OSWALD PEREIRA calls for an interfaith, collective prayer war, followed by practical, radical measures to annihilate Covid-19
Let us all as Indians get together and declare a war against our common dastardly enemy ― Covid-19. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Jews, Zoroastrians and other communities should shed their religious differences, unite and fight the enemy jointly. Our weapon is simple but very powerful. It is prayer ― a prayer war.
It is not possible to get together physically in these times of lockdowns, social distancing and Covid-appropriate behaviour. Let’s not even dream of this. It would be sheer folly. Look at the havoc and mayhem our politicians have brought upon us by breaking every Covid protocol in their thirst for power in the recent state elections.
The crowds at election rallies is in no small measure responsible for the severity of the second wave, not to mention a hazardous, gigantic religious meet. Therefore, it becomes all the more sensible to leave politicians and religious showmanship out of the prayer war.
The war can be fought with and within our hearts and souls. It should be a war of unity in prayer. Let us pray for each other and not for ourselves. Hindus should pray for Muslims and other communities. Muslims should pray for Hindus and other communities. Christians for Hindus and other communities and so on and so forth.
Praying for each other and not for ourselves may be one way of understanding other people’s pain and suffering, rather than wallowing in our own misery and dread of the coronavirus.
In other words, we should pray to our God to protect our brothers and sisters who belong to a different faith. Wouldn’t it be nice and beautiful if a Hindu prays to Lord Ram to protect Mustaque, John, Gurbinder, Kaizad and so on from a Covid-19 infection? And similarly a Muslim, Christian, Sikh and those from other religions should pray for their counterparts from other faiths.
In the long run, when Covid-19 is defeated by our united prayer war, followed up by other practical measures, we would have learnt the value of shedding our religious differences. Importantly, politicians who seek to polarise and divide the country to win votes would no more play the Machiavellian game of divide and rule and bite the dust.
Not only will we be a healthy nation free of the coronavirus, but our democracy will be a real, pure democracy ― a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
However, prayer alone will not help. We need to back it up with practical, radical measures to attack the pandemic. Once we are united in hearts and spirit through prayer, we should then be courageous enough to call for action and accountability from those at the helm of affairs in medical institutions and in the central and state governments.
It is not right to indulge in a blame game, but it is not right either to let our leaders get away with not doing their duty and not giving priority to health ― in this case addressing the pandemic on a war footing ― but spending the nation’s time, energy and money on projects that can be set aside in these pandemic times.
Dozens of corpses floating in the Holy Ganga should have raised our ire. But we have become mute spectators because we are scared of the backlash if we ask questions. That may be a bit of digression from the theme of prayer, but it was necessary to awaken our conscience.
Coming back to prayer, there is scientific evidence to prove that it helps us in experiencing better health, physically, mentally and psychologically. Medical and psychological journals have published studies on the positive effects of prayer.
Physician and researcher Larry Dossey in his book Prayer is Good Medicine, analyses how praying for oneself and others can have a scientifically measurable healing effect on illness and trauma.
Discussing the power of prayer and group prayer in an article in huffpost.com, Michelle Roya Rad, a professional psychologist and motivational writer says,
“We need to focus on the unity of humanity as a species, and we need to form and find groups that encourage acceptance, productivity, positivity, accountability, tolerance and emotional and physical health.”
The great yogi Paramahansa Yogananda said: “Most men consider the course of events as natural and inevitable. They little know what radical changes are possible through prayer.”
Oswald Pereira, a senior journalist, has also written eight books, including The Newsroom Mafia, Chaddi Buddies, The Krishna-Christ Connexion, How to Create Miracles in Our Daily Life and Crime Patrol: The Most Thrilling Stories. Oswald is a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, and practises Kriya Yoga.
More Stories by Oswald Pereira
Prayer is the need of the hour.
Unity among us Indians regardless the diversity.
Well written Oswald.
True, Cheryl, prayer and unity is the need of the hour.
True to the spirit of Divinity in the blog, each amongst us have to awaken the mystic as well as the activist within us to deal effectively with the pandemic. Rightly has it been said, the will of the universe works through the people as much as the will of the people has a bearing on the will of the universe.
Faith as much thrills, that much heals, this is my personal realisation in depth. As we were discussing with my father on the context of Ramayana, Rama Rajya remains as an ever realisable possibility when collective faith for upliftment & regeneration of humanity appropriately works.
No time is the best time than a disaster when the Power of Prayer rises to an exponential height so that Divinity descends down to earth to raise the faithful trodden on earth.
Yet, lighting the candle of faith within, (no storm can make which die), we must like a relentless activist get down to work, for that’s the only way Divinity too runs the universe.
Prayer has to be buttressed with a mystic’s insightful delight & a relentless activist’s groundwork to really work. In such a testing time of COVID-19, when every hand is raised up for help, let’s keep each other in the ambit of our prayer so that Divinity pervades all around in the air & dispel the engulfing shadow of the pandemic whose death knell itself is sounding even though faintly from afar!
Baturam Ji, beautifully expressed, “No time is the best time than a disaster when the Power of Prayer rises to an exponential height so that Divinity descends down to earth to raise the faithful trodden on earth.”
Well written, this is how God want’s us to live. Trusting Him, Seeking Him… When we pray we show our dependence on God, who loves to hear his children call out in prayer. Psalm 41:3 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.
Let us pray for one another…
Yes, Melanie, let us pray for one another to empathise with each others sorrow.