Many Ways To Pray

There are so many ways to pray to God.

One day three spiritual seekers were chatting together. One seeker said, "I pray to God with folded hands. When I fold my hands, I feel that God is really listening to me."

The second seeker said, "That does not work for me. In my case, my prayer works only when I kneel down. When I kneel down and pray with folded hands, then God listens. Otherwise, when I pray standing, or seated with folded hands, God does not pay any attention."

The third seeker added, "The way you two are praying may be correct for you, but it is definitely not right for me. God listens to my prayers only when I lie down and prostrate myself in front of the altar with my hands folded and my face flat on the ground."

While the spiritual seekers were chatting, a man from the phone company came to fix the telephone. The repairman overheard their conversation and said, "You people are praying in your own way, but my way is far better."

The seekers laughed at the man. They thought to themselves, "What does a silly repairman know?"

The man began explaining how he liked to pray. "One day I climbed up a telephone pole. All of a sudden, my neck got entangled and I was hanging with my legs up in the air and my head facing downwards. It was only a matter of seconds before I would fall and break my head and back. At that time, I screamed, 'Lord! Lord! Save me! Save me!' Immediately someone from above pulled me up, I got my balance and then came down. So my way of praying is the best way."

An old man who was the grandfather of one of the seekers had been listening to everything. He came forward and said, "You people are all well-educated. You are fighting over which way is the best way to pray: with folded hands, kneeling down, lying down prostrated before the altar or even hanging by your feet. You people are all useless! Do you not know the true meaning of prayer?"

One of the seekers said with much sarcasm, "Yes, we do know. If you want, we can teach you how to pray. You are so old that by now you have forgotten how to pray!"

The old man became furious. He said, "Listen to me! All of you are praying to God, 'Give me this! Give me that!' You are judging how effective your prayer is by how much you get from God after you pray. That prayer is not true prayer. From now on, when you pray, only search for God — for God's Truth, God's Light, God's Peace and God's Grace. Real prayer is to search for God, and not to beg from God."