What is the right way to pray? Prayer is the voice of the soul. It is silent, one-pointed communion with God. Words are not prayer, nor thought is prayer. When the words are struck into silence and thought freezes, the soul touches God in total stillness. That is prayer. In that state, words may flow out, thought may come alive, and the body and mind may join in the celebration of unity.
 We are alone when praying, but we may join others, too, when the prayer is the same. The words that flow out in intense prayer are mantras. They are imbued with the power of the soul. That is the reason group meditation becomes effective. Prayer creates powerful thought forms and forces, which are extremely productive and influence the environment. But basically and essentially, prayer is a very personal affair.

 Thinking of prayer—so many thoughts come to my mind. I had miraculous results when I was praying, and I was not even aware that I was praying. Pressed by circumstances, urgency and a dire need, I burst forth with a wish. In fact, all wishes and desires are prayers. Whenever you say, “I wish it could happen that way,” it is a prayer. And if prayers could be kites, the sky overhead would always be overcast. You wouldn’t be able to see the sun, there are so many prayers going on. Everyone is wishing. Everyone desires something—every person, every heart, every mind—all the time. But all such wishes do not fructify immediately. They are, however, recorded somewhere; they become seeds that will sprout at a later time.

 All the time there are choices that you have. All the time you are telling yourself, “I’ll do this. No, I’ll do that. Should I do this? No, I’ll do that.” You have a choice. Every moment you have a choice. Every moment you have a fork in your path. How many chances God gives us is remarkable—those who come here and those who don’t, those who choose to go to the bar and those who choose to come here. You could have gone to the bar, too. You have a great opportunity to choose one thing over another. And you should know that those little choices and little likes and dislikes make you. As life is made up of moments, you are made up of your choices. You are your choices. As they say the writer is his style, so you are your choice. Everything in you today is your choice. You have chosen to be what you are, where you are, and who you are. And so, prayer re-forms us, gives us a chance because certain corners are there that need to be rounded off as a nation or a human being. We should have learned many lessons ourselves without facing this adversity. Let us be modest and humble. May we now learn those lessons. 

 How does one receive a prayer? How does one receive a blessing? How does one send forth a prayer? When the answer to the prayer comes, how should we receive it? There was a woman in a boat, and the boat started sinking. It completely sank, and she was clinging to the mast. She went on praying, “O God, help me. O God, help me. O God, help me.” A long time passed. Fortunately the mast was above water so she could hold on to it for a long time. She froze holding that pole. When the helicopter came, it threw down the basket for her. She was holding on to the pole so tight. She was looking at the basket but was not touching it. She was still crying, “O God, help me. God, help me.” She did not extend her hand to grasp it.
 The man in the helicopter was signaling, “Let the pole go. Grab the basket.”
 She understood, but she could not let go of the pole. A long time passed.
 The man said, “Let go. At least hold on with one hand only.”
 With great difficulty, she extended one hand and touched the basket. But still she could not let the pole go because that pole had supported her for hours and hours. 

 We are programmed that way in relation to our material supports, relatives, friends, and money as if they support us. No. We are supported by some higher forces. In 1972 I was new to San Francisco, and of course, to America. Two people, who were newly married, attended a class I was giving. I asked the wife, “How do you like your husband?” 
 “Oh, he is very supportive.” 
 I asked the husband, “How do you like your wife.” 
 “Oh, she is very supportive.”
 I said, “Are you guys seriously ill? Are you all right. You are not ill?”
 “No.”
 I said, “Why do you want to get supported?” Really I don’t understand the psychology of this desire to be supported. Something is wrong at the root of it. You should be ready to support others. When we look for support from others, we ignore the basket God sends to us and don’t use it.

 So, that woman did not let the pole go. I did not know what happened afterwards. But is it not true that we cling to those temporary supports, and we do not even realize that God has already replied? The answer has come. The prayer is answered, but we are not able to take it or decipher it. A path opens up before us, it is for us to walk on. We put a hundred questions to ourselves. The doubting mind won’t let us do it. The prayer is answered, but we are not aware of it. God answers a prayer in his own way.

 God does not answer your prayer the way you want it answered. You want exact terms. “I want exactly this, O God. Deliver me this, at this point, in this moment, this is my condition.” You pray with a condition and expect to be heard? A prayer is invariably unconditional. That is the first rule. God, too, has his rules. Unconditional prayer means total surrender. The woman let go with one hand, but the other one was still clinging to the pole. And she could not release it. If you go on looking outside for some help and then pray, the prayer will not be heard in totality. You are double crossing God. Because if the prayer is heard, then invariably you will say, “Oh, that source helped me.” I remember the story of Nasruddin. When he was praying, “O God, my gold coin is lost. Please give it back, and I will give half of it to you.” He opened his eyes. The coin was there on the table. He said, “O God, don’t look for it. I have got it.” He took the credit himself. 

 Sometimes a prayer comes out when there is great pain in the body, and we scream out for the Lord’s help. That is the prayer of the body. The body is praying because we can’t handle the pain that is so intense. Sometimes there is great mental anguish. Then the mind prays. But at the same time we are aware of the reason why we are going through this mental anguish and our heart may not be praying at all because we know where we went wrong.  Sometimes we are very badly hurt in our heart—the heart may pray but not the mind. Real prayer comes out of your soul. Prayer is an attribute of the soul. I remember something that happened in my personal life that will explain what prayer really is. It explained itself to me. 

 At the time I was living with a friend of mine, whose wife was suffering from an incurable disease called washerman’s mania, and also, was extremely paranoid. After six months she had come out of it. Usually she spent time with me in the living room, and that was a great sign of progress. 

 The husband belonged to one of the wealthiest and most influential families. As a result they had many enemies, and someone would benefit a lot if there was a rift between the husband and wife. So one of his enemies sent a mischievous letter to the wife telling her that her husband was not faithful to her. Fortunately I opened the letter. It would have been the most disastrous thing if she had read it. I put it on the table knowing I had to do something about it. Right then, I received a phone call from my home that my father was very seriously ill. I looked at the clock. There was little time left for me to catch the train, so in a rush I left the house. On my way to the station, I remembered I had left that open letter lying on the middle of the table in the middle of the living room. That day she had gone to her mother’s place, and her husband was at work. I knew that on returning she would first go to the living room. Then she would see the letter. What could I do? It was really a question of life and death, for that letter could throw them apart forever. She would have believed every word of the letter. I thought, “O God, what can I do now? I can do nothing! My father is on his deathbed. Here this has happened. The letter is lying there, and she should never read it. What can I do?”
 In utter helplessness my head went down, and a very intense prayer came out: “Do something and do it fast!” I called out the name of Shiva. I said, “O Shiva, do something and do it very fast! Very fast! It is 2:00 p.m., and they will come back by 5:30 or 6:00. She must not read that letter. You have to do something!” 
 As I was saying it, a voice inside said to me, “Why are you repeating it again and again?”
 Then I realized my soul had prayed. “What am I doing? Reminding God? Has he a bad memory? Do I believe that prayer is not powerful enough? Your arrow has reached the target. Don’t doubt it. It will happen.”
 And so I was suddenly relieved. I felt, “I have touched him. Once I have touched him and told him what I want, I don’t have to do anything.” There were no tears; there was no begging. There was only a very intense point of a fire that burnt all the way till I reached him. Then I turned my thoughts to other things. I spent three days at my father’s house. I didn’t think of that situation at all. On my way back in the taxi, the thought came, “What has happened there?” When I got there, I found the living room locked and sealed by the police. Some mysterious thing had happened. I called my friend at his workplace, “I have returned and can’t get into the house. What is happening?”
 He said, “The day you left a thief broke into the house. He jumped over the wall in the back yard. As he jumped people started shouting as they saw him. He rushed to escape. He didn’t touch any jewels or money. He picked up a suit but dropped the pants and jacket in the hallway. He only took a shirt. He escaped through the front door—the police came and sealed it. Once the police opened the door, first thing I did was to pick up that letter and put it in my pocket. 

 Prayer is heard when your heart, mind, and body are all synchronized into one point like a laser beam. You are not even aware that you are saying something. There are many ways of praying. One way, with which we are familiar, is a ritual. Rituals, too, can be very powerful. But basically, prayer is an innocent and genuine expression of the soul.

 A priest was traveling by boat. When he passed very close to an island, he saw three men standing on the bank of the river. They were bending their head down to the ground and praying loudly. One was saying, “O God, I make very good shoes. I will make very comfortable shoes for you.”
 Another said, “O God, I know how to massage a body. I’ll massage your body so well that you will sleep very soundly. You will never remain awake worrying about your devotees and those who are in pain. You will just sleep like a baby.”
 The third man said, “I cook wonderful food. Such food as you have never tasted I will cook for you. I’ll cook this and this…”
 In the meantime the second person said, “Listen to me, God. I can also take away all the lice from your hair. Yes, from your hair, from your body. And I will clean you with a good soap.”
 The priest thought what these people were doing was horrible and stupid.” And so, he stopped the boat, tied it up to a tree, and went to them. “You idiots! Do you know how sacrilegious, how profane you are?”
 When they saw the priest in front of them, they immediately fell to their knees. 
 The priest continued, “Do you think God needs your massage? Do you think he needs your boots? Do you think he is dying for miserable food?”
 Then the men said, “We are illiterate, and we are uneducated people. We are ignorant. It is good that God has sent you here. Do tell us how should we pray?” They were so humble.
 The priest repeated the prayer that he knew.
 “We can’t write it. We don’t know how to write. We are totally illiterate.”
 “Okay. Repeat after me.” And they did it, and he made them say it again and again till they remembered it by heart. And he heard it three times very correctly spoken. He said, “Don’t forget what you have learned.”
 “No. No, we will never forget what we have learned today. Thank heaven that you have taught us.”
 Very relieved that he had done his duty, the priest unhooked the boat and moved away. It was a moonless night and smooth sailing. 
 Suddenly the priest was startled by a thundering voice from above, “You Idiot! What have you done today? Those pious souls are my favorite devotees. I love them more than anyone else on this earth. They used to pray to me with such love as no one has ever prayed to me. You destroyed all that today. You have earned such bad karma today. Instead of leading them to light, you have pushed them into the darkness in which you live.”
 The priest did not know if it was the voice of a saint or some deity or God or Satan himself. He wanted to have proof that it was God. Soon the priest saw a light shining on the river. He said to himself, “It is a moonless night. There can’t be any light here.” The light started coming fast towards him. There were three lights in fact. Closer and closer they came. When they came very close, he saw the three worshippers. Light was coming out of them because they were so radiant. They were not holding torches or lights of any kind. It was their own light radiating out of their being. They were walking on the water very fast. 
 They came to him. “O priest, help us! Help us!”
 “What? What?”
 “We have forgotten the prayer that you had taught us.”
 Naturally the priest fell to his knees this time. He said, “Pray, go on praying the way you were praying. Don’t make me a worse sinner now by misleading you twice.”

 So pray. God listens to you in your heart. He is not out in the world waiting to be called. But normally, the set words, which are taught to you in the church or anywhere, are good enough. They work, too. If you pray as others do with a group, put more heart into it. Otherwise, have your own prayer at home, where you pray in your own words. In whatever way you can, talk to God like that. Go deep inside yourself. Here is a poem about prayer I had written long ago:

Prayer is the song of the soul.
The soul sings it, we might be busy elsewhere.
The flowers give out fragrance and the stars light,
Even while we are shrouded in sleep. 

The soul prays with every act we do.
The soul prays with every thought we think.
The soul prays with every word we speak. 

When in anger we throw defiant glances towards the heavens
And curse the vindictive fate,
The soul still prays.

We might be looking at the tail side of the coin.
It is all the same.
The shopkeeper still accepts it.
We think we are exiled from His garden,
And he owns us not.

The walls guarding our pleasure home are high and slippery,
Moist with our feverish exhalations.
Each time we try to climb them
To see what is beyond
Exhausted and groaning 
we fall back upon the thorns of pleasure,
Not knowing that we fall right into His lap.

It is not that He minds our lapses.
He minds that we don’t offer them to Him.
If that is all we have,
He knows that is all we have to offer.

We are running from Him.
Where will we go?
We are running around the circumference,
And He is the center.
At no given point,
We are farther or nearer to Him.
With this awareness, the dizzy head calms down,
And in the deepest silence,
The prayer that was locked inside,
Bursts forth.
The prayer:
You are the giver.
You give in your own time.
You give in your own way.
You give whatever is asked for.
You give kingdoms to the conquerors
And leftovers to the beggars.
Looty to the robber,
Rain to the parched earth,
Mother to the baby,
And dreams to the mother.

 At the time of prayer, the heart must be very pure. Now purity does not mean that you have no bad thoughts ever. Thoughts belong to the mind, they don’t belong to your soul. It does not also mean that you must have done only good things. You might have done anything. But if it has not tainted your soul, if you do not identify yourself as a sinner, God will hear you. It is a type of ungratefulness toward God who has blessed you with divinity and everything—such good thoughts, such a good body, such a good mind, everything that you need. 

 As I have said in my poem, God doesn’t mind your lapses. He minds if you do not offer those lapses to him. If you tell him, “This is the wrong thing I have done. You can take it now. It belongs to you. Do whatever you like with it. I have done this wrong to this person, and I don’t like it. You do whatever you can. Be it so.” Offer everything to him saying, “I am prepared for whatever punishment you think I should have. This is what I have done, let it belong to you.” Then your heart is pure. Then you can pray with confidence. Once I saw a very beautiful sign in front of a church. “You don’t have to cry and beat your chest and pull your hair when you are in church. We want you to pray.” Yes, prayer is a very beautiful, sober state of mind. When you are in the deepest state of meditation, then it is a joy to be in a prayer. I know the following to be true:
“When you pray for your enemy, you are heard by God first.
When you pray for your enemies and friends, you are heard next.
When you pray for yourself, you are heard last. 
And now pray. Not that you should not pray for yourself. It is the principle. You don’t need prayers as much, honestly, as the terrorists need. Is it not true? They need all the prayers. Because if the prayers reach the terrorists, if they reach their souls, and somehow if their hearts may get transformed, how peaceful your sleep will be. How good you will feel when all evil doers of the world become instruments of good acts. That is the only way for the world to get peace. It makes sense. Does it not?