Prayers and devotion to the Lord is one of the three paths of self-actualization in Hinduism. The ancient Indian philosophers elaborated three ways for self-actualization, viz., ‘Gnana’ - the path of knowledge; ‘Karma’ - the path of action; and ‘Bhakti’ - the path of devotion. It is the third of bhakti which guides the individual to submerge himself, his ego, his pride and his devotion to the Almighty of Universe. Prayers are means to this end.
Prayer is the way of communication with God. God is omnipresent and omnipotent; He is the creator, the protector and the destroyer. Hindus believe that the very sustenance of the human beings on the earth simply depends on the will of God and ‘nothing ever moves without His moving’. When an individual prays to the God, he devotes all his attention to the God. The form in which the God is worshipped could be either ‘Saakar’, meaning a human like form, or it could be ‘Niraakar’ means formless.
Generally prayer means - “God give me this, give me that, and save me”. In the process, what you are seeking in prayer is not God. We are seeking is security and happiness. Ultimately, what you want is well being but you are willing to admit it. The first step is to be straight with yourself, then we can see how to cross the threshold of limitations to true happiness and well being.
It is the time we realize that looking to God will not help until we look at our own foolishness. If you sincerely look at your deepest motivation for religion, you will see you have never aspired for the Divine. Your aspiration was never for the ultimate. Your aspiration is for comfort, for wealth, for power and pleasure. And you think God is tool to achieve all those things. When you are seeking protection or materialistic things, greed and fear become the basis of your prayer, but this does not work.
There is an anecdote about a great devotee here who on learning that the milk-ocean of Lord Narayana was far away, kept aside the lotus he had plucked to offer Him on the seashore there and started emptying the ocean with a coconut shell in his ardent desire to reach Him. Moved by his zeal and devotion, the Supreme Lord came down from His transcendental realm to accept His devotee’s offering.
There is an Upanishadic dictum which declares true knowledge to be that which liberates man from worldly bondage. Hence one who has this wisdom (Gnana) is truly free as he knows that he is a serf of only the Almighty. One hymn quotes like: “Love is my lamp; eagerness is the oil; and my heart is the wick. Melting myself, here I light a lamp and offer this garland of knowledge”. This knowledge is the zenith of devotion, love of God for His own sake.
Easy access to God’s grace is possible through devotion and Bhakti Yoga is shown to be an assured path to liberation.
Devotion to God is possible when God’s compassion, greatness and absoluteness are recognized and the individual soul realizes its total indebtedness to the Supreme Being. The devotee’s unconditional offer of the Self to the God is the only thing he can give Him, for the God does not lack in anything since the entire universe belongs to Him.
The surrender of one’s ego at His altar is the best test of devotion. The compassionate God is always willing to grant all the desires of His devotees who worship Him in earnest. This attitude exemplifies the spirit of true devotion that demands only the good fortune to be always in His presence. The only prayer to God is to remove any obstacle to the desire to behold Him in one’s mental eye and to the longing to be of service at His feet at all times.
Sages greatly emphasize the efficacy of prayer in getting rid of bad qualities. If at all you pray, pray for removing your pride, your greed, your envy, your lust, your anger, your hatred and so on. Pray to purify yourself. ‘Sharanagathi’ (total surrender to God) is one excellent qualification that Hinduism recommends; when your dependence on God becomes total, at that exalted state, there is no need for any prayer at all.
In the four Vedas, a prominent segment of the contents is devoted to rituals and prayers that are meant to invoke Gods to grace the populace with essentials as well as wealth and riches. There are plenty of prayers seeking good rains, bountiful crops, welfare of cattle, healthy offspring, punishing of enemies, elimination of diseases, and so on. Many ‘Homas’ are performed even today by householders as well as religious institutions and temples praying for God’s grace to lead happy worldly life.