Paramahansa Yogananda - Photo Courtesy of Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA

Quickly approaching is National Day of Prayer, the first Thursday in May, a time when many in the U.S. will pray for our nation and the world.   Self-Realization Fellowship monastics, along with thousands of Worldwide Prayer Circle members, pray morning and night every day of the year and will offer special prayers on that day for the healing and upliftment of all humanity.  Indeed prayer is a powerful force with the potential to change lives, and the world.

According to the great yoga master Paramahansa Yogananda (founder of Self-Realization Fellowship and author of spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi), when “saturated with sincerity, conviction, faith, and intuition,” prayer holds the power to “shatter the rocks of difficulties.”  Just as the minds of attuned, illumined masters can transmit divine power to bring healing of body, mind, and spirit, so can we align our will with that of the divine and help bring about extraordinary results.

By way of example, Yogananda’s “Prayer for a United World” is as powerful, and relevant, today as it was when he first composed it many years ago.

Prayer for a United World

May the heads of all countries and races be guided to understand that men of all nations are physically and spiritually one: physically one, because we are the descendants of common parents — the symbolic Adam and Eve; and spiritually one, because we are the immortal children of our Father, bound by eternal links of brotherhood.

Let us pray in our hearts for a League of Souls and a United World. Though we may seem divided by race, creed, color, class, and political prejudices, still, as children of the one God we are able in our souls to feel brotherhood and world unity. May we work for the creation of a United World in which every nation will be a useful part, guided by God through man’s enlightened conscience.

In our hearts we can all learn to be free from hate and selfishness. Let us pray for harmony among the nations, that they march hand in hand through the gate of a fair new civilization.

–From Metaphysical Meditations by Paramahansa Yogananda. Reprinted by permission of Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles.