Q     I wanted to ask you what is the place of prayer in  Sant Mat?

A     The real prayer to the Lord is submitting ourselves to the Lord. What is prayer, as it is ordinarily understood? Our mind creates desires, and we are praying to the Lord to fulfill those desires. We are not explaining to our mind to adjust to the Will of the Lord, but we are trying to explain to the Lord to adjust to the wishes of our mind. Actually, we are the slave of teh mind and not of the Lord. We have to become a slave of the Lord, and then there is really nothing to pray for. We are just to submit to what He wants us to do. We should pray to Him to give us strength to face gracefully and boldly whatever He wants us to go through.

When we are devoted to the Lord, naturally He is not unmindful of what we need. For example, if a maid works in your house, she does beautiful work, is always willing and pleasant about it and never asks you for anything, you always feel like giving her something, without her asking. You are so appreciative of what she does and her attitude that you want to give her something, and more than if she had asked for it. If another maid does not work well or even if she works well but is always grumbling and asking for something, you do not feel like giving her anything, and you would even like to dismiss her.

Generally, we pray to the Lord for worldly possessions --- health, wealth, and prosperity for ourselves and our loved ones. In the first place, we do not know what is best for us, and much less, for, anyone else. Many things are received from the Lord after praying for four or five years, and perhaps we have to kneel in prayer for another ten years to petition Him to relieve us of the very things that we had been praying for. When we ask, we do not know what is good for us. When we do not know what is good for us, whynot submit to Him? He will give us what is best for us.

Q      Yes, I know that the lowest type of prayer is a prayer of petition: but when one says, "God, Thy Will be done," or, "God give me guidance, I have a difficult decisiion to make," to help in making that decision?

A       We should always pray to Him for His mercy and guidance. And for that, whether or not you say the spoken word, it is immaterial. Real prayer comes from the heart. Generallly, we have set prayers. We remember them and repeat them every day, several times a day. That is a mechanical prayer, whereas it is the heart that should speak. No words are required, and no particular time is required for that; in fact, a true lover is in constant communion with the Lord. When the heart speaks, He hears, He gives. So, we should pray to Him to guide us, to be merciful to us, to redeem us from birth and death, to take us into His own lap in fact, to merge us into Himself. That is real prayer.

However, any other prayer is not bad. It makes your will power strong. Whether He gives you or not, when you pray to Him, even your mechanical prayer makes your will power strong, and you can face life a little more boldly. You can adjust yourself to situations and circumstances even by means of these mechanical prayers or prayers of petition. But actually, you are not praying to the Lord, you are explaining to yourself what you want. You are developing your mind, and that helps you to adjust to these circumstances and to face them boldly. Any type of prayer is just to submit to Him, and ask only for His guidance and grace.

Q    When a person prays for something and the prayer is answered, is it God that neceswsarily answers it? It happens quite frequently that a person will pray for something material; for example, a person prays for a new car, and he gets it, or a millions dollars, and he gets it. Now, who gives it to him? (Laughter)_

A     What yhou mean to say is that when we pray, whether it is due to our prayers that we get those things, or even otherwise we would have got them. I think that even otherwise you would have received them. (The audience laughts_. The Lord does not want us to be asking and begging Him to fulfill our wishes, nor does He want us to think that our wishes have been fulfilled because we have asked Him. He is so merciful, He gives us even without our asking.

Our karmas bring us all these things that we are wanting. But by prayer we develop ourselves to that extent that we make our will power strong. That is all. We have never prayed to teh Lord, "Oh Lord. Whatever we have, take it from us and give it to other people." We have never prayed to Him like that. We are always asking and asking. Well, it is good to pray. Prayer is not bad.

Q     Will you tell us the correct way to pray? What do you mean by praying?

A     As I have said, the general conception of prayer is to ask the Lord to fulfill our desires, instead of making the mind confirm to the Will of the Lord. Anyway, you are strengthening your will power even by that type of prayer. The real prayer is to train our mind to remain in the Will of the Lord, and whatever He gives us, to accept it, and to pray to Him to merge us back into that Divine Ocean of Love. That is real prayer. WE should always pray for His grace, for His blessings, to give us His devotion, to give us His Love, to make us worthy of Him.