Ashram Prayers
"Prayer to God is a must to overcome all obstacles on the spiritual path. That which cannot be achieved by self-effort can certainly be achieved with the help and grace of God."
- Shri Chandra Swami Udasin
Swamiji frequently reminds us that although a great deal of discipline, sincerity and regular practice are required to gain mastery over one's mind, self-effort alone is not enough. Self-effort is confined within time and space, and therefore to completely transcend the mind and enter the timeless and spaceless realm of Absolute Consciousness / Absolute Bliss, the grace of God is also needed. For this reason, Swamiji places great emphasis on the importance of prayer in spiritual sadhana, as prayer performed with faith and love attracts the grace of God.
The following two prayers were written by Swamiji many years ago in response to the earnest request of a devotee. The day prayer is read at the beginning of the first three daily meditation sessions, and the evening prayer is read at the 6:30 pm meditation session before the kirtan (devotional singing). Both prayers are also read in Hindi. They have also been translated into French, Hebrew, Chinese and Punjabi.
Day Prayer
O Lord!
The Refuge of the refugeless,
And the Supreme Master of this universe,
May good be to the whole world;
May the wretched ones turn into kind people;
May all the living beings wish happiness to one another;
May their hearts be motivated by mutual love and welfare
And may our hearts turn effortlessly and motivelessly to Thy holy Feet.
O Lord Supreme!
Before Thee who art perfect Purity,
Who art the embodiment of infinite Power,
Who art the infinite source of boundless Knowledge,
Unlimited Bliss,
Unabating Light and Love,
I prostrate in deep love and reverence thousand thousand times.
O Lord of lords!
Who art at once immanent and transcendent,
And One without a second,
I come to Thy shelter;
Pray, make me Thine;
Draw me closer and closer to Thee;
Give me full protection under Thy benign Hand.
My Lord! I am Thine, I am Thine, I am Thine.
Whatsoever I am, I am Thine;
Whosoever I am, I take to Thy refuge.
O Lord of all!
Through Thy Grace may my body remain healthy;
May my heart become pure and clean;
May my understanding be clear and penetrating;
May my mind be steady and peaceful.
My Lord! Through Thy Grace,
May my whole life, having become clean and developed,
Be spent incessantly in Thy remembrance,
In Thy service and in Thy contemplation.
O Merciful One!
Give me strength that I may seek Thee and see Thee,
Give me strength that I may seek myself and see myself,
Give me strength that I may see the Truth and live the Truth.
O Lord, be kind that at the time of giving up my physical body,
I remember You and You alone.
O Lord, kindly remove all my weaknesses.
Merging me in Thyself, my Lord, make me perfect.
My thousand, thousand salutations unto Thee.
OM Shantih! Shantih! Shantih!
Evening Prayer
O Lord, Thou art absolute Existence, absolute Awareness, absolute
Bliss, absolute Power, absolute Light, absolute Life and absolute Love.
People call Thee by different names. They call Thee Om, Ishvara,
Krishna, Christ, Hari, Rama, Allah, Buddha, Mahavir, Shiv, Adonai, Waheguru, Indra, Mother Bhagavati, and so on and so forth.
A rose called by any other name still remains a rose.
Though called by different people by different names, Thou art, O Lord,
I am sure, one and the same Supreme Being — the One without a second!
My thousand thousand salutations unto Thee.