Ideal language to communicate with God

Padmasrinivas · Nov 10, 2008

Cheeniya Sir,

It has been sometime since I visited IL in a leisurely manner, just had time for a quick peek to look up new threads and posts, but I never miss a chance to look for your posts as they are very though-provoking and really make my grey-cells tick! This thread was started by you in April 2007, and many meaningful replies later, I saw a renewal of the thread, so I decided to put in my two-pennies worth.
I reiterate the general opinion that the language of the heart is enough to convey our thoughts, wishes, desires, demands…. She knows our prayers even before we think of putting them imto words, after all She is the one who put these thoughts in our minds. (I strongly believe in Prarabdha karma and that we can change the course of our lives by offering our sincere prayers to Her).

But I’m digressing here. The ideal language to communicate with God? I immediately said’ Sanskrit’. On reflection, ‘I am not talking to Her in Sanskrit, I’m just chanting some shlokas composed in Her praise by Shankara or from the Hayagriva-Agasthya samvadam Does this actually qualify as a tête-à-tête or personal communication?’ Well, I can only understand some of the Sanskrit shlokas. Yes, most of the time I talk to Her in Tamizh. (In fact a Guruji I met at a friend’s place advised the gathering to demand whatever one desired instead of just asking for it). I rarely speak to Her in English but when we discuss some point during Satsanghs, one does talk about Her in English, knowing fully well that She understands every word. Whenever we go to the temple, for the life of me I cannot ask Her for anything, I just stand in front of Her as though mesmerised. Even so, She has granted my wishes.

My final word is that it is silent communion that is the ideal language to communicate with God.

Padma

iyerviji · Nov 10, 2008

Dear Cheeniya Sir.

Language of the heart is the best. My elder brother in law's
son from childhood he speaks in hindi only. When he was five
years old he was saying prayers in tamil. I asked him otherwise
u talk in hindi only but now how is that u are saying your
prayer in tamil. He was telling me because God does not
understand Hindi. Since we talk in tamil he thinks God also
knows only tamil. It shows the state of a child's mind. I
communicate with Him in tamil.

with regards
viji

Cheeniya · Nov 11, 2008

Dear Padma
Thanks a lot for your generous compliment about my threads.
Most of us follow the same routine as you do while interacting with the Almighty. He is the greatest linguist of the Universe and besides the languages of the humans, He is very fluent even in the languages of the lesser beings. Remember how He rushed to pull Gajendra from the jaws of death when the elephant trumpeted for Him? I have witnessed the early morning ritual in Srirangam when an elephant is brought before Sri Ranganatha and it is so thrilling to witness the elephant saluting the Lord and trumpeting soulfully. This ritual always reminds me of Gajendra Moksha.

But I do agree with you that silence is the best way to communicate with Him at least for one reason. We can avoid the situation like what Kumbakarna had when the Lord manifested before him. In his excitement, he asked for Nidratvam (sleep) instead of Nirdevathvam (complete destruction of Devas) and that is how he had to spend half of his life sleeping! It is much safer to leave to Him to decide what we should have!
Sri

Cheeniya · Nov 11, 2008

Dear Viji
That answer of the child is indeed disarmingly adorable. Children have their own perception of God but as they grow older, it undergoes a lot of change. God has a special place for children in His scheme of things. His dealings with Dhruva, Prahlad and Markandeya are ample proof of this. The unfaltering faith of children is truly worthy of emulation. Actually there is no need to ask God for anything because even without it, He knows what to give us and when. Frustration sets in only when we make unreasonable demands on Him. We are all like infants before Him. The mother never waits for her new born to ask anything and she goes about giving the child only what needs to be given.
Sri

ojaantrik · Jan 22, 2009

Dear Sri:

What a fascinating end! You managed to silence me too for several minutes, till my garrulous propensities got the upper hand. I began to think and talk. Can we take off from here, I asked myself quite audibly, and carry on your arguments to the world of mortals? We do not have God's linguistic capabilities for sure. But, given that God made man in his own image (or so they say), it is just likely that some humans too would prefer silence as the language of praise. Especially so when the praise is addressed to themselves.

Having said so, I have second thoughts. It's always this way. I can never settle an issue in one go. My brain tissues, you know! Not so sturdy. Well the second thought concerns the source of the praise, rather than the destination. In my experience, there are two kinds of people. One kind showers praises on themselves. The second kind showers praises on others.

One should have expected that the first kind might use the language of silence to accomplish its task. That being the most efficient way of telling itself what it thinks of itself. But normally, this doesn't appear to happen.

We have of course Oscar Wilde's famous quote that he had nothing to declare but his genius. This self praise falls in the golden category I should think, since it managed to attract lavish praise from others.

But there are others too. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have been interacting with politicians for sometime now and some even suspect that I have secret ambitions in that direction. I have noticed that they are particularly vociferous when it comes to self-praise on camera. And then I have often been sandwiched between two politicians yelling at each other in self-praise, pathetically waiting for my chance to praise them both for the strength of their vocal chords.

On the other hand, when it's one man's praise for another, some of the recepients tend to withdraw from the hullabaloo, behaving thereby like Gods. Some don't too. One's not exactly sure about these guys.

All the best friend.

oj

Cheeniya · Jan 23, 2009

Dear oj
The rules of the game are the same for all, be they gods or humans! According to scriptures, the system of rewards and punishments as applicable to the humans are applicable to gods too. This shows that gods are as likely to be incorrigible as humans.
I can,therefore, see the point that you are making.

You write " But, given that God made man in his own image (or so they say), it is just likely that some humans too would prefer silence as the language of praise" and I can't agree with you more. But I would like to ramble further on one aspect of what you have surmised. I should think that the gods may not indulge in self-praise as much as we the humans are prone to do. The reason for this is not far to seek. Gods have millions of people to praise them incessantly either for love of the gods or to seek some favour or other from them. But we are not so favourably placed. A few may be in such positions as may bring them praise from others but most of us keep our doors open for others to come and praise us but in vain. So humans have a greater tendency to praise themselves than gods.

The only effective way to arrest this trend is to praise others before they start praising themselves.If they do it themselves, there will be no stopping them but when we praise them, we can draw a line somewhere!
Sri

Viswamitra · Mar 26, 2012

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

Thank you for this remarkable post regarding the language to be used to communicate with God. I agree that God is multilingual. We can feel free to communicate either in Sanskrit or Tamil or any other language that we feel comfortable. But the real question is what is effective language. Silence is the language that God understands even better. If we give a deep look right into the eyes of God, think deeply about the problems and tell Him that our problems are really not ours but His, He listens to it right away. That is time-tested strategy by the humanity. There is one group that God showers His Grace without them asking anything from Him. They are physically and mentally challenged humans, those who devote their life entirely for the welfare of the humanity like Mother Teresa and many other noble souls, helpless elders, orphaned children, animals, birds, insects, worms, plants and so on.

To be honest with you, I believe one language that God understands and responds without fail is the language of unconditional love. When we shower our unconditional love to Him, he showers unconditional Grace to us. If we make one step towards him, He makes ten steps towards us. Particularly, if someone who devotes his or her entire life for the welfare of the humanity and serve the fellow beings like a servant for the humanity, God is ready and willing to be a servant to such a Yogi.

I heard one of the Gurus speech in Standford University in You Tube video. He said, "God gives the gift of life for us to work towards our salvation. We need to be ever grateful to Him for such an opportunity. How do we show our gratitude towards Him? What would be the best way to show the highest level of gratitude? We need to surrender what He gave to us and ask Him to use it as an instrument to serve His creations."

My favorite quote is given below:

There is only one Caste, the Caste of Humanity;
There is only one Religion, the Religion of Love;
There is only one Language, the Language of the Heart;
There is only One God, and He is Omnipresent

Personally, being a person who has not achieved that kind of maturity in life, my goals are practical. They are a) not to hurt anyone, b) help other fellow beings whenever an opportunity is presented, c) shower love to animals, birds, insects and plants, d) keep removing my bad qualities that hurt my mind much and e) pray to God only to praise the Lord and write a letter and keep it in the alter, if I need His intervention for a specific problem.

I have realized that mostly the problems get enhanced in my mind and when I write a letter, I pour my feelings and hence my mind becomes lighter and gets ready to make a sincere effort to solve the real problem with Divine help.

Viswa

shyamala1234 · Mar 26, 2012

Dear Sri,

Nice one.

If I have to simply pray not asking for anything I would do it with Sanskrit slokas etc. For asking something I do it in Telugu. But silence is the best. God knows what we want. Mind still....absolute silence is the best.....if we can do that.Mind wanders here and there for a while then, comes back.

Cheeniya · Mar 28, 2012

Dear Viswa
How can we come to the conclusion that silence is the language that God understands better? How can we limit God's ability to understand within the confines of our own reasoning? Did He not come to the rescue of Draupathi when she called for Him in a heart-wrenching shout? Did He not save the hapless Gajendra from the jaws of death when he cried for the Lord? Scriptures are full of instances of prayers uttered aloud being answered. What is important is the degree of faith we place in our prayers and not their decibel level.

It is my humble opinion that when we sit for our daily prayers, it does not have to be a long and ritualistic one. It should be one in which all our five senses remain focused on Him as the great MSS sings in 'Vadavaraiyai mathakki' What matters is the utter sincerity and utter faith. The rest hardly matters.
Sri

Cheeniya · Mar 28, 2012

Dear Syamala
God knows what we want without our having to ask for it and more importantly He will give us only what is good for us and not whatever we ask for. Will a mother give the child an atom bomb merely because he desperately asks for it?
Sri