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Thread: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

  1. #1
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    Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    Namaste bhaktas,

    Why is god pleased when we pray to him? Mostly we pray for our own welfare, advanced bhatkas - renunciates, glorify god for the purpose of glorification, in either case, god does not get an iota of benefit from our glorification of him (her) - he/she remains the same, whether we glorify him or not. But, we see from numerous examples, that god is pleased with our devotion and in advanced cases of bhakti, gives darshan, blesses the devotee and asks what he can do for the devotee - gives boons.

    One very elderly devotee is said to have visited Pandaripur Panduranga continuously for 25 years on Ashada Shudda Ekadashi and offered him prayers, a homemade garland and fasted there in Pandaripur. Panduranga, pleased, is said to have given darshan and told him, "I am very much obligated to you for your bhakti".

    Why is this so?

    I think this is because our 'Atma' belongs to god, by praying either for our own welfare or for the very purpose of bhakti itself, we are promoting our Atma to a better state, and enable it to become part of god again. Thus, we are actually benefiting god, and he/she likes this. So she/he blesses us back.

    What do you think?
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

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    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    One thing that baffles me though is the reason why in certain cases god seems to have instructed people how they should carry out his worship. For instance, when the Ranga Vimana (of SriRangam) was in Satyaloka - Sriman Narayana is said to have instructed how elaborate and exactly how his worship should be each day and on various parts of the day, and why that cannot be foresaken. Also, let us take for example the temple worship. Why do we need elaborate temple worship? Praying to god at the privacy of our homes, reciting slokas and observing fasts and festivals should be sufficient is it not? Why do we need to worship god at temples? Does god need it?
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

  3. #3

    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    Very good questions. Why is the Lord pleased when we offer sincere prayers without motive for personal gain? What can we really offer Him that He does not have, as He is the Lord of everything? It is part of His inherent nature to want our bhakti. He behaves as if this is something new that He does not have, and He wants it more and more. In the beginning, He takes away all sorts of material benefits the devotee Has, making the devotee want to surrender more. Then, He tries to bestow so many boons on the devotee, but the devotee does not want any of these things. Then, in the end, when He has nothing left to offer His devotee, He then offers His very self. And still He feels this is not enough!

    It's inconceivable that the Lord could want our simple devotion, when He has eternally liberated souls like Lakshmi, Garuda, Vishvaksena, and so on rendering Him service. But, that is the Lord we worship!
    Philosoraptor

    "Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools speak because they have to say something." - Plato

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    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    Namaste Aspirant,

    From my experiences, let me try to answer you.

    Just like a child is bonded with its parents, we are all linked with Bhagwaan. A realized mom or dad wouldn't expect anything in return when they shower love and affection.
    Similarly Bhagwaan never expects us to pray him, yet he showers his love.
    When we are with our parents, we learn good things from them. they also warn us to stay away from bad things. Inspite of their teachings, If we commit bad actions, bad Karma is going to bite us back.

    Prayers, yagnaas, chanting Mantras etc etc are just different modes to stay closer to him, there by staying away from bad karma.

    He is not pleased because of your prayers, but when you pray, you stop committing bad actions. In the process You accumulate good Karma. That good Karma will benefit you based on the amount of good Karma you accumulated.

    Assuming you stay away from your parents and keep committing bad actions in turn start suffering, even then when you move towards them they ll be first to minimize your suffering.

    So, in my humble opinion Bhagwaan never expect us to pray but it is we who move closer to him with our prayers.

    Couple of months ago realized that Sreeman Naaraayan is with me 24/7. Does that mean he wasn't with earlier. NO. He was always with me. Through my prayers I just understood that He is staying with me.
    It s like a discovery, that IS understanding the existing TRUTH.
    Anirudh...

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    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    Anirudh, thank you for the wonderful post!
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

  6. #6

    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    PraNAm

    We are His parts. We are connected to Him. He wants us back. He is too kind to impose anything on us. So He sets us free - and we are foolish enough to turn our backs to Him and we think we are independant. We swim independantly in this temporary transient world where truth gets inverted.

    He helps us come back, but ONLY if we want to. Once that is established, He never leaves our side, while we are in this world also. And finally takes us back forever - but only when we are ready to leave this world completely. With tears in His eyes He says "welcome back"

    All external angas of bhakti are for us, not Him. He does not need the food, He sanctifies it for our benefit.

    BhAvanAnchA tU bhukelA re murAri ~ (Bhakti sagar collection # 108 - coincidence?)

    _/\_

    KRshNA S S S S S S S
    Hare KRshNA S S S S Hare Hare
    Shri KRshNa Govinda Hare MurAre he nAth nArAyaNa vAsudeva
    || Shri KRshNArpaNamastu ||

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    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    Om Namo Narayanaya!

    Sarvam Sree Krishnaarpanamasthu!

    JihvE Keerthaya KEshavam , MurAripum ChEtho Bhaja ShrIdharam
    paaNi dvandva samarcchaya sthOthra AchythA kathA shrOthra dvayA twam Shrunu
    Krishnam LokAya LOchana dvaya Hare: Gaccha Anghri Yugma Aalayam
    Jighra GhrAna Mukunda pAda thulaseem moordham nAma AdhOkshajam

    I found an excellent article on doing Kainkaryam to god based on the above verse: http://krischronicles.blogspot.com/2...a-brahmam.html
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

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    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    Vannakkam: Is God pleased when we pray to him? I don't have the ability or any direct communion to ask him, so I really don't know. Maybe. Maybe not.

    Certainly one way of looking at God is that he is beyond being pleased.

    Aum Namasivaya

  9. #9

    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    I don't know the answer, but I imagine it's a bit like asking why parents are pleased when their children express love and appreciation for them.

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    Re: Why is god pleased when we pray to him?

    Sri Aurobindo writes (my apologies it the following text offends some sampradhays)
    The idea of the Law of the world as primarily a dispenser of rewards and punishments is cognate to the idea of the Supreme Being as a judge, "father" and school-master who is continually rewarding with lollipops his good boys and continually caning his naughty urchins.
    It is cognate also to the barbarous and unthinking system of sometimes savage and always degrading punishment for social offences on which human society, unable still to find out or organise a more satisfactory way, is still founded. Man insists continually on making God in his own image instead of seeking to make himself more and more in the image of God, and all these ideas are the reflection of the child and the savage and the animal in us which we have still failed to transform or outgrow. We should be inclined to wonder how these fancies of children found their way into such profound philosophical religions as Buddhism and Hinduism, if it were not so patent that men will not deny themselves the luxury of tacking on the rubbish from their past to the deeper thoughts of their sages.
    No doubt, since these ideas were so prominent, they must have had their use in training humanity. Perhaps even it is true that the Supreme deals with the child soul according to its childishness and allows it to continue its sensational imaginations of heaven and hell for a time beyond the death of the physical body.
    Perhaps both these ideas of after-life and of rebirth as fields of punishment and reward were needed because suited to our half-mentalised animality. But after a certain stage the system ceases to be really effective. Men believe in Heaven and Hell but go on sinning merrily, quit at last by a Papal indulgence or the final priestly absolution or a death-bed repentance or a bath in the Ganges or a sanctified death at Benares, - such are the childish devices by which we escape from our childishness! And in the end the mind grows adult and puts the whole nursery nonsense away with contempt. The reward and punishment theory of rebirth, if a little more elevated or at least less crudely sensational, comes to be as ineffective. And it is good that it should be so. For it is intolerable that man with his divine capacity should continue to be virtuous for a reward and shun sin out of terror. Better a strong sinner than a selfish virtuous coward or a petty hucksterer with God; there is more divinity in him, more capacity of elevation. Truly the Gita has said well, kripanah phalahetavah [= poor and wretched souls are they who make the fruit of their works the object of their thoughts and activities]. And it is inconceivable that the system of this vast and majestic world should have been founded on these petty and paltry motives. There is reason in these theories ? then reason of the nursery, puerile.
    Ethics ? then ethics of the mud, muddy.
    The true foundation of the theory of rebirth is the evolution of the soul, or rather its efflorescence out of the veil of Matter and its gradual self-finding.
    Buddhism contained this truth involved in its theory of Karma and emergence out of Karma but failed to bring it to light; Hinduism knew it of old, but afterwards missed the right balance of its expression. Now we are again able to restate the ancient truth in a new language and this is already being done by certain schools of thought, though still the old incrustations tend to tack themselves on to the deeper wisdom. And if this gradual efflorescence be true, then the theory of rebirth is an intellectual necessity, a logically unavoidable corollary. But what is the aim of that evolution ? Not conventional or interested virtue and the faultless counting out of the small coin of good in the hope of an apportioned material reward, but the continual growth towards a divine knowledge, strength, love and purity. These things alone are real virtue and this virtue is its own reward. The one true reward of the works of love is to grow ever in capacity and delight of love up to the ecstasy of the spirit's all-seizing embrace and universal passion; the one reward of the works of right Knowledge is to grow perpetually into the infinite Light; the one reward of the works of right Power is to harbour more and more of the Force Divine, and of the works of purity to be freed more and more from egoism into that immaculate wideness where all things are transformed and reconciled into the divine equality. To seek other reward is to bind oneself to a foolishness and a childish ignorance; and to regard even these things as a reward is an unripeness and an imperfection.
    True union and identity of Shiva (Linga) and soul (anga) represents life's goal, described as shoonya, or nothingness. One merges with Shiva by following means bhakti (devotion), mahesha (selfless service), prasada (earnestly seeking Siva's grace), pranalinga (experience of all as Siva), sharana (egoless refuge in Siva), and aikya (oneness with Siva). Soul and God fuse in a final state of perpetual Shiva consciousness , as rivers merging in the ocean.:)

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