| MdW:
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What is prayer? What is your definition of prayer?
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| CS:
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Prayer is a conversation with yourself or
God – whatever your concept of Her, Him or
It might be.
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| MdW: |
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Why do people pray?
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| CS:
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Humans innately seek something beyond their
mundane selves. So we pray to make ‘contact’
with whatever our concept of that is. We
pray particularly when we’re in trouble,
want guidance, want to say ‘thank you.’
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| MdW: |
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Can one expect an outcome from
prayer? Does prayer work – if so why?
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| CS:
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One can certainly expect an outcome from
prayer. But it may not be the outcome you
expect or want. Like a good parent, the
universe or God (whatever your concept of
Her or Him or It may be) will, I believe,
give you what you need (which may be
suffering for growth) and not what you want
– which is usually the absence of
suffering, hardship, trials and the like.
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| MdW:
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How does intent relate to prayer?
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| CS:
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Jesus said “The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much.” So it’s got to be a prayer that’s
very specific in its intention or desired
outcome (effective). It needs to have
intensity and yearning (fervent). Your
motive needs to be pure, unselfish or ‘good’ (righteous). Then it has the concentration
power to make it produce results. If it’s
unfocused, vague and not serious in intent,
it won’t generate the energy required for
a result.
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| MdW:
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Is there a place for prayer in business?
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| CS:
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Emphatically! Business is part of
our lives or a ‘compartment’ of our
lives. What works after-hours works during
working hours as well! Touching base with
God or the Universe or the Higher Self a few
times during the day makes us much nicer
colleagues. It means we’re not forgetting
what’s really important in life.
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| MdW:
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Do you say prayers for business reasons?
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| CS:
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Why ever not? If you pray for
your child’s exam success (provided the
blighter has done the studying) there’s no
problem with an intention for a successful
business.
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| MdW:
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What is the junction of spirit and business?
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| CS:
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There shouldn’t be a junction!
If they’re seamless, they work best. There
shouldn’t be a separation between
spirituality, prayer and any of the aspects
of our lives. We should live in an
integrated, congruent manner.
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| MdW:
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Are businesses becoming more spiritual or
more conscious – if so why?
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| CS:
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Businesses are not ‘things.’
They’re made up of people. People are
without doubt becoming more conscious of the
need for their spiritual component to
permeate the workplace as well. This is not
suppositional or anecdotal. I see it in the
work I do all the time. People ask questions
they would never have asked five years ago.
And hey, a guy in a Sasolburg conference
asked me to comment on reincarnation. You
could have knocked me over with a feather!
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| MdW:
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Would you advise people to use prayer in
business – if so why?
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| CS:
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Yes. When we’re in a truly
prayerful state, we’re in an Alpha mind
state. Generating hemispheric
synchronization at between 8 and 12 cycles
or Hertz per second. It’s a state of
optimal creativity and resourcefulness. It’s
also scientifically proven to be restful,
healing and therapeutic. So when we learn to
get into a prayer state at will, it can only
benefit whatever we’re doing in business.
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| MdW: |
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Have you had any interesting experiences
regarding the power of prayer? |
| CS: |
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Numerous. Perhaps the most
powerful was when my best friend, aged 31,
was dying from lymphatic cancer. The night
before her passing, she was in great
physical pain. I was exhausted from all the
emotional support I’d been giving her. I
took her one hand in mine and with the other
(in my mind)
held my spiritual preceptor’s hand,
thinking, “Please do something to help
her.” At that exact instant, she said, “Hmm.
It feels just like Swamiji’s holding my
hand.” |
| MdW: |
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Who (in your spiritual beliefs) hears our
prayers? |
| CS: |
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The universal consciousness –
which is ‘alive,’ vibrant and never
sleeps. At a higher level of understanding,
it is we who pray and we who answer the
prayer. |
| MdW: |
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Why – traditionally – have
corporations sought to exclude spirituality
or prayer from business? |
| CS: |
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Because they’ve had difficulty
– as have many individuals and
organizations – in separating ‘religion’
from the concept of spirituality. With
religion, you can ‘live’ in a church,
temple, mosque, shul or shrine – and still
be a demon. With spirituality (respect for
all levels of consciousness) you may never
have been in any of them and yet be a saint. |
| MdW: |
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Why – traditionally – is
business almost exclusively concerned with
the business of making money? |
| CS: |
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Because that’s the role of
business - to make money. Good and
insightful businesses also invest in people
and communities. But that’s not their
prime role. |
| MdW: |
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What role does religious and
spiritual diversity bring to bear regarding
the above? |
| CS: |
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Organizations that are respectful
of diversity will be spiritual
organizations. If they understand the
healing role of spirituality in their
people, they’ll actively encourage it. |
| MdW: |
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Is prayer connected to religion
– if so how? |
| CS: |
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Prayer is the universal language
of spirituality. Whether spoken, as thought,
as meditation, solo or in groups. It may be
a communing with nature or animals. It may
be a sense of connectedness. It doesn’t
have to be linguistic and it doesn’t have
to be religious. |
| MdW: |
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What other things would you like
to tell me about prayer in business? |
| CS: |
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People who pray have a sense of
higher purpose in their lives, lower stress
levels, better immune system function, lower
levels of anger, higher levels of
self-esteem, heal quicker, suffer less
depression and if they do, recover from it
quicker than those who don’t pray. All of
this has been the subject of some
well-validated medical and psychological
research projects and is well documented. |
| MdW: |
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Any other thoughts? |
| CS: |
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Yes. If we don’t get out of bed
in the morning with a sense of why we’re
on this planet and what we’re going to be
doing and how we’re going to do it, we’ll
at some point – guaranteed – slide into
a clinical depression. The single most
important dimension of the human being has
to be the spiritual component. If we resist
the spiritual development process, nature
and circumstances will force us, kicking and
screaming, into the learning experience. If
you want to know if you’re living a
spiritual life, two thoughts:
“If you can get to the end of a day and
say, ‘Today I have grown a little more in
love and compassion,’ you are living a
spiritual life. If you get to the end of a
day and you can’t say, ‘Today I have
grown a little more in love and compassion,’
you are not living a spiritual life.” –
The Dalai Lama of Tibet.
“God will not forgive you if you are
bluffing. He is the One who hears the
heartbeat of the ant. Do you mean to say He
does not know what you are saying and doing?”
– My Spiritual Preceptor and best friend,
Swami Shivapadananda. |
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