The Power Of Prayers

It cannot be denied that a chant, a prayer, a hymn does have a power over our physical well-being and not just our mental well-being.

Prayers or chanting in any form heals our minds.

When the mind is calm, collected and diverted away from mundane matters, prayers act as a balm for the wounds of the mind. When the mind heals, so does our body. Our aches and pains tend to take a back seat. We recover ourselves faster this way. The obsession for the bodily and mental pains translates into obsession for chanting something positive or spiritual according to the religious beliefs of each person.

If the person does not believe in matters spiritual, he or she could still benefit with some simple phrases like, "There is a way out of all this", "Yes I Can, Yes I Will, "I Will Overcome This Situation", ..." etc. whatever one fancies depending on the problem at hand. We should also realise that when we are doing something new, it does absorb our time and attention, so we must allow ourselves to soak in for some time with that. With time the mind would have overgrown that euphoria too.

I have doubted the power of prayers in my younger days yet that's what helped me most when I was much stressed. Stress manifests into physical discomfort within no time has been my personal observation.

However, the mind has to be strong enough not to get into more problems due to someone who may take this as an opportunity to fleece our time and money leading us to more misery.
Certainly we need a shoulder to cry on. Follow good advice or cousel. Remember we alone can take decisions to solve our personal problems with as little help as possible from others.
No one else can solve our problems for us, we have to do that ourselves. When we look to others to do that for us, it could be short lived, it could be unnecessary dependance on another person who may or may not show the same interest in solving our problems for us, consistently. Moreover, in modern times, who has this kind of time for others!
Ask yourself if you cannot do that for yourself. We are our best well-wishers, so better start utilizing our own services for our own good!

I am putting this in black and white because people who come for such counselling tend to look for all kinds of quick fixes from the counsellor without trying anything on their own for mitigating their problems. One has to go through to learn how to come out of some painful situations. No one will do the hand-holding for us for long. Not forever, at least.

Thank God we have ourselves to help! Arise, awake and get cracking on your problems but do choose the positive path, though it may not offer us instant relief.
Remember it takes time to get into problems, so it takes time to recover from them too.
Time is great healer.
Soon all will be well and we will wonder we ever went through those horrowing times.

Cheers!

Mahalakshmi.

To Marry or not to?

Dear Friends,

I am withholding names of concerned people in the event I am going to narrate today.

Sister of a man aged about 38 came for help last year around this time. she wanted her brother to forget the girl he loved who refused to come out of her house to marry him against her parents' wishes, perhaps.
It was two years since there was heavy silence from both sides.
Boy seemed to lose interest in his life and was quite frustrated.
After work he would come home and even if he were to request for some tea, his sisters at home would tell him to go find a wife who would make it for him as they wont be around for long making him tea all their lives!
Which was true yet he wont budge nor look at any proposals his family would get for him.

Then one day his sister invited me over to her son's birthday party and the boy got talking to me. We were talking for the first time though I knew his background and about his refusal to get married to anyone else.

As we got talking he felt he should come to me for some counseling and advice.
I fixed a convenient time and asked him to air out whatever he felt. As usual he dint want to let down the girl he loved and dint understand why the girl dint have the courage to take a bold step when he was prepared to take her in as his wife.
Caste plays an important role in India and that was the primary reason for the girl's parents refusing to listen to any reasoning by the girl to get married to him.

I talked to him less and listened more to what he had to say.
When it was my turn to talk i reasoned out to him.
I pointed out that he was perhaps wasting his time waiting for this girl to come when she dint have the guts to take a few steps towards his house. Incidentally they both are neighbors and loved each other for more than 3 years!
I told him he was not getting any younger and that he needed a companion in life and it was time to get settled with the few proposals that still came his way.
His ideal time according to his chart cast by me was before July, 2009 and I told him so. I also pointed out that her parents were against her marrying him when they talked to me last about the matter, though I could never meet the girl who was always at home and there was always someone around. So no question of ever talking to her. I knew that this boy was wasting his time waiting for her.

I convinced him that he has to get married and the time was quite short and if not it could very well take even longer to find a suitable bride for him.

This was April, 2009.
In June 1st week the sister came smiling to invite me for her brother's marriage and gave me a generous compliment of turning around her brother to listen to reason when the same turned on deaf ears for so long however much his family tried to talk to him about it.
The wedding was fixed for July 6th, 2009 and the girl was his colleague from the same office he worked in.
This girl was also from a different caste from his.
Anyways the marriage took place and the girl was also in her mid thirties.

God is great. I see the couple happily going about leading a happy life from time to time. I am happy for them.
Yet I feel sad whenever I see or meet this girl who is still not married.
Her parents are now quite free of the tension from this boy who is now married. Whether they are going to take any concrete steps to get her married is to be seen and not discussed or talked about.
I watch silently with prayers in my heart for this girl whose parents wont budge to give her that happiness of selecting her own mate!

Only God can save such girls.

Take care.
Mahalakshmi