Prayer: A Recurring Theme

The theme of prayer has been coming up quite frequently over the last couple of weekends.  It started off on Saturday the 29 September 2012 with a talk given by my father, Mr Dharam Ramkissoon, at the Redfern Ramayan Mandalee after the Sundarkand recital.

Swami Vimokshananda delivering his talk at the conference

The very next day it was covered by revered Swami Vimokshanandaji Maharaj, President of the Ramakrishna Centre of S.A in his paper titled Prayer in Daily Life – According to the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna at a conference convened by the Sri Sarada Devi Ashram.  Fortunately I don't have to provide  a detailed review of the conference, entitled Hinduism – The Way Forward, as it can be found on Swami Vimokshanandaji Maharaj's blog in a post entitled Meaningful Morning.  Maharaj's talk was also eloquently incorporated by Brother Yogan Naidoo in his blog post Love For Loves Sake Alone.

Finally on Saturday afternoon (6 October 2012), back at Redfern Ramayan Mandalee for their monthly Ramayan recital, whilst reading about Bharat in Chitrakoot, the theme of prayer came up yet again!  This time in addition to judicious references to Swami Vimokshananda's talk (by me), my father mentioned an alternate explanation of the abhaya and varada mudras given by Swami Anubhavananda.

Bharatnatyam dancer portraying Hindu goddess Lakshmi with her characteristic mudrās: abhaya mudra shown with the right hand and varada mudra with the left. (Image from Wikipedia)

Swamiji re-interpreted the abhaya mudra to mean STOP!  Enough asking!  The varada mudra was explained as a warning from God that if even after years of asking you are not satisfied, you will get smacked!

I am left wondering if the continuous appearance of this theme is a message that I need to pray more or just a case of blue car syndrome? To be safe, I rather take it to be the former in case the varada mudra is turned into a smack on the head for not paying attention!