Like most people, I was conditioned to believe that there is a God who decides on right and wrong. When you are right, a God will answer your prayers, and when you’re wrong – until you seek forgiveness – no one will pay heed to your prayers.
On these lines, every waking moment in circa 1999 and 2000, I prayed. I prayed to God to forgive me for every sin/ mistake I may have committed, knowingly or unknowingly. I prayed to God to heal my mother. Instead, what happened was the exact opposite. And so, 15 years of conditioning went down the drain.
Since then, I prayed to God to grant me the strength to go through difficult times. There was no point in praying to avoid difficult times or praying for a generous grant of my wishes. Life would keep throwing curveballs, and what I could pray for was the resilience to deal with them. This was going to be the approach for the next 20 years.
For the past few months, I’ve been toying with the logic behind these approaches. Somewhere, something felt amiss. It took me weeks to put my finger on it. During one of my journaling sessions, I was able to figure out their origins faintly. It occurred to me that both these approaches took roots from a principle of scarcity. It is as though there is a scarcity of grants and you’re trying to make sure that you’re the first in line to have your wish granted.
What if we take the opposite approach?
One of infinite abundance?
A prayer of thanks?
For everything that we have been granted, and for everything that we will be blessed in the future?
By offering a prayer of thanks and abundance, we are crossing a bridge. From the banks of ‘if it is possible‘ to the banks of ‘when it is possible‘.
I believe that in abundance, there is space for everything and happiness for everyone.
Cover Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
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