This simple method of prayer and meditation introduces one to spiritual pursuit. This method is as universal as the goal itself and its origin is traced back to the sages of the glorious past. It prepares the aspirant for initiation into the grand path of the truth.
Light a lamp or a candle. Sit erect on a chair or over a plank at a distance of five feet from the lighted candle. Position the Flame of the candle at eye level. Steady your mind and look at the Flame, without batting your eyelids. Invite the Flame into you: Oh Flame! Come, enter me! Then close your eyes and start looking at the Flame with your inner eye. Keeping your eyes closed imagine the Flame entering through your mouth and let it alight on your tongue. Let the light of the Flame spread over your tongue, palate and uvula. Then pray: "Oh beloved Flame! Purify me. Burn away untruth. Henceforth, let the words that come from me be good". Plead thus to the Flame for about two minutes. Then imagine that the Flame travels down, to your throat. See with your inner eye, the throat illuminated by the Flame. This region is a nerve plexus. Then pray: "Oh beloved Flame! Purify me. Burn away untruth". Pray thus to the Flame for about two minutes.
Then imagine the Flame moving down to the center of the thoracic cavity (rib cage). Let the light from the Flame penetrate through your heart and other organs, dispelling darkness. Then pray: "Oh beloved Flame!, purify me. Burn away untruth and sublimate my emotions". Then allow the Flame to slide down to the center of your stomach into the region behind the naval. Then pray "oh beloved Flame!, purify me. Burn away untruth. Let all my strength be used in the right way". Then imagine the Flame engulfs the inner side of the stomach. Retain the Flame here for two minutes. Then bring it down to the region between the pelvic bones (a little above the sex organs). Retain the Flame there for two minutes and then pray: "Oh beloved Flame! purify me. Burn away untruth. Dispel darkness". Then bring the Flame down to your Mooladhara, the first of the six chakras. Sit erect and imagine a vertical line plunging down from the central point of your head, to the ground piercing through the middle of your trunk. That last portion of your body through which the straight line traverses before touching the ground is the Mooladhara Chakra. Imagine the light from the Flame spreading all over this region. Then pray: "Oh beloved Flame! purify me. Burn away untruth. Make me as immaculate as you are. Do away with Vasanas(tendencies) I have accumulated".
Then move the flame up slowly through the spinal column. Stop the Flame at the nape of your neck for two minutes. Then pray: "Oh beloved Flame! Purify me. Burn away untruth". Then bring the Flame between your eyebrows. Retain it there for two minutes and then pray: "Oh beloved Flame! Purify me. Burn away untruth". Then bring the Flame to the center of your skull (cranium) and then pray: "Oh beloved Flame! Purify me. Enlighten me".
Then imagine the Flame to come out of your body from the top of your skull. Retain it four to five inches above your head for two minutes. Meditate on the Flame. Imagine the Flame becoming big enough to engulf the whole of your body. Sit within the Flame for sometime in silence and peace. Go to Next Article
