Guruhari Param Pujya Pappaji was once seated in the Param building at the old London Jyot. There a haribhakta asked Pappaji whether it is possible for any sadhu to be able to liberate people. Pappaji said that this is only possible by sincere prayers to the Gunatit Sant. Whilst in a state of parbrahm, Pappaji also said that only 5% of prayers reach Him and the rest are floating in the air! Actually Maharaj knows everything as He is the instigator of all events, but He will not answer prayers just like that. Although He will not allow His bhakta any harm, He will prolong the incident and will answer our prayers only when we surrender to Him wholly heartedly and unreservedly.
Often when we are faced with problems we turn to God only as a last resort or/and when we do turn to God we have already let our minds run wild. We analyse what has happened, ask why they have happened, we blame God for our predicament and ultimately we even doubt whether God will protect us. By doing this we in effect push God far away from us. With our minds filled with negative thoughts, it is no surprise that we do not appear to have the necessary power in our prayers. Despite this, some people blame God and say that I pray and do jap all day long but He doesn’t listen to me!
Pappaji says that we meditate on that which is not there, actually all we need do is to meditate totally engrossed in His murti. First we must make our minds calm and equiposed and then lose ourselves in Him.
Eventually we will become tired of our own doubts, our own excuses and demands for our problems to be solved in the way that we want. We finally surrender to Him completely saying, ‘Do as You will, I am Yours’. We know the story of Draupadi when the Kauravas were abusing her. She turned to all the Pandavas but they were unable to protect her. As a last resort, when the situation reached the extreme point, Draupadi turned to Krishna bhagwan. Not only did she turn to God, but she surrendered to Him completely losing herself in Him, and as such God saved her.
No matter how small or horrific the circumstances, with full trust if we pray to the Lord passing the full burden onto Him, and in a state of complete upasana, losing ourselves in Him, we can reach a state of samadhi whereby:
There is no problem,
There is no solution,
There is only Pappaji,
(or there is nothing but the Swaminarayan mantra), then Pappaji will be bound by our refuge in Him and he has no choice but to protect us as per Vachanamrut G I 61. This process is known as satya sankalpa. As per Pappaji’s vachan ‘the impossible can be made possible’. All our prayers will reach God and all our problems will be resolved in the best possible way.
[1] Fragrance of supreme devotion, Section 2, Je nathi enu varnan.