“’O naughty child, now try going from here, if you can.’ Having spoken thus, she returned to her household duties.” (Vishnu Purana, 5.6.15)

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यदि शक्नोषि गच्छ त्वम् अतिचञ्चलचेष्टित
इत्य् उक्त्वा च निजं कर्म सा चकार कुटुम्बिनी

yadi śaknoṣi gaccha tvam aticañcalaceṣṭita
ity uktvā ca nijaṃ karma sā cakāra kuṭumbinī

“Listen, I think this world could certainly use more prayer. Less blind allegiance towards lying, crooked politicians and the fraudulent leaders in public health. More steadiness in supplication of a higher power, after careful consideration, deliberation, and exercise of rational thought, which is one of the greater gifts offered to the mature human being. We are helpless, after all. As little control as we had while within the womb, the same vulnerability remains today. It is a constant. We only think we are the doer, but Shri Krishna kindly points out the flaw to that reasoning.”

प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि
गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः
अहङ्कार-विमूढात्मा
कर्ताहम् इति मन्यते

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate

“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 3.27)

“I am all for steadiness in determination, in a fixed vow, dridha-vrata, of worship, but have you ever given thought to this other angle of vision? The one which says that if you really believed, you would not feel compelled to pray. Here me out on this one. We are praying. We hope that someone hears our prayer. We pray that in some manner the communication channel is full duplex. Not that we will necessarily hear a response immediately. Rather, something will change in our lives. There will be a sign from above. We get so many of these signs, recurring in a manner resembling the changing of seasons, and yet we mistakenly overlook them or relegate the obvious to chance, randomness, or a collision of forces lacking intelligence.

“If we really believed, though, why would we pray? If I have heard that the Supreme Personality of Godhead expands to reside within the heart as Paramatma, why do I need to worry? He is always with me, in fact. He never leaves. He is my constant companion. He is taking care of everything, right? I should have no need to worry. I believe Goswami Tulsidas makes a similar comparison in one of his songs. He sets the table by describing how the king, the mystic, the mental speculator, the fruitive worker, and practically every other category of human being you can think of is always worried. They have concern over this thing or that. Meanwhile, Tulsidas is able to sleep peacefully. This is because he knows that Rama, the person he worships as God, will take care of everything. This is specifically promised in Bhagavad-gita, as well. The gaps will be plugged. The status quo will simultaneously be maintained.”

अनन्याश् चिन्तयन्तो मां
ये जनाः पर्युपासते
तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां
योग-क्षेमं वहाम्य् अहम्

ananyāś cintayanto māṁ
ye janāḥ paryupāsate
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ
yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

“But those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form – to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.22)

“If God has everything covered, why should I pray? Do you see what I am saying? If people really believed, if they actually realized the presence of the person to whom they approach every Sunday, then they wouldn’t be so desperate to pray. Don’t you think?”

In the beginning stages, it might be a matter of requesting attention. Sort of like when we approach the leader of a legal proceeding. They have many cases on the docket for a given day. We hope that they find time to hear our plea. Let them resolve the conflict. Whether we are accused or are accusing someone else, we know that this authority is the final word on the matter. We cannot rely on faith alone; we want to draw attention to our issue.

In the intermediary stages, we have been thoroughly convinced of the need for worship. We understand religion in the context of dharma, which never changes. In this sense, real religion is sanatana-dharma. It has no beginning and no end. At the same time, we were only recently struggling with illusion. We fall into one of the four categories described in Bhagavad-gita, of people who approach Krishna for assistance.

चतुर्-विधा भजन्ते मां
जनाः सुकृतिनो ऽर्जुन
आर्तो जिज्ञासुर् अर्थार्थी
ज्ञानी च भरतर्षभ

catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ
janāḥ sukṛtino ‘rjuna
ārto jijñāsur arthārthī
jñānī ca bharatarṣabha

“O best among the Bharatas [Arjuna], four kinds of pious men render devotional service unto Me – the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.16)

In this stage, we maintain a healthy fear of illusion. We pray on a regular basis to avoid falling back into maya. We do not want to struggle with “that which is not.” We do not want to succumb to lamentation, easily and steadily such that there is never a moment of peace. We pray for the Almighty to protect us from forgetting Him. He can make anything happen, after all.

In the higher stages, the prayer might assume a different nature. Someone like Yashoda prays that Vishnu protects the various parts of the body of her beloved son. She is unaware that Krishna is the very same Vishnu. She has seen her son miraculously escape peril in the form of a collapsing cart, a giant witch come crashing to the earth, and two trees descending in almost conscious avoidance of a small child, who was on the ground tied to a mortar. Her son is already safe, but Yashoda will not take chances. She knows that Vishnu can protect.

“’My dear Krishna, may the Lord who is known as Maniman protect Your thighs; may Lord Vishnu who is known as Yajna protect Your legs; may Lord Achyuta protect Your arms; may Lord Hayagriva protect Your abdomen; may Lord Keshava protect Your heart; may Lord Vishnu protect Your arms; may Lord Urukrama protect Your face; may Lord Ishvara protect Your head; may Lord Chakradhara protect Your front; may Lord Gadadhara protect Your back; may Lord Madhusudana who carries a bow in His hand protect Your eyesight; may Lord Vishnu with His conchshell protect Your left side; may the Personality of Godhead Upendra protect You from above, and may Lord Tarkshya protect You from below the earth; may Lord Haladhara protect You from all sides; may the Personality of Godhead known as Hrishikesha protect all Your senses; may Lord Narayana protect Your breath; and may the Lord of Shvetadvipa, Narayana, protect Your heart; may Lord Yogeshvara protect Your mind; may Lord Prishnigarbha protect Your intelligence, and may the Supreme Personality of Godhead protect Your soul. While You are playing, may Lord Govinda protect You from all sides, and when You are sleeping, may Lord Madhava protect You from all danger; when You are working may the Lord of Vaikuntha protect You from falling down; when You are sitting, may the Lord of Vaikuntha give You all protection; and while You are eating, may the Lord of all sacrifices give You all protection.’ Thus mother Yashoda began to chant different names of Vishnu to protect the child Krishna’s different bodily parts.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Volume 1, Chapter 6)

As a dutiful housewife in the sacred land of Gokula, Yashoda is on such a high platform that in addition to praying on a regular basis, she punishes. She chases after Krishna with a whipping stick. She is not above enforcing rules. There are no formalities in the relationship. Krishna is free to insist on being fed. Yashoda is free to pretend to be upset when Krishna breaks a pot of butter in a tantrum. Yashoda has no issue trying to bind the very same Krishna to a mortar. Since she is above the dichotomy of believing and not believing, Yashoda can even taunt her beloved son, asking Him to try to move, if He can, now that He is tied to the mortar. That vision is so amazing that devotees celebrate it every year during the month of Kartik.

In Closing:

In that courtyard to unfold,
Amazing vision to behold.

That rather focused on believing,
Divine benediction receiving.

That as her dependent son,
From fear of punishment to run.

Eventually to that mortar bound,
Mother even taunts to sound.

Categories: questions

Tags: dailyprompt, damodara, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, prayer, yashoda