Do Prayers Help?

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.
This quote is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi.
But he was assassinated.

He prayed, meditated, participated many with him in group bhajans. But why his life ended by a shooter from point blank range! Why father of Nation’s prayers fail to protect , preserve and defend Him?

The above was asked by an atheist to staunch pious Hindu. His answer to atheist was “ it is karma palan”.

A friend of mine from impoverished levels with spouse was conducting regular poojas, regular pilgrimage to Sabari Mala & actively participated in and organised regular bhajans. His financial status not improved much even after a decade since I met and observed him. But after another five years , all his three daughters seemed to have been benefited greatly. All three settled leading happy married life in different geographies. Then I realised the benefits of his spouse & his prayers have gone to their daughters.

I concluded that benefactors of prayer sometime are progenies.
A prayer in silence without demanding anything in return (not quid pro quo) to Cosmic Designer seem to reward many. Keeping in view of past and or balance of karmas, What is to be granted to a worshiper is pre decided by Almighty including the turn of events in one’s life. By demanding one may be putting God into predicament for God might have decided to bless the person much better than his demands. Sure God listen some prayers and some He hears!

Personally I have faith in prayers. Yes I developed it in my childhood and parents trained me for that. It became then habit. I was neither sceptical or dubious about the gains ofeffort ofprayer/ worship the Almighty. There was a belief annual attendance with family entourage and worship/ prayer to tutelary deity is a must to continue to get blessings and favours granted. I missed it for a couple of years followed by several hardships. My faith in prayer is narrated in

Moon Boon Lord & Kozhukattai

• A local thief got the wind of a well to do man with family would be leaving home with out keeping a security man to the locked home on a pilgrimage for a week. Thief targeted his house for a huge fortune & loot. Both before commencing their act, present themselves in a nearby shrine of Lord Vinayak aka Ganesh and prayed. Rich man prayed for nothing to be stolen from his home and he would drop In Hundi ₹5000 if everything goes well during the period when home is locked. Thief standing opposite the rich man prayed for a good loot from rich man’s home and if He succeeds he would drop in hundi ₹5000. How and why Vinayak would deal with this situation? whose prayer will be answered for a quid pro quo.

We heard stories of stampede uphill devotees die falling one over another. Buses with devotees deviates and plunge into a gorge some escaped with minor injuries some dead ... etc . Worshippers on a pilgrimage meet with sever accidents followed by tragic deaths. What happens to the collective prayers of these worshippers. .....only God knows.

If everything is to happen as per karma of person (body & or soul) then one wonders then where is the need to pray or worship or faith in The UnKnown.
Karmas supposed to wait and act over eons.

• After describing the karmas Lord Krishana gives a divine vision to him to see his past 50 births. Dhritrashtra discovered that 50 births back he was a ruthless hunter and once just to have some fun he threw a burning net on a tree full of birds. Thus causing 100 young birds to be burnt to death. While the remaining birds managed to escape, they became blind due to the scorching heat caused by this fire.
• Due to the effect of Sanchita Karma, he was destined to remain blind in this Life and also lose his 100 sons.
• After listening to Krishna’s enlightening explanation, Dhritrashtra inquired “Krishna why did I not get punished in that birth itself, or the next birth, for the great sin that I had committed? Why now?”
• Lord Krishna smiled and said,” Your Karma had to wait for an opportune time for 50 Births. During which time you could earn and accumulate enough pious deeds to attain the merit of being born a king and have 100 sons in one lifetime. The Sanchita Karma accumulated over the last 50 births would influence your life as Prarabdha Karma and could then instantaneously confront you with the effects of that evil action.”

Thus I find it is a difficult question to answer - a clear yes or an emphatic no. Perhaps the omnibus answer could be “Yes & No”

Thanks and Regards.

 

Prayer is to connect self with creator to energize body and mind. Makes it ready to deal with the Maya around, it cleanses, purifies and keep the mind calm and sharp. Prayer without understanding is a mere drill.

 

sometimes I feel that rather than praying , doing good karma might be a good way to get God's blessings like doing some charity, may be..

i don't belive in following rituals or just reading prayer books but prefer charity work..

i think only good karma can reduce bad karma that might be coming one's way..agami karma( future karma)..i think ...

 

The resultant of one's karma is not algebra. For bad karma one appears to suffer and for good karma one is blessed with "பதினாறும் பெற்று பெருவாழ்வு" . This is clear even from lifes' of celebrities.
The life of Dhirudhrshtra and his karma accumulated in previous births are or were result of evil actions by him several births before.
Thanks and regards.

 

okay, its good to learn from other people's experiences but my question was- why pray for something if one is not supposed to get it because of karmic destiny.

i would rather earn good karma by doing good deeds so that i can reap good karma in future.

yes, i have heard good and bad karmas goes spiritually by default to progeny which I heard 1 indian astrologer who has done lots of research in astrology and interviewed many astrolgers too and has dedicate himself to this field of astrology and he also mentioned that progeny will get inheritance in terms of house and materials non spiritually but spiritually, they will also inherit spiritually all good and bad karma of their parents. Your friends story again proved it.

thank you.

 

Good question.
It follows To do good or bad or both - I must say it is again governed & pre-decided by one’s balance of karma of previous birth. In that case, destiny all ready written over head.

If only had God engraved on individual’s head the date and time of his or her expiry, the world would be a quite quiet and all karmas of all would be frozen.

Repine over approach of death, no one would act, work or worship or pray and no scope for “fresh” karma to neutralise old karma or add more karma . Civilisation will naturally come to a grinding halt and so too the karma!