Kneeling

Kneeling

From our friend, Dharmesh S.

There was a time, long ago when I used to visit a Jain temple daily for prayers. There would be a few other devotees who would also be in the temple, praying in a kneeling position. I felt I would rather stand and pray. On one occasion, a friend joined me for the temple visit. He knelt while I remained standing. After we left the temple, he asked me why I chose to stand and I asked in return whether it would make a difference to God if I stood or knelt when I prayed. It was more important that my prayers be sincere. The friend quietly smiled and did not say anything further, so I believed I was right.

My friend’s observation continued to ring in my mind long after that episode. One day it occurred to me that for God, it made no difference how I prayed; that really it was all about me, and whether I wanted to kneel. So I decided to experiment and knelt down and prayed. I was startled by the experience. It felt wonderful. Kneeling made me small, humble, free, grateful…

That day, although it was before I had joined the Fourth Way Work, I received a beautiful answer of what it really means to kneel before higher influences. When we kneel spiritually, we are in a position of humility and can receive grace and divinity from higher worlds. Becoming small also initiates work on the lower self that is reluctant to kneel and wants to remain big and occupy space.

Abraham Lincoln said, “I have been driven to my knees many times because there was no place else to go.” There are many dimensions of spiritual work connected with kneeling. The idea of kneeling physically led me to understand what it means to kneel internally. Real suffering can be transformed when one kneels emotionally. One submits in silence to the suffering and observes one’s play objectively. When resentment to the friction creeps in, it is, in a sense, a refusal to kneel, and the opportunity for transformation is lost. Rilke said, “What is greatest in our existence, what makes it precious beyond words, is the modesty to use sorrow so that it penetrates our soul.”

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Image: ‘Head of an Old Man With a Cap’, Rembrandt