True worship brings Soul closer to God on Its own merits and never at the expense of someone else. You cannot bring yourself closer to God by hating others, even if you believe your anger is righteous.
The relationship between Soul — which is you — and God is one of love. Where there is pure, absolute love, there is no room for anger of any kind.
You can tell if a person practices true worship by how he treats others throughout the week. People are very good on their holy days, but the test of true worship is how they act the other six days of the week. For me, the test of true worship is whether or not a person has charity. By that I mean goodwill towards others.
What is important in this life is your relationship with God, and how you worship God truly. As you do this, it will show up in your daily life, whether it’s your traditional holy day or not.
In the years I have been the spiritual leader of Eckankar, I have tried to show the members of ECK what is true prayer and what is not. True prayer lets things be. It shows trust that God has done things right. It says, “God, you’re doing a good job. Everything’s OK.”
Wrong prayer is the kind that tries to change things, especially how other people behave. It also implies that God has fallen down on the job.
No matter what religion you practice, it is important that you learn to listen. This is prayer in the true sense.
True prayer is the art of listening to God. Just open your heart and listen to God. In ECK, one way to open the heart is to sing HU.
HU, this ancient name for God, is a love song to God. You can sing it. And in singing it or holding it in your mind during times of need, it becomes a prayer. It becomes a prayer of the highest sort.
It becomes a non-directed prayer, which means that we’re willing to let the Holy Spirit take care of the affairs in our life according to the divine plan instead of our personal plan.
If people would trust their hearts and know that if they love God and open their heart — if they love God through loving their neighbor — they will find that God brings help and protection to them in ways that most people don’t know.
Students of ECK have many stories of protection and healing. They are learning the future in their dreams. This is because they have been able to open their hearts to God’s love.
The way to do that is to sing HU to yourself. Sing it as HU-U-U-U (like the word hue) in one long sound, in one long breath. You just sing this very quietly to yourself or inwardly. You may see the Light of God; it can be a blue light, a white light, a yellow light, or a green light. You can see it many different ways. Or you may hear the sound of tinkling bells, a flute, a full orchestra, or something as simple as a sigh.
But you will be filled with love.
Sing HU, and this may help you open your heart to God’s love. Then you will find the miracles happening in your life, too.
These techniques are not meant to suggest that a Christian can’t chant HU or an ECKist can’t think of Jesus or anyone else. You do whatever your heart tells you to do. You are an individual; there is just one of you. You have your own understanding of God, and you are on your own path to God.
The ECK Worship Service is to help people find out what they can do to improve their relationship with God. If we can help in any way, we are more than willing to be of service.
Sri Harold Klemp will speak at the ECK Worldwide Seminar at 7 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The Temple of ECK in Chanhassen, the worldwide center for the Eckankar teachings, is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the public is invited to the open house from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. The Temple has worship services open to all from 10-11 a.m. on the first Sunday of every month. The topic on Sunday, Sept. 6, is “The Wonder of You.”
This is a wonderful article, and in my humble opinion, one that very clearly displays a point of view that is beyond the mind and the walls it likes to partition areas of life into. The article instead is an all inclusive one, one that does not notice the differences of one religion as opposed to an other, but rather focuses more on the similarities of them, and the overall inclusive and encompassing nature of God, by whatever name, in ALL cultures, times and places!
May the blessings be…
I have been in Eckankar for 7 years now without knowing my membership status. Would i say Karma or Kal is the cause. The first registration i did, THE EASY WAY, was snatched from me by armed robbers when i was still in chapter 5 of that discourse in my Sat sang class. Since then, i cant even raise money to eat. I keep on experiencing one problem to the other. As an orphan everybody in my family deserted me and my younger brother. Its like i’m just alone in this world. Please i need you Mahanta!