Our Prayer AGES ago, King Vishwamitra devoted himself to penance and became a Rajarshi. He earned many powers get anything he wanted. Still he felt there was something lacking in him, and this made him quite restless. His long-cherished and secret desire of being called a Brahmarshi again and again urged Vashistha to tell him the Arch secret. But Vashistha remained calm and quiet, and asked the Rajarshi to find it out himself.
One day, all of a sudden Vishwamitra saw in the great sage something, which he had been pining to see. In a moment all his doubts vanished. The tumultuous lake of the mind became calm and still. Then he felt a sort of a rippling movement of thought in his mind. Its vibrations assumed the form of words and overflowed in a metric form. He began to sing :
ॐ. भूर्भुवस्सुवः,
ॐ तत्सवितुरर्वरेण्यं भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि
धियो, यो नह प्रचोदयात.
(Om. Bhurbhuvassuvah,
OmTatsaviturvarenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi Dhiyo,
Yo nah Prachodayaat.)
This prayer brought forth a spontaneous exclamation from Vashistha, “My Brahmarshi that revolutionised humanity by turning over a new leaf in the history of Vedic Civilisation.
Thousands of years rolled past. The Brahmarshi Vishwamitra gradually lost all its original meaning, purpose, and appeal to minds of all men of age of science. The prayer assumed mysterious forms; idols of Gayatri were developed, and the prayer came to be used for various ulterior purposes; the real Goal was lost sight of.
Once again a sage of the highest caliber grew greatly concerned about the welfare of humanity. He started pondering deeply over the correct meaning, form and the method of prayer; and as he dived deep into the highest state of super-consciousness, vibrations in the lake of his mind rippled forth in the form of the words:
“0 Master, ye are the real Goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes Putting bar to our advancement.
Ye are the only God and Power
To bring me up to that stage. “
And the method of the Prayer followed: –
“Before going to bed, devote some time to Prayer, sitting in a suppliant mood. Repeat the words once or twice in your mind. Then begin to meditate over its true sense; and then try to get lost into it.
” The modern scientific civilisation laying emphasis on the goalless-ness of human life and on the endlessness of individual’s desires has filled man with selfish egoism to the brim. The Prayer provides for the essentials required to remove the lop-sidedness of our civilisation, which, if allowed to persist, may endanger the very existence of humanity.