Power of prayer

Whenever a celebrity falls ill or meets with an accident all his admirers and well wishers start praying for his or her speedy recovery. The most famous example is  that of  Big B ( Amitabh Bachhan) when he got seriously injured  while shooting a fight sequence for the film Coolie decades ago. How the whole country prayed for him and how he came out of the near death episode  to dominate the silver screen  even today is a well known  story .  There are many such examples. I have seen that in most cases , mass or group prayer has helped..

I  strongly believe in the power of prayer. Whenever I have any problems,  health or otherwise, I share them with near and dear ones, besides myself praying to my Ishta deivams ( favourite gods). I do not  believe in being secretive about  my problems. Sharing it with others reduces my stress levels and very often I also get interesting and out of box solutions to my problems. Like it happened in my late thirties when I was diagnosed with glaucoma. I got cured of the problem using magneto theraphy  recommended by a good friend when allopathy was not offering me any solution except surgery.

When natural disasters strike,  like the failure of rains, we find groups of people getting together and offering mass prayers at temples and other places of worship. Recently a senior citizen group I am associated with has been conducting  Dhanvantri  chanting online every day at a fixed time praying to  Lord  Dhanvantri considered the god of medicine and an avathar of Lord Vishnu to protect members and their families from Corona and its ill effects.

I can never forget the variety of prayers I offered to God when my wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer nine years ago. The doctors at Adyar  Cancer Institute where she was being treated had told me right in the beginning  that it was a case of terminal cancer and that there was no hope. While the Hospital was providing palliative treatment  the doctors also told me  that miracles can and  do happen and left it to me to try any other alternative ideas. I consulted Ayurvedic and Tibetan doctors. I started praying   at various temples where the deities are  known to solve health related problems of devotees. I prayed   to  my favorite Lord Balaji that Prabha and I will  make a second round of visits to 106  Divya Desams  if she recovers. I even appealed to the god to take me away and spare her life as I felt I had lived my life full and at 61 she was still rearing to go.  However, there was no sign of Prabha improving.

When the doctors at the hospital told me that they have done everything possible and that I could  go to a doctor  specializing in pain management of terminal ill cancer patients I realized that Prabha`s time in this world was up and no miracle was going to save her . I decided  to change my prayer  to  god. I started appealing to god  to take Prabha away early and relieve her from the excruciating bouts of pain she was suffering . I also did not want her to go through the torture of a  Life Support System.  While God had not responded to my earlier prayers , he did take her away a  month ahead of the Doctor`s prediction, while she was fully conscious & mobile at home in a wheel chair. She passed away on the morning of 5^th January,2013 of a heart attack  surrounded by her near and dear ones.

While I believe in total surrender to my God  as I trust him, I also believe in group prayers to give me that extra courage to face any adverse situations.