THE SCIENCE BEHIND PRAYER AND MEDITATION

Most of us pray and many would have experienced the positive effect of prayer at some point of time in our lives. But wouldn’t you like to know that how does it work? You must understand the science behind it because once we understand this, we shall be able to make prayer even more effective. Let’s begin, but before that a few questions?

Why is it that we are able to pray more effectively in a place of worship? Why is that prayer is considered most effective during dusk and dawn time? Why is it that we profoundly relish the taste of food served in Lungar (community food served in a place of worship), even if it is bland (no offense meant) which we would surely criticize, if served at a restaurant and even at our home?

***This post is an extract from the book THE ROOT CAUSE- Ayurveda, Astrology and beyond for a blissful life”. To pick up a copy of the book, please click the link/s mentioned at the end of this post ⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓

The reason is that just before entering such places of worship, because of the piousness attached to the place/event, our mind begins to slow down at the subconscious level. By slow, it means that the pitta of our brain (Ayurvedic term representing firing of nerves in our brain or say current in the brain) begins to drop.

****Watch this video to understand Pitta and other forces of Ayurveda

And since pitta is the one that relays information from one cell to another like the processor of a computer, our ability to over-analyze this world and things around too, drops significantly. Once analysis reduces, the criticism coming from the subconscious mind too ceases to exist and in absence of criticism, we begin loving people and everything around unconditionally. It is this feeling of zero or low analysis that is called as total surrender when we are just engrossed.

What further helps is the quietness of the place courtesy faith and devotion with which not just us but everyone else too, enters the place, thus exponentially enhancing the collective conscience of the place to a total surrender. Sound of the bell further cuts off all the external noise reaching the brain, helping one to reach this quietness quicker. Since dusk and dawn are the quietest times of the day, praying in such an atmosphere (when ambient noise, which increases pitta of the mind, is very low), helps to calm down the mind to reach this state of total surrender.

Thus, prayer is a state of mind when it is so low on pitta that nothing distracts you from your goal.  Exactly a similar phenomenon takes place in our brain when we are meditating. During the normal course of day, our brain’s pitta operates at a speed of around 400 cycles per second (cps) but when we meditate or pray, this pitta goes down to as low as 4 cps. This drop in pitta helps us to sub-consciously carry out introspection and thus making corrections in our routine transactions, to navigate our life better for correcting our course and staying on it. In a way through prayer and meditation, we are able to connect with our higher self which is pure conscience. It’s not that meditation or prayer solve all our problems directly but slowing down the mind helps us to convert the information that we acquire in our day today life, into knowledge because only a silent mind can have a bird eye view of the pool of information and then can connect various dots in this pool to extract knowledge out of it.

From a spiritual angle (in fact more from occult science perspective), it is said that prayers helps us to connect to the higher beings/world and that is why it is said that while praying one should not only look for a quiet place but should also maintain hygiene of self as well as that of environment around to invoke them. To understand science behind spirituality, please check out blogs on astrology (click here to go to the first blog  on astrology).