God answers all prayers. Restless prayers, however, He answers only a little bit. If you offer to others something that isn’t yours to give, won’t that be a merely empty gesture? If you pray to God, similarly, but lack control over your own thoughts, that prayer will be without power. Thoughts and feelings, both, must be focused when you pray. Otherwise God will meet your little trickle with another trickle of His own! He will dole His answers out to you in a teaspoon. Too often, prayer is more like the halfhearted mumbling of a beggar than the confident, loving demand of a friend.
—Swami Kriyananda
Every religion counsels prayer, but most people are disappointed with the results. Yogananda gave clear guidelines for effective prayer. First of all, we must pray with full consciousness—as Christ & Krishna said, “with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Prayers with real power elicit a potent response. Our prayers may not be answered immediately, and often not in the way we expect, but prayers always draw a response from the Divine.
Pray believing. Don’t let doubts or insecurities block your expectation of success. Assume that God wants to answer your prayers (as long as they are for your benefit, not your harm). Pray with the thought that you are God’s very own child, not an unworthy beggar pleading for favors. Beggarly prayers keep God distant, while praying as His son or daughter brings Him close. Feel that God is your friend and that He wants to help you.
Identify with your potential, not your failings. Yogananda said, “The greatest sin is to call yourself a sinner.” Let your prayer be simple and from your heart. Formal prayers create a stiff relationship with God, casting Him in the role of someone to be pleased with fancy words before He will accept our love. In reality, He is the nearest of the near and the dearest of the dear. He is closer to us than our own thoughts and loves us more than we can ever love ourselves. Many prefer to pray to God in the feminine form, as Divine Mother.
Here is a beautiful and simple prayer from Whispers from Eternity by Paramhansa Yogananda you can use as a model for your own prayers. Read it several times, repeat it with closed eyes and go into the feeling behind the words. As you continue to saturate the prayer with your soul yearnings, you will spiritualize it and give it power:
We Demand as Thy Children
by Paramhansa Yogananda
Thou art our Father. We are made in Thine own image. We are children of God. We neither ask nor pray like beggars, but demand as Thy children, wisdom, salvation, health, happiness, eternal joy. Naughty or good, we are Thy children. Help us to find Thy will in us. Teach us to use independently the human will (since Thou gavest that to us to use freely), in tune with Thy wisdom-guided will.
