You Don’t Have to Be Religious to Pray

Also, you don’t have to pray at all, if that’s your thing. I wanted to get that out from the beginning. But here’s the deal. In the Western people have slowly stopped regarding religion, i.e. Christianity, as a powerful, useful or even interesting institution. I mean, you can’t blame anyone, people have started to become smarter and think a bit more for themselves, thanks to the high literacy rates. Christianity, save for some American-style club-concert worship type of mumbo-jumbo, has barely changed in the way sermons are delivered and in the substance of the messages put forth. You can understand where atheists come from. I’m not sure if it’s even fair to call people who don’t enjoy the usual show that goes on in churches atheists.

However, people feel that if they don’t identify with a particular church or religion, they have to renounce every spiritual aspect of their life. I mean, I get drill, I’ve been there myself and it’s easy to get sick of the guilt and/or boredom game that some churches put on. The instinct is to get rid of it all, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the right move. It’s the same ‘old throw the baby out with the bath water’ kind of situation.

Let me give you an example which is precisely the reason for my writing this article. Every day you encounter some issues that are simply not under you control. Some issues are trivial but some of them can be quite terrifying and stressful. If you can take the path of the stoic and stop living in a state of continuous stress and simply renounce the need to control things that you cannot control, then you’re golden. I think few of us can. I know, I can’t most of the times.

But there is another way. Give prayer a try. Say, “God/Universe/Brahman — or whatever you want to the one which you are also part of — please help me with this situation. I know I cannot do anything about it, but I know you can”. I mean if the totality of the universe can’t do something, who or what can?

I think this approach is at least a step above stoicism because it can instil in yourself a sense of trust, which will allow you to be calmer and less anxious; trust that everything will turn out perfectly. I mean, this is not wishful thinking. You are the universe, so how can you want something less for yourself?

Try this if you suffer from an addiction or you have a destructive or unhealthy habit. Say, “God/Universe/Brahman, I know that what I can do is limited, but you are infinite, therefore please help me stop smoking. I know that with your help I will be able to do it.” This is actually how I stopped smoking, myself.

It is hard to make a change in your life, because most of the time it is you that has to be changed. Therefore, you won’t be able to do the changing that’s required. Why not rely on the whole power of the cosmos? You have it. And prayer is one way to access it.