings of live towards the creator by saying

You are my lord and it is always you before whom I submit my prayer

A devotee of this great formless creator will always place reliance upon his lord as opposed to himself.  He will seek the guidance of his spiritual mentor in his life and submit his life to the doer of all acts.  When the devotee in, instigating his prayer, gives way to love of his guide and dispels the pride, which torments him, he will find peace.  And what peace?  A feeling of oneness and bliss.

The unity his mind experiences with the formless allows him to ride through any storm and find himself floating on still waters all the time.  But how? It is simple, he is so attached to his creator that he feels nothing.   Can that be possible?  Only if he has faith in the mentor and with this association all things become possible.  In fact this last factor is the remedy to all illness felt by our minds: feed it love of this formless Nirankar.

Admissions

The devotee upon this occasion of prayer makes a complete and unreserved admission, tht the wealth and material possession that he has been granted by his mentor, he will commit back to him whenever required to do so.  He accepts that all assets in which he asserts any legal little do not belong to him including his own mind and body.

The devotee simply reminds himself of this fact.  The station of nearness, to God formless Nirankar upon which the devotee has traveled though his life, is found as the final destiny is discovered deep within him and around him.

The Only Relative

One considers the formless creator as being his true relative over and above all worldly relations that are regularly observed in our lives.  The devotee believes that his lord is his real father and mother and all the people of the world are the children of God.  There is this flavour of connectivity with all of humanity hence creating a direct relationship with each other and a unique and diverse global family.

The devotee feels that the formless is his mainstay and he can always rely on Him in his life without Him ever failing.  He will always give preference to the all pervading provider who he believes has made provision for all.

Family Ties

One observes in life, the many blood relatives he has and even those relationships that are more distant.  The devotee appreciates their value as he has deep feelings for all of creation.  But in truth he does not see the difference between who is related and he who is not.  Rather, the devotee sees all his relatives with the same vision that he sees his fellow devotees and all the rest of mankind.  He does not distinguish between those who have been enlightened with this lamp of knowledge and those who have not.  For him the lamp remains switched on always so he can benefit from the way of the global vision granted by his mentor.  All the same, despite respecting all relationships, he considers his bond with the formless to be the greatest of them all.

The Divine Vision

It is a belief that once the devotee has benefited from the sight of his creator he will live in peace.  What sight is being reflected here?  That is a sight beyond our normal vision and that cannot normally be seen by our own eyes.  There remains a point of mystic disclosure of divine insight through which one can become enlightened.

This is the sight and it is glorious when one not only sees the skies, but sees the skies within the formless, when one sees the great mountain peaks which also exist within this God, when one sees the oceans which too continue their flow all within the resident formless God.

The whole creation manifests from within this formless and nothing can be beyond him or outside of him.  This is declared as the formless vision and that is what is granted.  With the insight obtained, one lives life in peace as it is a prescription if used correctly, for eternal joy to be experienced.

Our Vision One Truth

It is then proclaimed, that the end of this great formless has never been seen and His form is individual and unique.  There cannot be more that God.  There is only one.  He is the truth and we accept He may be know by different names, but His essence is the same.  It is the same for worshipers within all religions.  The key is the devotee accepts His as one and therefore is able to praise Him at any place of worship: mosque, temple, church etc.  He does not see where he is, he only observes the presence of God at the time, as he becomes above all material boundaries with his developing this divine vision.  So the devotee is aware of the surroundings, but feels his formless within the surroundings.  Hence he will not suffer from any discrimination based upon such limited factors, as he is aware of the praise that is been given to God who he realizes at every moment.

The presence of the formless is eternal and will always be but due to the subtlety of his existence he can easily escape from the mind.  Hence to sustain the truth and vision the spiritual teacher is mot important.

The Developing Devotee

The devotee accepts his limitations and sustains focus on the unlimited and never ending formless God.  He has such an oceanic love that he is able to submerge himself within his formless and become one.  He always seeks His shelter and refuge at all times who is a continual provider and ray of hope in life.  He creates provision for all creation thus alleviating any worry about himself not being included.  He does always provide.  For him there is no greater than God and he does accept, in his love, that he would sacrifice his all for the love of his God.

The sacrifice referred to, is to bring all his estranged brothers and sisters in the world together and through a unique love to create Universal Brotherhood.  This is the final rung to be stepped upon the ladder of his devotion were the divine vision has prevailed and he witness this formless in all perspectives of the creation.