Re : Question: Should we pray to God for everything we want in life?

August 12, 2007

omkalankinamahwww.omkalankinamah.orggod has given you every thing which he has including his thinking power and sent you as his representative on this planet with a specific objective but unfortunately in kaliyug we only believe in money(MATERIAL WORLD) and and amenities You have rights to ask any thing which you want but before asking you should be sure that what you are asking is really what you needGod is your servent, and when you call he is there for you. Have you ever thought about Him giving you oxyzen without our asking? He gave us water without our demands means every thing we required he has given to us ! thanking youdilip bhamawatomkalankinamahQuestion: Should we pray to God for everything we want in life?Gita Talk Guidelines />FROM THE MODERATOR The following are the guidelines for Gita-Talk discussions.1. Purpose of the group is to help Sadhaks clarify their doubts related to Gita shlokas. For responses to be posted, they must further clarify the understanding of Gitaji.2. Wherever possible, please quote Gitaji or other scriptures to substantiate the response3. Please limit personal feelings, opinions, beliefs etc.4. Kindly make your responses concise and to the point. (Up to twenty line maximum, if possible).5. Please limit discussions to subject at hand.6. Please do not include links to other sites or other organizations7. Please do not include your personal information such as phone number, address etc.8. Kindly do not address the response to a particular individual, since the message is going to the entire group.9. Due to a large readership, not all responses will be posted.10. Moderator at his discretion, may modify the posting, if content is unclear or not appropriate for distribution to the group.11. Please respond taking into consideration novices, youth, westerners, non-secterian audience. Please limit the use on only sanskrit words, and provide the english word with sanskrit bracketed wherever possible. MODERATORRam Ram

August 14, 2007

Hi Nitin,A question regarding your comment "God is your servent, and when you call he is there for you."If God is our servent, why we need to pray him, instead we could demand things whatever we want, am I right? Clarify me what you meant by "SERVENT".Regards,Dr. Ramakrishna.NITIN BORA <genb wrote: omkalankinamahwww.omkalankinamah.orggod has given you every thing which he has including his thinking power and sent you as his representative on this planet with a specific

objective but unfortunately in kaliyug we only believe in money(MATERIAL WORLD) and and amenities You have rights to ask any thing which you want but before asking you should be sure that what you are asking is really what you needGod is your servent, and when you call he is there for you. Have you ever thought about Him giving you oxyzen without our asking? He gave us water without our demands means every thing we required he has given to us ! thanking youdilip bhamawatomkalankinamahQuestion: Should we pray to God for everything we want in life?Gita Talk Guidelines />FROM THE MODERATOR The following are the guidelines for Gita-Talk discussions.1. Purpose of the group is to help Sadhaks clarify their doubts related to Gita shlokas. For responses to be posted, they must further clarify the understanding of Gitaji.2. Wherever possible, please quote Gitaji or other scriptures to substantiate the response3.

Please limit personal feelings, opinions, beliefs etc.4. Kindly make your responses concise and to the point. (Up to twenty line maximum, if possible).5. Please limit discussions to subject at hand.6. Please do not include links to other sites or other organizations7. Please do not include your personal information such as phone number, address etc.8. Kindly do not address the response to a particular individual, since the message is going to the entire group.9. Due to a large readership, not all responses will be posted.10. Moderator at his discretion, may modify the posting, if content is unclear or not appropriate for distribution to the group.11. Please respond taking into consideration novices, youth, westerners, non-secterian audience. Please limit the use on only sanskrit words, and provide the english word with sanskrit bracketed wherever possible. MODERATORRam Ram

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August 15, 2007

somehow all discussions are only in the realm of bhakti-yoga!i see people discussing whether we are servant of god or god is servant of devotee!all these are stages of your development. god is in all of us, so we are our own servants!

you can't put your responsibilities on god. even god can't change the rule of karma (jaya-vijaya's avatAra as hiraNyakashipua- hiraNyAksha, rAvaNa-kumbhakarana, and kaMsa-shisgupAla ).you are your own best friend (controlled manas) and worst enemy (uncontrolled manas).

you pray for your own benefit. just like the tirtha is not important but the tirtha-yAtrA is and it is for your own good, similarly prayer is for yourself. " AratI " is done of the personalized god when we are so much in love of teh god that we ask for troubles to be away from our own god. this shows the personalization allowed, and the intimate relation with god, that like mothers cast away evil eyes from their children, we do the same when we do AratI.

the form-ful god is purely for our selves. we always assume god will do everything for us. but remember rAmakRiShna's story when he tells his devotees that the supreme being, god is in us all. the next day one devotee comes and tells him angrily, that he has been telling the lie. he said, that the previous day he was walking on teh road when an elephant came along, and his rider (mahawat) asked the man to get out of the way. the man said, " i have the supreme divine god in me " . but the elephant simply grabbed him in his trunk and threw him aside.

to this rAmakRiShna replied, " didn't you hear the supreme divine from the mahawat warning you to get away? " what i mean is that when we think that god will answer all our prayers for material things or effects it can be misleading. how can god do our good only? what if a thief asks to be able to break in 100 houses tonight, and everyone prays that they not be victims of theft? whose should god listen. all are praying earnestly. it is ultimately the thief's actions that will not be rewarded if the house owners are vigilant. god doesn't come and oversee every aspect of selfish prayer.

when we truly cry out of despair or need, we burn our ego, and we start seeing the effects of it, and to keep the ego subdued we say that it is by god's grace. but if you are gyAna-yogI, you can say that it is all my karma that is coming back to me. if you are true gyAnI, you will not let ego interfere.

only in our tradition do we find the audacious claim that " bhagat ke bas me hai bhagawAna " - because in the bhakti, the more we surrender to the divine the more we start seeing things turning our way. in other words, the more we subdue our ego, the more we startcaring about others, and worrying less about us. this in turn brings a change in the society around us when others start caring for us. since god is in everyone and everything, we can say that god has started to listen to us and helping us through the other people.

two farmer brothers had sown cotton and mustard. one hoped for the early rains for his mustard and the other hoped for some more sunshine for his cotton. what should their father pray for? good and bad are relative and dependent upon our karma.

so instead of asking god for something in our prayers, do the right thing for the desired result, and then let it go. if everything falls in place you will get it.take another example. we all want to eradicate poverty. but it will never happen. since if you give everyone 1lakh rupees or 20 kg of gold, all of a sudden the value of rupee or gold will go down and you will be able to buy nothing with the money. so people will get according to what they do.

don't put your responsibility on god. god helps them who help themselves!- shashikant joshiOn 8/15/07, venkat kanumalla <sridhardikshit wrote:

Dear Devotees, We can ask BhagavAn for ONLY one thing - " tava nitya-kimkaratAm prArdhaye " - meaning - may I be Your eternal Servant. Anything other than the above request comes under another verse that says " ... krupaNA phala hetava: " - meaning - Bhagavan Sri Krishna said in Bhagavad- Gita that " ... those devotees who pray to ME expecting some results are indeed mean " .

That is the true difference between kAmya-karma and nishkAma-karma. Thank you, Venkat Kanumalla

tatachar wrote: Please note these select verses from the Bhagavadgita in response to the question:(But) those who worship Me, thinking of Me alone, and ever devoted to Me, to them I provide what they lack and preserve what they have (I will completely look after their welfare).

(IX-22) O' a-rju-na! The best among descendents of bha-ra-ta! Four kinds of virtuous people worship Me; one who is in misery, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the man of wisdom (wise).

(VII-16) All these (four kinds of devotees) are noble, but indeed, I consider the wise man as My very own; with his self united, he abides in Me as the supreme goal. (VII-18) But those whose minds are drifted away by this or that desire resort to other (lesser) gods, following this or that ritual, guided by their own nature (of their own

making).(VII-20)Whatever form (of God) a devotee chooses to worship in good faith, I make that very faith of his steady, indeed!(VII-21) Endowed with that steady faith, he (the devotee) gets his desires fulfilled; (in reality) those desires are indeed granted by Me only (because the needs of all beings are fulfilled only through Me, the ultimate cosmic source of all there is).

(VII-22)