Stages in Hindu Prayer

In looking for a reference for a quote I wanted to use, I meandered through some pages on the internet until I came to a page of articles by the Barefoot Carmelites. I was struck by (another) link to mystical traditions through St Theresa and St John but most by the link back to the Desert Fathers 


This is the page. And this is what called out to me:

There are four stages in the universal Hindu system of prayer.

1. Sravana: This is listening to the word. We must read or hear the word of God from the Scriptures. The word enters the soul through hearing. Mere reading without any grasp of the word will not in any way benefit the reader. It should be listened through the heart.
2. Manana: The message is to be seized, reflected upon, repeated in the mind and in the heart until it totally becomes the part of prayer. Reflection alone cannot lead us to experience the word in prayer. Assimilation of the word is the final goal of manana.
3. Nidhidhyasana: Assimilation naturally leads the word to interiorisation. It is the strict application of the message to life. Hence prayer affects life through the mediation of the word of God.
4. Samadhi: Deep peace, serenity and communion with the Divine. It is the experience of the contemplative gift of God granted to the soul. No one can obtain it by force. It is experienced through sheer gift of God himself.

Every act of prayer in Hinduism should end with self-surrender and adoration. The climax of prayer is love and union with God, i.e., a pure identification with God through total self-surrender.


This is another reference to the heart, not as an organ of the body but more as the part of us that loves (my take on the teachings of Shaykh al-Tariqat Hazrat Azad Rasool)