One evening, a farmer on his way to work found himself without his prayer book.
He felt sad that his day would pass without saying his prayers. So he decided to address the issue to God Himself.
He spoke aloud, “ Oh God!! I have done something very foolish. I have left behind my prayer book and my memory is so poor that I cant even recite a single prayer without the book. So this is what I am going to do. I will recite all the letters of the alphabets five times very slowly and you, who knows all the prayers, please put the letters together to form the prayer I cant remember…”
God heard this and said to his angels, “Of all the prayers, this prayer is undoubtedly the best because it came right from the heart that was simple and pure.”
God then said, “A man judges another man by his actions, but I judge a man by his intentions.”
Intention or sankalpa is defined as the process “of having in mind a purpose or plan to direct the mind to aim”. When you set an intention and then act on it to demonstrate your commitment, amazing things occur. The power of intention is very strong which you can visibly notice in your day-to-day life.
For example, why does anything cooked by your loved one taste so incomparably sumptuous? Even the cook puts the same ingredients into it, but the taste is entirely different. It’s only because of the intention, the sankalpa, the positive vibrations that are sprinkled on the dish that makes it taste so good…it’s made with pure divine love. Ditto for the food at any religious place – the vibes of the place are so pure that the people who cook the food cook with the intention of pure reverence to God.
When someone looks at you, the eyes are the same but the intention can differ to a great degree. One look can be of sheer divinity and innocent love and the other can be of sheer lust. It’s the intention of the seer where the difference lies.
If prayers just meant folding your hands and chanting some mantras, then this world would have been entirely different…imagine God answering prayers of thieves and culprits…
It is also written in the Upanishads that
“ As your intention is, so is your will,
As your will is, so is your deed,
As your deed is, so is your destiny.”
Our destiny is shaped by the level of intentions we have. The universal laws of intention are open to every human being without being judgmental. Believe in youself and your unlimited potential. Banish all your doubts. Tap this endless energy and focus only on positive intentions towards yourself as well as others. Once we plant this seed of sankalpa or intention in the fertile grounds of pure potentiality, our soul’s potential will unfold a hundred times more…
You can’t change your destiny overnight, but you can surely change your direction by using the power of intention.