Table Of Contents For 'Power Of Prayer' By Raghbir Singh Bir

Foreword To Book 'Power Of Prayer' By Raghbir Singh Bir

No doubt, Waheguru is the creator as well as the preserver of the whole universe. His divine laws are just and fair as well as inexorable. It is also an acknowledged fact that man reaps what he sows. Our deeds determine our achievements. As we sow so shall we reap. We have to bear the consequences of some of the deeds of our earlier lives along with the consequences of our deeds done in this life. Some residual effect of our present day deeds also gets carried away to our next birth and next life. In this way, this cycle of cause and effect continues to operate. There are several illustrations in the Gurbani which substantiate this cause-effect thesis. The Gurbani states that a human soul wastes several lives engrossed in the vices of nursing feelings of enmity, and hostility towards others; and in Just, anger, malice attachment, falsehood, greed, fraud and several other deadly sins and vices. Now, when our soul has taken a human birth, it is our prayer to Waheguru to show His grace, mercy and benevolence to rid us of all these vices Gurbani states:

We pray because we believe, and it is an accepted fact as well that Divine grace and benevolence are also integral parts of the eternal Divine laws and the Divine Will. Man makes a complete surrender before the Divine and prays only after exhausting all his human egocentric efforts to solve a problem. A prayer made with complete devotion and sincerity gets certainly  answered because it is the nature of the Divine Waheguru to protect those who seek His grace:

S. Raghbir Singh Bir has laid stress on this aspect of prayer in this book. He believes that Waheguru is our real parent and He is thoroughly aware of all our needs and problems. He is Omnipotent and Almighty. He has been eternally our preserver and provider, and protector as well. His bounty and benevolence have always been with us. But we, human beings, ignoring such a benevolent and loving Waheguru, stray away and get estranged from Him and get estangled in the meshes of sinful deeds. Raghbir Singh Bir explains the phenomenon of human estrangement from Waheguru and God's benevolence through an illustration. He says: Waheguru is eternally compassionate and benevolent. He does not discriminate between human beings, be they good or evil. As the sun rises it spreads its sunshine over every earthly object. But those who shut themselves inside their houses and shut their doors and windows, remain deprived of the sunshine. Similarly, those who erect a wall of ignorance between Waheguru and themselves, get deprived of Waheguru's bountiful benevolence and grace.

S. Raghbir Singh Bir has laid out a roadmap for all of us to lead a life of faith and bliss by clearing most of our doubts and disbelief about God through the narration of his heartfelt experience and illustrations from Gurbani. To confirm our faith in God's benevolence, he tells us that Waheguru is as trustworthy and benevolent to us as a trustworthy and generous mother for her innocent child. Waheguru is as instant and spontaneous in his generous response as a mother is to a small infant's needs.

Shri Bir was an honest human being, a devout believer in Gurbani, a determined spiritual seeker and practitioner of Nam Simran. He has tried to bring home the Gurbani edict that an earnest human prayer never goes unanswered through the innumerable relevant quotations from the Gurbani. He has also mentioned the four conditionalities for the successful fulfillment of a human prayer. These are: a complete faith in Waheguru genuineness of human prayer; complete trust in the omnipotence of Waheguru, and a total faith and hope in the fulfillment of one's prayer.

The present book "Ardas Shakti" like the two other books "Bandginama" and "Simran Mahima" written by the same author has also found a whole-hearted favour and approval of the readers. Its eighth edition, after the necessary corrections and a thorough revision, has already reached the readers. An earnest effort has been made to translate this book into English in order to make it reach a wider spectrum of readers across the world. Prof. Kulwant Singh has accomplished this strenuous and challenging task of translating this book into English. Every effort has been made to capture the subtle spiritual nuances of this Gurbani based text in a matching appropriate linguistic English idiom and diction with minimum deviations from the original text. The primary aim during this translation has been to convey the essence of the spiritual experience described in the book to the English readers. The task of translation is even more difficult than creative writing. It requires to preserve the fundamental thesis of a creative work while expressing it in a different medium without tampering with the originality and spontaneity of the author's approach. Prof. Kulwant has tried to accomplish this task with an appropriate linguistic skill and insight. He has recently retired from the  Post Graduate Department of English from Government College Chandigarh after teaching English language and literature for thirty years Myself and Atam Science Trust are sincerely indebted to him for his service as a translator. I hope the readers will benefit from this translate version of the already popular version in Punjab Atam Science Trust richly deserves appreciation for this noble deed.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Dr. Jagjit Singh