02 Nov 2022

How to know whether my prayers are yielding me any fruit or not?

[Shri Bhanoji Rao asked:- In all other world religions there is a clear idea about their unified and only one form of God. But as a believer of Hinduism I really get confused during my daily morning prayers. I spend one hour in my puja room reciting stotras for various Gods, starting with Sri Ganesh and ending with Shirdi Saibaba. In between I recite stotras for many Gods like Shiva, Vishnu Sahasram, Lalitha Sahasram, Dattatreya, Anjaneya, Subrahmanya, Madhurai Meenakshi, Kanchi Kamakshi, Nama Ramayan, Laksmi Nrusimha, Hanuman Chalisa, Navagrahas and many more from Swamiji's bhakti ganga etc...[Click here to read detailed question →]

I pray different Gods to get relief for different dosha and with different purposes. My problem is how to cover all these songs in one hour. In this hurried process i run through all the prayers so fast that I am not able to concentrate even on the right pronunciation or on the right meaning of the stotras. Of late I am having a strong feeling that I can focus on reciting only one single stotram for only one God, repeating number of times for one complete hour with full concentration of mind. But I am unable come to a conclusion that which God I have to fix in my mind. All the Gods are great Gods to me. All Gods seem to be of utmost importance to me. For example, to get knowledge God Shiva, for mukthi vishnu, for strength and confidence anjaneya, kula daivam lakshmi-narasimha, for marriage and good children karthikeya, for Graha dosha Navagraha stotram and again for sani and angarak Graham separate stotrams. Occasionally guru charitra etc. Finally I end up reciting umpteen number of stotras without any focus. Here I remember a telugu proverbs "raasikanna vaasi melu". Which says clearly that quality is more essential than the quantity. I don't know which one God to fix and which other Gods to drop during my daily prayers. Nevertheless there are so many of Godmen (Shirdi Sai, Parthi Sai, Meher Baba, Bala Sai), God women and sadgurus (Raghavendra, Ramakrishna Param Hamsa, Ramana Maharshi, Kanchi Peria Swami). I also pray to some of these godmen to get their blessings in a short cut. Is it that my greedy intention of pleasing all the Gods, Goddesses, godmen and sadgurus at the same time simultaneously, a problem? I am unable to drop some of them from my daily prayers, with a fear that I may be miss their blessings on daily basis. Even the great guru Adi Sankara advised different people to worship different Gods namely the PANCHAYATHAN- DEVATHAS. Please advise me Swamiji how to go about my daily prayers. On which God to fix my mind? Or is it good to pray only one particular God at one time based on the need of the day? Some times I get frustrated with my prayers that is there any use of my prayers or whether I am wasting my time. How to evaluate/know, whether my prayers are yielding me any fruits or not. I am very sorry for asking a vague question. I beg pardon from Swamiji for wasting Your time. Jai Datta Swamiji. 🙏]

Swami replied:- The root cause for all this problem is that your devotion is based on desires for various fruits. We see that plurality exists in this world. But, God is one only, who is unimaginable being beyond space and can’t be even imagined, not to speak of praying. This unimaginable God is the original God, who is mediated by different media of energy and matter resulting in various energetic incarnations like Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganapati etc., and human incarnations like Rama, Krishna, Sai Baba etc. The same actor appears in different dresses or roles in a cinema. The actor is one and the same even though the roles are different. The actor has a specific mood in a specific role. Similarly, as per the media, God is in different moods or qualities. You must worship God in that specific medium about which you are particular to get a specific benefit. If you want money, you have to worship Lakshmi. If you want to have courage, you have to worship Hanuman. If you want to have knowledge you have to worship Sarasvati. In all these roles, God Datta exists as the actor. God Datta is the first energetic incarnation in which the unimaginable God or Parabrahman entered and merged making that form as His permanent residential address. If you are worried about the plurality of Gods, you should worship God Datta alone and you are then simultaneously worshipping 33 crores of deities. God Datta became three divine forms (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) and from these three forms, three crores of deities came as incarnations and from these three crores, 33 crores of deities resulted as energetic incarnations. Apart from these, there are several human incarnations. Either you worship God Datta alone or see God Datta in each divine form you worship. But, you have to become desireless in worshipping God so that you can establish true love with God. As long as you desire in several ways, you have to worship different forms of God or even God Datta alone, but, your bond with God is based on false love which is business involving quid-pro-quo.

In Hinduism, all the Gods are only different media or roles of the single God like single actor. Not only this, all Gods of all worldly religions are also different media or roles of the same single God like single actor. Hence, the plurality of Gods is not a true problem because plurality means only many roles or media of the same one single actor like God. Based on this truth, difference in sub-religions of Hinduism or difference in the religions of the world is a false illusion only. The main point is diverted and the main point is about your relationship with God, which must be based on your attraction towards the divine personality of God and it shall not be based on the fulfilment of worldly desires. Your attraction towards God must be without any aspiration from God and it should be simply your attraction towards His wonderful and excellent divine personality alone. If you take the example of fan devotion, you can understand this concept very well. The fan is attracted to the excellent personality of the hero projected in various film shows only. The fan’s attraction is not based on any aspiration to be fulfilled from such hero-actor. The fan spends from his pocket only for the inauguration functions of his hero-actor and does not receive a single paisa from the hero-actor. Finally, the fan commits suicide when his hero-actor dies! This is the best true love without aspiring for any fruit in return from the other side.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★