Meditation and prayer

Sri Chinmoy writes -

Our prayer gives us a peaceful life. Our meditation gives us a beautiful heart.

The best definition of prayer is to practise it daily. The best definition of meditation is to experience it soulfully. Prayer rises; meditation spreads. Prayer intensifies our intimacy with the Supreme, whereas meditation increases our oneness with the Supreme.

Prayer -

I pray. Why do I pray? I pray because I need God. When I pray, I think that God is high above me, above my head.

Prayer is purity. It purifies the mind, which is always subject to doubt, fear, worry and anxiety, and is always assailed by wrong thoughts and wrong movements. When we pray, purification takes place in our minds, and purity increases our God-receptivity. In fact, purity is nothing short of God-receptivity. Each time we pray, our inner receptacle becomes large, larger, largest. Then purity, beauty, light and delight can enter into that receptacle and sport together in the inmost recesses of our heart.

Prayer is something absolutely intense and upward-soaring. When we pray, we feel that our existence is a one-pointed flame soaring upward. From the soles of our feet to the crown of our head, our whole being is invoking and calling upwards. The very nature of prayer is to reach God by going up.

Meditation -

Why do I meditate? I meditate because God needs me. When I meditate, I feel that God is deep inside me, inside my heart.

Meditation is luminosity. It illumines our heart. When illumination takes place in our heart, insecurity and the sense of want disappear. At that time we sing the song of inseparable oneness with the Universal Consciousness and Transcendental Consciousness. When our heart is illumined, the finite in us enters into the Infinite and becomes the Infinite itself. The bondage of millennia leaves us, and the freedom of infinite Truth and Light welcomes us.

Meditation is something wide and vast that ultimately expands into the Infinite. When we meditate, we throw ourselves into a vast expanse, into an infinite sea of peace and bliss, or we welcome the infinite Vast into us. Meditation is constantly growing and expanding into peace, light and delight. When we meditate, we gradually see, feel and grow into the entire universe of light and delight.