Prayer and Aspiration, Part 2

For a spiritual seeker, there is a major difference with regard to prayer and aspiration. Prayer is, generally, and in many cases, a more formalized, external activity, primarily based in the outer nature. Aspiration is centered in the soul, or psychic being, and represents the spiritual flame that motivates the seeker to practice his spiritual path. The Mother provides clarity on the differences between the two, as well as between different types of prayer that the seeker may utilize. She distinguishes between prayer that is, at its basis, egoistic and self-centred in nature and prayer that is an expression of the psychic aspiration, taking the form of non-selfish aims and expressing gratitude and devotion.

The Mother observes: “For instance, if you have done something you regret having done, if that has unhappy consequences which disturb things, and several people are implicated, you do not know the reactions of the others, but you yourself wish that what has been done may take a turn for the best, and that if there is a mistake, it may be understood, and that no matter what the mistake, this may be for you an opportunity for a greater progress, a greater discipline, a new ascent towards the Divine, a door open on a future that you want to be more clear and true and intense; so all this is gathered here (pointing to the heart) like a force, and then it surges up and rises in a great movement of ascent, and at times without the shadow of a formulation, without words, without expression, but like a springing flame.”

“That indeed is true aspiration. That may happen a hundred, a thousand times daily if one is in that state in which one constantly wants to progress and be more true and more fully in harmony with what the Divine Will wants of us.”

“Prayer is a much more external thing, generally about a precise fact, and always formulated for it is the formula that makes the prayer. One may have an aspiration and transcribe it as a prayer, but aspiration goes beyond prayer in every way. It is much closer and much more as it were self-forgetful, living only in the thing one wants to be or do, and the offering of all that one wants to do to the Divine. You may pray in order to ask for something, you may also pray to thank the Divine for what He has given you, and that prayer is much greater: it may be called an act of thanksgiving. You may pray in gratitude for the aspect of kindness the Divine has shown you, for what He has done for you, for what you see in Him, and the praise you want to offer Him. And all this may take the form of a prayer. It is decidedly the highest prayer, for it is not exclusively preoccupied with oneself, it is not an egoistic prayer.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter IX Aspiration and Prayer pp. 85-86