Thoughts on Prayer and Karma

QUESTION: "I have been praying (free of cost) for some people, and announced that I will pray for Reduction of Negative Karma of those who would send names. After several prayers in the last three years, and blessings by many enlightened ones, I had begun to chant mantras. (I am an Asian Indian settled in U.S. My wife is 45, I am 48, and we have no children.) I wish to manifest wealth and to be the greatest healer with Divine Energies. That is how I started praying when I mentioned to a few friends, and it kind of spread from there with a couple of friends.

"My questions are: (1) Are all the troubles that people write to me in the e-mails (divorce, not having a job, or a proper income, problems in relationships, people wanting to serve the Divine but can't seem to get out of debt, etc.), all Karmically related? Am I on the right track praying for so many (without taking their Karma on myself)? Is it possible for one person (no particular religious background, though I am Hindu by birth) to positively transform so many lives, when I had not done anything like this before?

(2) How should I manifest faster and flawlessly - in the lives of others healing what needs to be healed, and helping them in many ways, while manifesting in my life the wealth and spiritual power to help countless others?

(3) How should I become abundant so that I can serve on a larger scale? (I don't want to take money from anyone and only serve free.)

(4) There are times I give some answers to others with little thought, and then wonder if the Divine is guiding me or whether it is my ego that prompts such answers. Is there any way to distinguish one from the other?

"Could you please pray that I can serve the Divine in a larger and more selfless way, but that my wife and I do not suffer in the process?"... Mahesh

ANSWER: My goodness, Mahesh, you ask the type of questions that it would take a book, probably several of them, to answer - if then. There are not enough hours in the day for me to attempt answers here, but I can share some thoughts which may prove helpful:

*** Do not judge. If you serve the Greater Breath as a healer, you do not have the right to judge. Maybe some of the people who come to you are dealing with direct or indirect karma, and maybe you will suddenly know things about them and where the karma comes from; still, speak not of this unless you have permission - from God Who Is Within, and from the individual involved. Most of the problems people have in life are the result of making choices that do not serve them. So many people today are not practical. They live their lives as if there were no consequences to what they do. And they fail to recognize that we are all energetic beings, operating on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. Success is really a state of balance, balance within and between all the levels mentioned.

*** There is a wonderful spiritual axiom that says: "To change your life, change your thinking." This is so true. Most of us do not realize that our word is our command. What we think about, focus on, talk about continuously or often, comes to pass. We do it to ourselves by not realizing the power we have. Another way to look at this is: "Wherever you put your attention, is where you put your power." Help others as well as yourself learn to be more discerning of what is thought, said, and done. There are no free passes in life. A wonderful teaching for this is the book "The Science of Mind" by Ernest Holmes. You can also get a small, digest-sized magazine called "The Science of Mind." Read it cover to cover. Subscribe to it. The magazine is a monthly, with great articles, plus a spiritual message for each day of the month. There are churches and study groups across the country and the world that study these teachings. You can be a Hindu and still attend and grow from the experience. I highly recommend this work. The churches used to be called the United Church of Religious Science, but are now named United Centers of Spiritual Living. There are other teachings as well that help us put things in perspective. Do look around and see what "speaks" to you.

*** Anyone can suddenly "awaken" to the truth of their being and of reality itself, and at any time. This is one of life's great mysteries, how this happens. Usually these awakenings center around an alteration in consciousness, that lays the ground work for a transformation of consciousness later on. There are usually a number of steps one goes through, lessons and challenges one masters, before they are ready for the "big one" - a transformational event or shift in consciousness that is so profound life for them can never be the same again. This is especially true with healing. Even tiny children can heal. What distinguishes a "true" healer, though, someone who is able to bring about peace and healing on a higher level, is a lifetime commitment, a dedication, and a passion to serving the Greater Breath, The One God, Source, Allah, whatever name you use to honor Deity. That commitment usually comes with a high price you "pay" for it in the sense of cleaning out your own foibles and troubles and attitudes, turning your life around in productive and peaceful ways, learning discernment and how prayer really works, and maturing into higher and greater phases of spiritual understanding and attainment. You could call all of this "sacrifice" or "surrender" to the Greater All.

*** Does becoming a healer mean you must be poor and give up all possessions? Some faith traditions teach this, yet I have never found it to be true. What is true, however, is the need to reach a place in our consciousness where love resides, and there is peace and understanding and joy and laughter and balance and grace and gratitutde and unending love...a place where you simply exist as the Child of God you are. You come into yourself and then move through the self until you simply are. There are no words to describe this. It is something you become.

As long as you are haunted by demons and thoughts of evil and hear voices that preach destruction of self or others, you are not in a position to offer healing. Remember the warning: "Physician, heal yourself."

Always you begin with self. The journey begins within.

Blessings, PMH

P.S. See the "Big Announcement" about IANDS move to new headquarters!