Why do our prayers not yield any fruit?

[When Shankara chanted Kanaka Dhara prayer, golden fruits fell as rain. Even when we chant the same prayer hundreds of times, not even an ordinary fruit falls from a tree. What is the reason?]

A person got a M.A. degree (Master of Arts) by working hard. He applied for the post of a lecturer and attended the interview in a neat suit. He got the post. Another fellow who failed 10^th grade posted hundreds of applications for the same post. He bought a very expensive and fashionable suit for the interview. However this fellow was not even called for an interview. I know a person in the olden days who received an appointment order for the post of a lecturer from the government even before the result of his M.A. degree was declared by the university. The government obtained the graduation results from the university even before they were formally announced. Therefore if you have the deserving degree, you need not apply and need not go to the interview. The order of appointment will come directly to your house.

Similarly your chanting of the prayer is your application. Your silk cloth, garlands, sacred ash on the forehead etc., compose the neat suit for the interview. The practical sacrifice for the sake of the Lord crossing over the family bonds is the real deserving M.A. degree. You must work hard to attain that degree. Without doing that, what is the use of all these external things? Shankara sacrificed His old mother for the sake of the mission of the Lord, which was the propagation of divine knowledge. The deserving qualification of Shankara was responsible for that rain of golden fruits. The prayer chanted by Him was merely a formal application for the post. Even that application is not necessary if you have the deserving qualification.

Shabari, Kannappa, the elephant, the spider and the serpent mentioned in the scriptures never asked the Lord for anything. Their practical sacrifice was their deserving qualifiation. Our present tradition is preaching to you to attain only the external means without the real internal deserving qualification. Therefore the Lord is not pleased with you and no fruit is seen for such wasteful external means.