When we pray for others in the spirit of Truth, we respect their freedom of choice. We have no intention to manipulate them. We never condemn. We never dictate. We never coerce them to "follow the right way". We know that some people have to grope in darkness for some time before they will see and appreciate the light.

One of the greatest stories in the Bible is the parable of the Prodigal son. We all heard it so many times, but not all of us realize that, above all, it is the lesson on freedom. The father from this parable never prevented his erring child from going away into "a far country". He made no attempts to rescue him when he got into serious troubles. He did not rush. He waited for son's return. Some would call it indifference, but Jesus undoubtedly called it love.

We come back to our point: certain people will never realize their need of inner transformation unless they they go through negative experiences. We won't help them if we will try to deliver them from those experiences against their will, or if we will try to fix effects of those situations without dealing with causes. Just look at the elder brother from the same parable.

Elder brother never ventured to leave his home and to go to "a far country", but still was prodigal in his heart. I am not sure whether he was able to overcome his resentment toward his father and his younger brother at the end. Chances are, he choose to stay offended for many years and to feel miserable. He lived alone with his self-justifying thoughts. But the realm of love and freedom is higher than the realm of limited and deterministic "justice".

Freedom implies freedom to stumble and fall. If we don't give that freedom to others while we think about them and pray for them, our attitude have nothing to do with divine love.

Even our loved ones are not "ours". No matter what controlling religion says, we are not their keepers. This truth was vividly expressed by Kahlil Gibran:

"Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls...
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow".

As we pray for others, we should respect their freedom - and, at the same time, believe in them. We need to believe that God abides in them. They are endowed with great powers, waiting to be expressed. Those people aren't as ignorant as they occasionally seem to be. They aren't as powerless as we may judge by appearances. They aren't as miserable as they themselves tell us. All these things are but shadows which cloud their minds and obstruct their potential. All these things have no substance, and we should not accept them as facts.

As we pray for others, we may affirm:

"You are one with God. God is always in you, waiting to be fully expressed through you. You are free to determine the course of your life and to follow it through. Let the light if Truth shine brightly in your mind, and you would know yourself as the master of your life and the captain of your soul. I bless your personal soul journey, knowing that sooner or later it will bring you back home, to the full realization of your oneness with God".

(to be continued)