How to Pray by yourselves at a place of your convenience?

Comfortably seat yourselves in Baba’s presence, mentally or visually.  The preferred seating is Yoga style of seating. If you are medically or physically challenged, please grab a chair for seating for the session or go somewhere that is quiet where you can get alone with Baba. Have faith and patience in your prayer to Baba.

Set a duration of desired minutes for each step of the prayer cycle

Track this duration: You can do this by set a repeating an alarm for the chosen duration or just keep an eye on a clock. Another idea is to make a playlist with 12 of your favorite instrumental or worship songs (Mantras or Bhajans) that are about 5 minutes each. Traditional method involves using a prayer bead (Rudraaksha Maala) or counting breath cycles.

Start at the first step marked “START HERE” in the prayer cycle chart.

1. Sanctify your heart and Mind:  During this step, one should keep away all distractions and impure thoughts that may disturb the prayer cycle.  Invoke blessings of Shri Ganapati, the lord of obstacles, with a prayer to remove all obstacles during this prayer cycle.  Make a firm resolve to complete all the steps without distractions.  Identify who the beneficiary or beneficiaries are for the purpose of this prayer cycle. Focus on Baba’s form.  Remember Baba’s aphorism, “If you look to Me, I look to You.”
2. Offer and Praise: During this step offer a candle, fruits/flowers or a Namaskar (mental bow) with pure heart, as convenient.  Recite or read 108 glorious names of Sai Baba or praise Baba. If you’re not sure what you can praise him for, then praise him for whatever you’re thinking about right now. You can also praise Him for something special he did in your life last week or for his goodness to your family. There are many things we can praise Baba for.
3. Silently Communicate:  Silently gather your thoughts and request Baba to speak to your heart. If you desire, have a pen and paper ready so you can write down anything that comes from Him. Mentally Communicate sorrow or happiness. Ask Baba to reveal to you any behavior, habit, practice, attitude, etc. that could be displeasing to Him. Ask Him to point them out and also consider asking for things you haven’t ever asked.
4. Read Sacred Texts: Invest some time in reading “Shri Sai Satcharitra”, the life and teachings of Baba. The Hymns, the lives of prophets, saints, sages and fakir or passages from sacred texts that talk about prayer can be a good place to start.
5. Ask Baba for your wishes and the things you have in your heart. and mind.
6. Ask Baba for other people that are in your heart and mind.
7. Prarthana, meditate:  Pray specific parts of the Satcharitra or passages from Shri Guru Bhagavat. Sections in Shri Sai Satcharitra and Shri Guru Bhagavat are very useful for this type of prayer. Other people’s prayers that appear in the various Sacred texts and the Hymns can be a good starting point.  Monitor your thoughts.  Analyze their flow without reacting. Stay calm and focused as thoughts cross your mind. Interject to bring Baba’s form back to your mind, if the focus moves away and meditate.
8. Listen closely(reflect):  Waiting on Baba is important.  Be still and silent and let Him pull together reflections for you.
9. Seek forgiveness and Grace:  Seek forgiveness for the sins committed knowingly or unknowingly.  It is quite difficult to keep track of the actions we perform and results thereof. Due to the complexity, we can be sure that some of our actions will be imperfect resulting in some sort of undesired karma.  Seeking forgiveness is one way to absolve from such karma.
10. Offer Thanks to Baba : Thanksgiving is an important part of prayer. If you don’t know what you can, give thanks to Baba for being part of your life, on behalf of your friends, family and Mandir. Seek Baba’s grace.
11. Bid good bye (with heartfelt namaskar): This is a good point to sing bhajans, mantra or arathi tunes that you know. “Thubyam Namami Sainatha” by Dr. C. B. Satpathy ji is often used by devotees around the world. Raham Nazar Karna and Raham Nazar Karo are all time favorites.  You can also perform chamar seva, cleaning the hall or some other seva.  Finally, before you end the session, offer Saashtang Namaskar if you can and seek permission from Baba to end the prayer cycle. 

Have a question regarding prayer cycle, please email or contact us