Prayer as a therapy

All of us face upheavals in life. There comes a time when one feels totally shattered, beleaguered and broken. Generally in such situations we are overtaken by anxiety and fear and crave to know when the time would change. We turn to fortune-tellers, tantriks, tricksters and other such people. What is most paradoxical is that this behaviour is not only confined to the illiterate, but highly educated people also frantically look for a magic band or talisman to come out of the crisis and their eyes open when incalculable harm is already done.
Recently I visited Amritsar where I was employed at one time. During normal enquiries about the old colleagues I was shocked to know that a staff cadre woman employee, when she developed a terminal disease, married off her beautiful daughter to an aged tantrik on being assured by him that the wedlock would relieve her of that disease.
The girl emotionally became ready to make sacrifice for her mother whose father found her wife’s life more valuable to him than the future of his daughter. In the absence of right medication that woman died before time and the tantrik disappeared after leaving her daughter high and dry.
Why should it happen? There are two reasons. The first is our failure to appreciate that life is a mixed bag of good and unfortunate happenings, and it is true for everybody whether a king or a pauper. Every night is followed by the day but then night has also its duration.
We fail to exercise patience, tolerance and resistance in such moments... Our mind is so closed that it looks at only closed doors though there are many doors which are open also. We don’t look at those countless instances of the persons who after being in similar situations re-emerged as a phoenix from the ash.
The second reason is that we don’t keep in mind that we are governed by the law of karma. We can’t escape the fruit of our deeds. Even Rama and Sita had to spend 14 years in exile despite being perceived as the rightful inheritor of the throne of Ayodhya.
What should be done under such situations? There is an urgent need to realise that God is great and there is no better resolver than Him. His ways and means to solve our problems are generally beyond our comprehension. Therefore, the best therapy is to have belief in God, pray to Him. No other talisman gives as much strength as the honest and sincere prayer to the Almighty.
But this has to be accompanied by the right line of action also. For example, it is the prayer that gives strength and shows the way, but cancer cannot be cured unless we go in for right medication by consulting a qualified doctor.




Bhartendu Sood