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Understanding Prarthana, Saranagati, and Dhyana
The three key Sanskrit words are Prarthana, Saranagati, and Dhyana and differences exist among these three.
Prarthana
Prarthana is prayer. Everyone stipulates it as an integral part of living. Going to a place of worship is made mandatory. We go to places of worship to gratify our needs and desires, solve problems, tide over complex situations, and finally seek refuge.
In Prayer, we ask God whom we worship to fulfil our deep desires. These desires are material. We go with a complaint or a petition to a temple. Once the desire is granted and materialized, we fulfil our vow. So, prayer is asking for material benefits.
All our prayers move in this direction, and there is no prayer that is truly not materialistic in nature and unselfish. Therefore, it is low and mean and at the bottom rung of spirituality. Can there be a prayer that is simply thanks-giving to the Supreme? Can we stand or sit with folded hands and simply thank the Supreme for giving us this wonderful life?
This life itself is a beautiful gift. Our coming into this world is a miracle. What more do we need? Nature has given us this elegant life and brought us into this world. The rest is in our hands to mould and shape it into meaningful and significant. The prayer that does not involve any selfish motive and does not seek material benefits is true and real.
Patanjali does not speak about prayer in his Astanga Yoga. It is both individual and collective. There is a big difference between an intellectual person and a wise person, and here the spiritual practice of prayer helps us move from mere intellect to wisdom.
Prayer takes us into the heart, connecting us to the Source, where we can let go of any mistakes we have made, deciding not to make the same mistakes again. Is this not wisdom? Whereas if we succumb to making foolish mistakes day after day, hour after hour, we are not becoming wiser. We become wiser when we wish to change from the bottom of our hearts and ask for help to do so. When we live with this attitude every moment, wisdom flourishes.
6 Important Aspects
In all prayers, there are six important aspects.
- The subject is the one who prays
- The object that is prayed to is one of many gods. One can choose any god and direct his prayer to him.
- Every prayer is asking or begging
- Sometimes, or in most cases, the subject fulfils a vow.
- What flows between the subject and the object is worship or devotion, that is bhakti. The subject develops an illimitable affection for the object, the deity. This affection is not to be confused with the affection between the two people. This sort of bhakti is crucial in Bhakti Yoga.
- The dichotomy between the subject and the object is maintained until the subject merges with the object. Till then the identity is maintained. The subject is separate from the object. It is this separation that causes pain and misery in the subject.
Prayer is one aspect of Yoga, though it is not Yoga itself. However, in certain forms of Yoga like Bhakti Yoga, Japa Yoga, and Mantra Yoga, prayer is emphasized. Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga do not give any credence to prayer.
Navavidha bhakti
In Bhakti Yoga, the practitioner is a devotee (bhakta), and the Divine is the Beloved. The Navavidha bhakti includes Shravana (listening) in which the devotee listens to the hundreds of names of the deities or the hymns composed on such deities. Kirtana is chanting or praising in song forms in honour of the deity.
Singing is a form of prayer in which the devotee attains ecstatic breakthroughs. Smarana is remembering God in various forms in utter devotion. Pada sevana is serving God at his feet, which is a part of ceremonial worship. The feet of the Lord are considered full of spiritual power and grace. Here, service at the Lord’s feet is understood metaphorically as remembering God in all activities.
Archana is performing a prescribed religious rite, mostly done in temples, by offering coconut, incense sticks, flowers, and fruits. Usually, the name of the devotee and his/her gotra (considered to be equivalent to the clan, refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor or patrilineal) are included in such archana, and it is mainly performed in temples.
Saranagati / Prapatti
Vandana is prostrating before the image of the Divine – one form of pleasing the Divine. Dasya is a devotion to God in which the devotee wants to be very close to God by performing servitude. Sakhya is a feeling of friendship for the Divine, which is a more mystical form of association with God. When Dasya is performed for years, it, in turn, transforms into Sakhya. The last one is atma nivedana, self-offering. This is a total surrendering, called Saranagati or Prapatti.
Surrender, that is, Saranagati is higher than the prayer. In surrender, we just surrender our will and ourselves at the feet of God whom we worship for long. We consider ourselves as mere instruments and puppets in the hands of the Supreme. Since we are helpless, we leave everything to the Supreme, our needs, and our survival.
You are content and happy because you accept whatever is given by the Supreme. There is no further seeking. In this surrender, the petty self is dissolved since you rely on the Supreme. Devotion overflows in you.
This devotion is filled with boundless affection for the Supreme. It is unlike prayer wherein asking for some desire to be fulfilled is involved. Since the total surrender takes place, there is no room for petty self.
Dhyana – Meditation
Meditation (Dhyana) is different. It is higher than prayer and surrender. It is a higher form of spirituality. In meditation, the mind which is the cause of all problems and troubles is annihilated or transcended. The mind is the focus of transformation. When the mind is completely sublimated, one enters into a state of deep, fathomless silence which is no different from the Cosmic Silence. It is a state of Nothingness—Nothing else.
You simply float in that state. The ultimate object of meditation is to liberate oneself.
It is the objectless concentration (Dhyana). Whereas in prayer and surrender, the object exists. In prayer, the gap between you and the Supreme exists. It is endless. In surrender also, the dichotomy exists between you and the Supreme. It is a deep longing with the Supreme.
Since that does not happen immediately, anxiety is created. In meditation, such a gap disappears. What exists is only a deep void. We must evolve in prayer and meditation to get salvation
