Part I

SCA 901-925. Every year at Christmas time, Sri Chinmoy and his disciples spend about two months visiting two or three different countries. All of the questions in this book were answered during the December 1999-January 2000 Christmas trip.

Question: If we pray for our grandparents who died long ago, do our prayers help them in their new incarnation?²

Sri Chinmoy: It definitely does help if you pray for your parents or grandparents who are no longer in the physical. But your prayer has to be very, very sincere and intense. It is not enough to pray for just one day and not for the rest of the year.

Suppose your mother passed away long ago. If a sweet incident comes to your mind, you can pray to God, “Wherever my mother’s soul is, please bless her, bless her.” But again, your prayer will be nullified if you remember that one day she struck you very hard or that she was not an affectionate mother. If you want your prayer to be effective, do not see the negative side of your mother at all.

On the physical plane, when you desire something from a friend, because that friend is earthbound and you are earthbound, there can be some clash between your desire and your friend’s fulfilment of that desire. You expect something, but doubt may come into your mind whether he or she will be nice to you. Your mind may be telling you, “Oh, perhaps he will not give me what I want. A few years ago I asked him for something and he was very stingy.” Always doubt is coming forward.

But when you pray to God for the departed souls, this kind of doubt has no foundation because the departed souls do not have the mind. They only deal with the soul. They receive from you the sincerity of your heart, and when God Himself sees the extreme sincerity of your heart, He definitely takes your prayer to the souls of your parents or dear ones who left the body many years ago. They are not receiving your prayer via the mind. They are receiving it with the soul’s light. That light has magnetic power. If your prayer is extremely sincere, then it encounters no obstruction because that person is not in the physical and therefore the mind is not obstructing.

On the physical plane when you are expecting something from someone, you may be thinking how many bad things he has done or how he has not been kind to you. Again, the mind of the person who is receiving your request may be occupied in twenty different directions. Therefore he may not be able to fulfil or perhaps he may not want to fulfil your desire. But you are not expecting anything from your departed ones. You are only trying to offer them your prayer. Your prayer will enter into them as light, peace and bliss.

Definitely you can pray for your departed dear ones. Only think of their good qualities — how affectionate they were, how kind they were. For them to receive your prayer is extremely easy. You are praying for them, but you are not praying to them. You are praying to God. If you are sincere in your prayer, God will take your prayer to your dear ones who are no longer in the physical.