In plain words
Prayer is essential to develop the principle of divine Prema
Why should we utter the Name? Why should we pray? God created this vast world, created countless living beings in the endless universe, created things for these beings to use and so provided every kind of thing, food to eat, air to breathe, water to drink: should we not express a little gratitude to Him? If your handkerchief falls and someone picks it up and puts it in your hand, you say ‘Thanks’. That being so, should we not say thanks to God, who has provided man with every single thing? That gratitude itself is prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is to awaken the divine power that lies within man, unseen, beyond measure and beyond all. The Upaniṣads described this as ‘Uttiṣṭata, jāgrata, prāpyavarānnibodhata’. ‘Arise! Arise! Awake from the sleep of Ajñāna!’ they cry out in warning. You are one who thirsts for Ānanda. Your whole life is full of Ānanda! Wherever you look, it is Ānanda! When your very life is full of Ānanda, where then is there to search for Ānanda? Man today has forgotten his own svarūpa. For the sake of Ānanda he scrambles about in the outer world. He goes on searching. This itself is Ajñāna. The Ānanda he needs is in himself alone. To love God fully and to experience the full principle of God: that is Prema! That is Bhakti! To develop such a principle of Prema, prayer is essential. It is no use if this prayer comes from the lips. It must spring from the heart. Rāvaṇa practised many forms of tapas. Ceaselessly he used to chant the five-syllabled mantra, the mantra ‘Oṃ namaśśivāya’. But his demonic nature did not change. What is the reason? The Name he chanted was not coming from within the heart. He was not offering it to God.