जय सांई राम।।।
BABA is nothing but existence pouring its blessings on you. Become aware of it, feel it more and more, and feel thankful for all that has happened to you; that is happening and that will happen.
If gratitude for existence arises in the heart then religion has happened. Gratitude is the essential taste of religion, the innermost core of prayer; nothing else is needed. If gratitude is there, all is fulfilled.
Deva means divine. It has many meanings: grace, mercy, prayer, but I would like you to rememher prayer -- divine prayer. A prayer is human if it is formal, if you are doing it because you have been taught to, if you are doing it because you have been conditioned for it. A Christian prayer, a Hindu prayer, a Mohammedan prayer, these are human prayers. Prayer is divine when you are not doing it formally; when it is informal, an informal communication; communion with existence, not ready-made, not planned, not rehearsed.
Just looking at the stars something arises in you, from the deepest core of your being something surfaces. You would like to say 'Hello' to the stars: that is divine prayer. Or you may not like to say anything; you may just be silent, in utter awe: that is divine prayer. When seeing a rose you would like to have a little talk. a little chitchat with a rose: that is divine prayer.
It has to be spontaneous, then it is divine. Anything spontaneous is divine and anything rehearsed, prepared, becomes artificial, arbitrary. It loses all beauty, it becomes mechanical.
Learn the way of divine prayer and then one need not go to the church or to the temple, because the whole existence is his temple; wherever you turn, he is. You open your eyes, he is; you close your eyes, he is. Awake, he is; asleep, he is, because nothing else exists other than god.
So one can talk to the river, to the mountains, to the trees, to the stars; any communion with existence is prayer. And if it is spontaneous, it has tremendous beauty and power. It uplifts, it takes you higher and higher; it makes you soar towards the sky. It defies gravitation.
ॐ सांई राम।।।