Dear W A P,

The word prayer, prarthana, itself, is one of the most misunderstood words in our religion. First, we must understand exactly what prayer means. In our scriptures, prarthana never meant “begging to God”. Unfortunately, this is what prayer has been reduced down to: begging for, asking of, and seeking objects from an unknown power. If the word is taken to mean these things, then I will tell you not to pray, because all the energy put forth in concentration will be blocked and the effort placed in prayer will be fruitless.

Secondly, we must ask the question, ‘To whom are you praying?’. The straight answer is ‘I am praying to God.’ We can push this question further and ask, ‘To which God are you praying?’. This simple question has confused many Hindus, especially children, since they might not know whom to pray to. A child might think, “If I pray to Krishna, Shiva will get angry; and if I pray to Shiva, another might get angry”; ergo the child prays to all Gods, but this too will lead the child into more confusion. But I will never get anything out of this. Do these Gods have time to help me pass the exam? The answer is no. We need to accept the fact that the person who is taking the exam, an interview, or even starting a major project is that person alone. No God, guru or another person can come between you and the problem. Remember this mantra, “I am the one who is meeting the challenges, not anyone else”.

During exam time do you feel that the information you studied isn’t being retained? This happens because your mind is agitated, and an agitated mind can never concentrate on anything. The reason for your agitation that your mind is either thinking about the past, which is already dead, or about the future, which is not yet born. The past has a hold on you, and the future is creating anxiety, and the mind becomes totally confused. You cannot concentrate on the present, which is what is important, and for this reason you are agitated. To relieve your agitation, you must somehow focus your mind on the task at hand. This is the true purpose of prayer. When you pray, you calm your mind and focus your thoughts on God. But in doing so, you allow yourself to focus on the task in front of you.

So prayer is not about getting help from some unknown power which you have not seen, you have not felt, nor you have not known. The purpose of prayer is to keep your mind in a very balanced and quiet state, where you can think and act properly. Prayer is meant to help you invoke and to understand how much you have within yourself. It is an invocation, not begging. Invoking what? We are invoking the strength within us because when we beg, we invoke the weakness and not the strength. Why is this? Well why is it when your father comes to you, the child within is invoked, or when your brother comes to you, the sibling within you is invoked, or when your friend comes calling, the friend within is invoked with ease? We interact with others according to our relationships with them which is easy, but when confusion becomes a part of the equation it changes. It is so easy for you to invoke your proper role in most relationships. It is perfectly natural. But the same person who is invoked in all of these forgot to invoke the fundamental relationship with the cosmic order, which is your own nature, which is your own divinity. There is a great power in all of the you and it is up to you whether to use it or abuse it. This freedom has to be properly utilized. So the idea of prayer is to connect you to your higher nature, the strength and divinity within yourself.