A prayer is a submission. It is an offering in humility and complete surrender, expressing servitude and love. It is verily a whisper from the soul. It reaches out like the faith of a child who puts his hand into that of his parent and wills to be led.

A prayer must ‘know’ the One Being prayed to. In whose hands are we placing ours? Whom do we trust to lead us?

However, our prayers and conversations with the Lord are often requests for something. Generally, our attention is focused on defining what we want rather than in knowing the Recipient of our prayers. This is akin to writing a long letter knowing neither the receiver nor his address.

More importantly, prayer has to be woven with the fabric of faith. In short, we need to know how to pray. And this we learn through a beautiful, spontaneous outpouring of Guru Arjan Dev, Tü öhäkuru tuma pagi aradäsi, which forms the last part of the fourth stanza of his famed composition, the Sukhmani Sahib.

Ardäs means prayer, or prärthanä. It is to connect with the Higher. We pray in order to achieve through that Higher Power what we cannot achieve by ourselves, the limited beings we imagine ourselves to be.

Each of us is born with certain abilities and also with some limitations. We then become bound by these self-imposed concepts – like the thought, “I am the body.” Prayer is the way to remove these misconceptions and their hold over us. It is the direct route to tap into the Higher Power.

In spite of this, our prayer is often a shopping list or a charge sheet. We must recognise that prayer is not beggary, but a way of tuning ourselves to the Higher Power. It is an offering of gratitude to the Lord for all that we have received.

When we forget the very source of all, ego, pride and arrogance come into our lives and create a sense of separateness. From the sense of separateness arises a feeling of incompleteness, followed by desire and hatred; and from hatred are born all our sorrows.

When we remember that everything we have has come from the Lord, there will be no ego. Where there is no ego, there is no sorrow. Even at moments of crisis, we should rejoice at all our blessings.

When we remember the Lord and offer our prayers from the innermost depths of our hearts, it is ardäs. This is the best way to express our love for the Lord. In this inspiring ardäs, Guru Arjan Dev shows us how to pray.

Tü öhäkuru is a submission that is done after worship and kértan at the Gurudwärä. The moment of ardäs is also when we submit ourselves to the Lord, when after the earlier worship through ritual or chant, we prepare to unite with the Lord in surrender. This beautifully simple ardäs constructs an inner environment with the bricks of prayer, gratitude and surrender, founded on the faith that He is the giver, the provider, the parent, and that we need work only as instruments do, with unconditional trust and devotion.

In the last line Guru Arjan Dev pays homage to Guru Nanak Devji and to the tradition of the Guru-paramparä, through which the disciple acknowledges his indebtedness to his Guru and to the source of all wisdom – none other than the Master (Tü öhäkuru) acknowledged in the first line.

A disciple is one who knows he is nothing. It is in that state of total surrender that he receives the grace and wisdom of the Guru.

Swami Swaroopananda is the recently appointed worldwide head of Chinmaya Mission. Swamiji will give discourses on Upadesh Sara and Meditation from Guru Granth Sahib from 13-18 Feb 2017 at Chinmaya Mission 89 Lodi Road.