Most of us hold the view that spiritual life as being separate from daily life. We also think that the only way to communicate with and reach God is through prayer. However, life itself can be worship. We can live in this world and perform actions with our thoughts anchored in God, rather than thinking of worship as something that must be done in the morning or before we sleep at night.
It is not right to neglect responsibility and worldly duties for the sake of prayer. Attending to our day-to-day work is as important as taking the name of God. If we live our day-to-day life with God consciousness, worship becomes a part of us, and our actions become a form of prayer. By offering all that we do to the Supreme, all our actions become the work of God. Mahatma Gandhi devoted himself to service of God, making himself a humble servant of God and society. For those who carry out their work with a sense of duty, honesty and energy, sleep is blissfulness, soul is the reflection of the Devine, body a temple and speech is as good as a hymn.
If work and taking the name of God are of equal importance, why then should spiritual life be separate from routine life? Rather, daily activities should be converted into dedication, because life is itself worship. Many people make a temple in their homes by designating a special place where they sit and pray or perform rituals in front of deities. This is good, of course. However, why not extend the concept and make the entire home a temple? By taking each person that lives with us to be God’s child, loving and treating one another with compassion, God will be living in our home.
When immersed in prayer, let us not ignore family; let us not ignore the needs of our children. Yes, it is good to be absorbed in the name of God and praise, but let us remember there are no conditions or rules to worship God. We must also give respect to those around us. If your children want to be taken somewhere, then take them for an outing; take them to the cinema, even if it might be in the midst of your prayers. And there is nothing wrong in watching films, those that expose us to good culture and values.
Being conscious of the presence of God in whatever we do, by remembering him, we will eliminate the ego; we will not take credit for whatsoever is good, nor will we blame God or fate for that which goes wrong. Our work will then have the impact of divine energy. The same way as hair and nails, separated from the body, becomes waste, worship that is separate from and does not conform to ordinary life is also a waste. Hence there is no need to forsake worldly things, to forsake our duties in order to worship the Lord. Rather, let us surrender our actions, our thoughts and our possessions to Him, in such a way that our entire life becomes a form of prayer.
