Hindu/Vedic prayer

The Vedic faith system, known today as Hinduism, is known to stretch back to around 3000 BCE . Over its lifetime, it has incorporated all sorts of prayer systems from fire-based rituals to philosophical musings. Prayer was part and parcel of the Vedic lifestyle, and as such permeated its books. Indeed, the highest sacred texts of the Hindus, the Vedas, are a large collection of mantras (sacred hymns of Hindus, later adopted by Buddhists) and prayer rituals extolling a single supreme force, Brahman, that is made manifest in several lower forms as the familiar gods of the Hindu pantheon. Hindus in India have numerous devotional movements. Stemming from the highest Creator God called Brahma, prayer is focused on His many manifestations, including the most popular deities Shiva, Vishnu, Rama and Krishna.

Before the process of ritual, before the invoking of different deities for the fulfillment of various needs, came the human aspiration to the highest truth, the foundational monism of Hinduism, pertaining ultimately to the one Brahman. Brahman, which summarily can be called the unknowable, true, infinite and blissful Divine Ground, is the source and being of all existence from which the cosmos springs. This is the essence of the Vedic system. The following prayer was part and parcel of all the Vedic ceremonies and continues to be invoked even today in Hindu temples all over India and other countries around the world, and exemplifies this essence: "Asato Ma Sad Gamaya/Tamaso Ma Joytir Gamaya/Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya/Om Shanthi Shanthi Shanthi." This means: "O Lord Lead Us From The Unreal To The Real,/Lead Us From Untruth To Truth,/ Lead Us From Darkness To Light/ Lead Us From Death To Immortality/ AUM (the universal sound of God) Let There Be Peace Peace Peace." (Rig Veda)

The Gayatri mantra (see Gayatri Mantra) is Hinduism's most representative prayer. Hindus recite it on a daily basis, not only contemplating its straightforward meaning, but also dwelling and imbibing its sound, regarded to be pregnant with spiritual meaning. For this reason nearly all Hindu prayers and mantras are sung. The Gayatri was first recorded in the Rig Veda (iii, 62, 10) which was written in Sanskrit about 2500 to 3500 years ago, and by some reports, the mantra may have been chanted for many generations before that. Having prayed for enlightenment and peace through unity with God, the transcendental and final goal of the Hindu religion, the Vedas proceed to lavish all sorts of encomia and praise of Brahman's many aspects, typified by representative gods and goddesses that stem from one source.

The Upanishads

Around 1500 BCE or so, the first of the Upanishads came into existence. These are also known as Vedanta (the end of the Vedas), informing all that the Vedas find their culmination in the thought of the Upanishads. For this reason, the Vedas and Upanishads, collectively known as the Vedas, form the core of Hindu religion. The Upanishads expanded on the monist framework and their terminology became more abstract, though not completely divorced from the earlier Vedas. "All Upanishads start with a prayer, - prayer to the guardians of the quarters, the deities or the manifestations of God, who rule the whole of creation, that we be blessed with health and understanding in order to go into the secrets of the Upanishads, to meditate upon them and to realise the Truth proclaimed in them" (see external link: "Divine Life Society"). "Om. That supreme Brahman is infinite, and this conditioned Brahman is infinite. The infinite proceeds from infinite. Then through knowledge, realizing the infinitude of the infinite, it remains as infinite alone." (Mandukya Upanishad)

The Hindu prayer Aum

Hindus believe that Aum is the enigmatic, universal, divine sound. It is said to represent everything from the three (and ultimate fourth transcending) states of consciousness to the Trinity of Hinduism. It is analogous to the concept of the "word of God," but seems to transcend it by maintaining that everything emanates from Aum, exists in Aum, and ends in Aum. It is known as the pranava or root mantra of Hinduism. Included in all prayers, from the Vedas and onwards, regardless of the nature of the prayer, it is the ultimate self-contained prayer for the Hindu mind. Many sages of the Hindu tradition claimed (and still do) that if nothing else, the lover of God could pray through that one sound alone. The Upanishads define it in depth, and one such definition is as follows.

Bhakti Yoga, or the Yoga of Devotion

Described in the Bhagavad Gita (a sacred Hindu and Yoga scripture from sometime between 500 to 200 BCE), Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion. On Bhakti Yoga: ";.... those who, renouncing all actions in Me, and regarding Me as the Supreme, worship Me... of those whose thoughts have entered into Me, I am soon the deliverer from the ocean of death and transmigration, Arjuna. Keep your mind on Me alone, your intellect on Me. Thus you shall dwell in Me hereafter." (B.G., Chapter 12, Verses 6-8). It is essentially the process of enlightenment found through worship of God, in whatever form one envisions. Prayer is achieved through pooja (worship) done either at the family shrine or a local temple. We can see from Krishna's injunction that prayer is fundamental to Hinduism, that to dwell constantly on God is key to enlightenment. Prayer repetition (through mantras) using maalaas (Hindu prayer beads) are a strong part of Hinduism.

Hindus in India have numerous devotional movements. Stemming from the highest Creator God called Brahman, prayer is focused on His many manifestations, including primarily Shiva and Vishnu. Some other extremely popular deities are the Lords Krishna and Rama (incarnations of Vishnu), Ma Kali (Mother Kali, the feminine deity, or Mother Goddess, aka Durga, Parvati, Shakti, etc.) and Lord Ganesh (the famous elephant-headed God of wisdom). It is epitomised by the devotion of the monkey God Hanuman for his Lord Rama. Another major form of prayer for Hindus involves a heavy focus on meditation, through Hindu yoga that stills the mind in order to focus on God. [See Yoga for more on how yoga is a part of Hindu prayer ritual.]