Most of us associate prayer with a kind of request to higher powers, or, God for granting us the fulfillment of our desires. The desires are endless. Even before our first desired is fulfilled, the next one crops up. Again we pray for its fulfillment.

While a communication with God is aimed at achieving bliss and peace of mind, the process of asking for gifts as fulfillment of desires makes the seekers all the more restive. The very objective of prayer is defeated.

According to Oho Rajneesh, a prayer is complete surrender to the will of God. It is submitting yourself to live as He pleases. Osho gives a beautiful example to prove his point of complete surrender.

He says living by God’s way is like flowing down stream of a river. You flow with the current. You do not have to make any tiring effort. You just allow yourself to go as the current takes you on. It is like you are floating upon the current and enjoying the effortless flow.

If, on the contrary, you try to swim up stream, against the flow the current, you get tired soon. You cannot continue to swim for an appreciable time. If you persist with your effort to flow against the current, your life may be endangered.

He gives another example. Consider yourself a leaf or a blade of grass. Can you fly against the flow of wind as a tiny leaf or blade of grass? And what if you allowed yourself to be carried along with the drafts of the wind? You fly high, higher and still higher.

Apply this metaphor to the spiritual evolution of man who surrenders himself completely to the will of God.

And those who try to flow against the current ultimately end up like the famous English poet Shelley when he cried in his famous Ode to West Wind:

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
The impulse of thy strength, ---
O lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

For more information about Osho’s teachings visit Osho Rajyoga Meditation Center, C5/44, Safdarjang Development area, New Delhi