What to ask God and what not to ask?

[Shri Durgaprasad asked: Pādanamaskāram Swami! This doubt came to me during a recent spiritual Satsanga. Dharmarāja did not seek any guidance before going to play the gambling game with Duryodhana. Had he asked for help, Lord Kṛṣṇa would have advised him to not play that game. This matter is purely related to materialism. Dharmarāja might not have asked the Lord either due to ego or it might be due to the fact it was a matter related to materialism and he might have thought he should not ask Lord Kṛṣṇa about such matters. My question is, after learning the knowledge that one should serve the Lord without expectation, is it correct to seek repeated help from You for materialistic benefits? When should we ask You and when should we not to ask You for guidance in materialistic matters, as we do not know the criticality of situations. At Your lotus feet, -Durgaprasad]

Swami replied: God is omniscient and omnipotent. There is no need of asking God for any type of help since God knows everything at all times, especially regarding His devotees. He is watching all His devotees and is aware of every situation faced by His devotee. We have to report our problems to other human beings so that they may help us in difficult situations. This is because they cannot know unless we inform them. On knowing our difficulties, they might help us a little. There is a saying that even a mother does not give food unless we ask her. This applies only to non-omniscient human beings and not to the omniscient God. Even in the materialistic world, it is cheap to ask for help. But asking for help is inevitable within the human world because if you do not ask other human beings for help, they would not come to know your difficulties. But when God is omniscient, what is the necessity of asking Him for help? We pray and worship God when difficulties come. When we are not in any difficulty and are happy, but we still pray and worship God, that is real devotion.

Even if you ask God for help, He might not provide that help. Even if you do not ask for it, He might provide it. The reason is that He responds to our real devotion, in which asking for help from God is absent and only real prayer and real worship exist. The prayer and worship should be done out of our attraction to the divine personality of God and not as a business, in which we expect some material benefits in exchange for our worship.

I often give the example of the fan of a cinema hero or a political hero. The fan is not benefited in any way from his hero. The fan spends from his own pocket for the sake of his hero, throughout his life. The reason for spending that money on the hero is the fan’s real love for his hero, which is free from the aspiration for any help in return from the hero. The hero gives all his property only to his family and does not give even a single paisa to the fan. When the hero dies, his family members burn his body and return to claim their share from his property! On the other hand, the fan commits suicide, unable to bear the pain of the death of his hero! We should develop real love like the fan, except that we must replace the ungrateful human hero by God.

When God Kṛṣṇa died, some Gopikās—the ones who had previously passed the tests of Kṛṣṇa—jumped into fire like the fans of human heroes. Krishna did not give anything to the Gopikās, whereas, the Gopikās would always feed Him with butter secretly. If we analyse this situation from the angle of materialism, Kṛṣṇa was always the gainer and the Gopikās were always losers. The Gopikās never asked Kṛṣṇa for anything and God Kṛṣṇa gave them the highest world called Goloka, which is above the Brahma Loka. Sudāma brought some parched rice on loan to give to Kṛṣṇa, even though his children were starving for several days. He did not ask Kṛṣṇa for anything and returned home remembering the divine personality of Kṛṣṇa!

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| Shri Datta Swami | What to ask God and what not to ask? | Krishna Gopikaas Gopikas Gopika Dharmaraja Dharmaraaja Sudaama Sudama