Worshippers

Various Types of Worshippers


In all ages and in all religions, the spiritual aspirants and devotees have given natural expression to their innermost yearnings and noblest sentiments in hymns, psalms, praises and prayers. Sometimes they sing and pray our of the fullness of their hearts, dwelling in exalted moods untouched by cares and wants. But in most cases it is a consciousness of limitations and imperfections, or the sense of misery and helplessness that makes the weary and struggling souls turn to the omnipotent and ever-perfect Being for solace and succour. As Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, four kinds of persons worship God- the distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of enjoyment and the wise. It is natural for the man of spiritual illumination to worship God, to meditate on Him and to speak of His glory out of his overflowing love and devotion. But the case of the others is different. Buffeted by the troubles of life or worried by the consciousness of sin, and realizing the uselessness of human aid, care-worn soul turns to the Devine for safety and protection. The seeker of enjoyments, finding all human efforts fruitless, looks up in his helplessness to God for fulfillment of his desires. The seeker of knowledge may not have any worldly trouble or material desires to disturb him, but he feels in his heart of hearts a soul-hunger, a sense of void or the misery of a limited existence that nothing in the world can remove. His soul yearns for the higher life and in the course of his search he comes to God, the source of peace and blessedness. It is out of dire necessity that all these types of devotees seek the divine help and grace. Thus to them God is a constitutional necessity. And so great is this need that even skeptics in their helplessness and despair have been heard to cry out to the Almighty for solace and support. The so-called agnostic’s prayer- “O God, if there, save my soul, if I have a soul”- however humorous it may sound at first, contains a deep truth that cannot but be recognized by the sympathetic student of religious psychology

From Universal Prayers by Swami Yatiswarananda of Sri Ramakrishana Mutt