Prayer Revealed
He was the elder brother, and he was hurt that his younger
brother never visited any of his spiritual services or gatherings.
Many times he had complained to his mother, but she either met
what he said with the wisdom of silence or she would say something
such as: “Well, dear, you know your brother always has been a little
different and strange with respect to the way he goes about things.
He loves you very much, and I am sure no slight or insult is intended
by his behavior.”
From time to time, she would casually mention to her youngest
son that his elder brother was upset that his younger brother never
attended any of the spiritual sessions being conducted at the center
where the elder brother presided as spiritual leader and authority.
Her youngest son would nod in acknowledgment and respond along
the following lines: “Yes, Mom, I know he is annoyed with me. He
has invited me to his center many times, and, I feel badly for having
to make excuses about why I can’t come to those sessions, but there
are some very good reasons for this, one of which is that I do not
want him to be embarrassed by anything that might happen if I were
to come.”
Now, the younger brother also was interested in spirituality. He
kept his activities very quiet and hidden from his elder brother and
even from his mother.
His spiritual pursuits didn’t involve anything immoral, illegal, or
hurtful to others. Nonetheless, experience had taught him that
talking to people about what he was doing only led to
misunderstanding, conflict, and problems, so he preferred to go
about life in his own quiet way.
He had tremendous love for his elder brother. He was happy his
elder brother had such a high standing in the community and was
well-regarded by many, many people, some of whom had genuine,
sincere affection for his elder brother.
Yet, spirituality had called the younger brother in a different
direction. Someday, perhaps, the younger brother might be able to
convey to his elder brother something of the nature of the spiritual
quest in which he, the younger brother, was interested ... but not at
the present time.
Over the next ten months, the foregoing scenario played itself out
on a number of occasions and through a variety of venues. The elder
brother would grumble to the mother. The mother would pass along
the complaint to her youngest son. The youngest son would hear,
accept, and continue to avoid accepting, through one means or
another, the constant stream of invitations issued to him by his elder
brother.
Although the younger brother always had been very courteous,
kind, and compassionate when he refused his elder brother’s
overtures, the younger brother was beginning to run out of excuses
which had a ring of plausibility to them. The younger brother had
become quite adept and proficient in creating tales of urgency and
woe to which he was being called and, therefore, why he would not
be able to attend his elder brother’s next gathering, but, of late, the
muse for excuses was either beginning to run dry or hiding from the
younger brother, and so the situation was becoming a little dicey.
Furthermore, the elder brother had begun to suspect that while
the ‘reasons’ being given by his younger brother might be true in
some way, they were not entirely credible, or those ‘reasons’ might
be credible but were not entirely true. Being a resourceful and an
adaptable individual, the elder brother devised a plan to make his
younger brother’s attendance at one of the elder brother’s gatherings
something of a fait accompli.
One day the two brothers happened to cross paths while they
were going about their respective lives within the city. After
exchanging a polite amount of chit-chat, the elder brother said: “I
would like you to be the guest speaker at one of my weekly sessions,
and I would like to set a date and time when you would be free to
participate.”
From the moment the breath of his elder brother had been used
to propel these words to the world at large, the younger brother
knew the noose of acceptance had been placed around his neck. He
knew by the way his elder brother raised the matter that, as far as
the elder brother was concerned, if the two of them had to stand
there all day, night, and into the next morning, the elder brother
would ask about dates until the end of time in order to finally force
his younger brother into submission on this matter and agree that,
yes, he was free on such and such a date just this side of Judgement
Day.
Rather, than try to avoid the inevitable and instead of trying to
upset his brother any longer over this issue, the younger brother
relented. He would be ‘free’ in two weeks time and would attend his
elder brother’s spiritual circle.
The elder brother was very happy with his younger brother’s
willingness to co-operate. He thanked his younger brother and
ambled off, whistling an ode of some kind to joy.
In the days intervening between the ‘ambush’ and the gathering,
the elder brother became busy with publicizing his younger brother’s
forthcoming appearance at the spiritual center. Everybody was
looking forward to the occasion since, for most of them, the younger
brother was perceived to be something of a recluse and enigma, and
many of the members of the center had known of the elder brother’s
long-standing, genuine desire to have his younger brother attend at
least one of the weekly gatherings.
The eventful day finally arrived. The crowd which assembled
was fairly substantial.
First, the elder brother arrived and sat in one of the chairs that
had been placed on the stage near to the rostrum. Shortly thereafter,
the younger brother arrived, followed closely by a number of his
spiritual associates.
The elder brother signaled for his brother to sit on the stage with
him. The younger brother complied.
The session began. As was true of every such gathering, the
proceedings were begun with a prayer which, usually, was led by the
elder brother.
Out of courtesy and sincere humility, the elder brother extended
an invitation to the younger brother to lead the congregational
prayer, which out of courtesy and sincere humility, the younger
brother declined, preferring to defer to his elder brother on this
occasion.
The elder brother bowed to the wishes of his younger brother
and began the prayer, which consisted of different segments – part
said aloud, part said in silence; part in praise of God, part in
gratitude for the blessings which have been bestowed by Divinity,
and part in remembrance of this or that facet of spirituality. Several
minutes into the prayer, the younger brother rose from his chair,
walked down the stairs, and proceeded to walk to one of the center’s
exits.
When the individuals who had accompanied the younger brother
saw this, they, too, got up and began to leave. All of this created quite
a commotion.
A number of the elder brother’s close friends were quite upset
with the rudeness of what transpired. They felt the younger brother’s
actions were very disrespectful and inconsiderate toward the elder
brother.
Consequently, these friends of the elder brother rushed out of
the center desiring to confront the younger brother about the
incident. Wishing to avoid having a bad situation deteriorate further,
the elder brother hurried out of the building as well and was
preparing himself for quelling whatever unpleasantries might have
arisen outside of the building.
As the elder brother neared the crowd in front of the center, he
could hear the voices of some of his friends berating his younger
brother with pointed questions and comments of one kind or another.
His younger brother was silent, just listening to the accusations being
hurled at him.
Struggling, the elder brother gradually worked his way to the
focus of the fray. He stepped between his younger brother and the
people who were busy disparaging the latter.
Holding up his hands, he asked for everyone to stop arguing.
“Perhaps”, he said, “we should discuss this situation without rancor.
”
When the crowd had quieted down, the elder brother said,
pointing to one of his friends: “OK, why are you upset?”
The man, making an effort to control his temper, replied: “We
think” – and as he said this he motioned his head in a way that
included many of the people in the crowd – “that what your brother
did was very wrong and disrespectful – not only to you, but to the
congregation and to God -- we feel it was sacrilegious.”
The younger brother asked: “What did I do?”
To which the friend of elder brother retorted: “Why, you left the
prayer. Everybody saw you do this.”
The younger brother glanced at the man, and, then, looked at his
brother for a few seconds. Finally, he said: “I only left the prayer
because my brother did and, as you all know, it is the duty of those
in attendance to follow the leader of the congregational prayer.”
The younger brother’s comments caused a stir of confusion to
ripple thorough the crowd. One of the people queried the younger
brother with: “What do you mean your elder brother left the prayer?
This is sheer nonsense intended to cover up your own lack of
spiritual etiquette. The way in which you are trying to make your
elder brother the fall guy in this fiasco is nothing less than
disgraceful and you should be ashamed of yourself.”
This man was about to add further insults to his offering when
the elder brother shook his head, smiled in a sheepish way, and said:
“No, my younger brother is right – leave him alone.”
The people there pressed the elder brother for an explanation.
He responded by saying: “When I was giving the prayer, suddenly
a thought came to my mind about having forgotten to send off a
package to a friend of mine, and it was at that point that my younger
brother got up and walked out of the building. So, he was right, I
already had left the prayer for something else.”
He was silent for a brief period, and, then, he addressed the
crowd: “My brother saw me leave the prayer, but none of the rest of
you did. All of you only saw the exterior of the situation – that is, the
part where my younger brother left the prayer in a physical sense ...
a prayer that I already had left in a spiritual manner.”
He gave his brother an affectionate, warm, and repentant hug,
asking: “What would have been the theme of your talk?”
The younger brother simply said: “Prayer.”
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