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sciousness in us. To deny and rejecf our body-sense and toassert our Divine Essence, to seek our atonement with theLord of our heart, is the supreme climax of all true prayers.ft is not to ask, to beg for, or to wish to gain something thatis the destination of prayer-as \ /e have just {ound, playeris an invocation-an attempt to call up to express-the higherin us. By rituals, through chanting and singing, throughsurrender and love, through dedication and prostration,through congregational prayers in specially dedicated sanc-tified Temples of God, we learn to give up our lesser natureand assert our nobler and diviner possibilities. By this pro-cess of invocation we experience a new expansion-at firstin passing moments, and soon enough such moments cometo stay with us, rerninding us of our true nature, revivingus from alt our inner conflicts, leading us into an ampler fieldof fuller satisfaction in life.

Now close your eyes-relax your muscles-smile in joy-ous abandon in your mind-and listen-

Asangoham Asangoham Asangoham Punah, Punah-S atchitananda Ro dpoham Ah,amez, ah,amav y ay a.

Unattached am I with my body, unattached am Iwith my mind,

Unattached am I with my intellect, again andagain-

I am of the nature of Pure Consciousness. theAwareness Divine.

Asang oh,am Asang oh,am Asang oham P unah P unah,-S atchitananda Roopoh,am Ahumeu ahamau y ay 0,.

(MAHABHARATA; continued lront Page 20)

The Mahabharata, therefore, is not a mere story of a warfought between two armies. It picturizes an everlasting cos-mic drama. wherein men and women are actors and actresses

. taking sides in the conflict between right and wrong, betweengood and evil, between justice and injustice, and playingtheir own appointed parts. However, the sum and substanceof the epic is that man's real friend and his real enemyare both within him, not outside. They are his higher evolu-tionary tendency and his insatiable desire for sense-gratifica-tion. The Lord advises man to fight and conquer this greatenemy of his and thus regain his lost glory, the pure Self-the Krishna-Consciousness within.

Drcnunrn l, 1967

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-A. Parthasarathy

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