PRAYERS

How to offer
Prayers to Lord?

by
Radheshyam das
Praying  purifies mind  place Lord in your heart
Begging for Service,
Repentance and
Shelter
Prayer helps in….
 emptying mind of
all other thoughts
 Mastery over Mind
 thinking of Krishna at will
 Who can talk to Lord?
“One who is sincerely engaged in the
service of the Lord with love and faith
can talk with Krishna and receive
instructions by which he can speedily
return home, back to Godhead…..
Today, many scholars defend the science
of religion and they have some
conception of the SPOG, but religion
without practical experience of the
SPOG is no religion at all….. If one is not
qualified to talk with Him and take
lessons from Him, how can one
understand the principles of religion?”
- Cc. Madhya 4.95
 How should we pray?
Prayer should be done
wholeheartedly and
not mechanically.
 

Prayer occurs when we

break through the
material coverings and
actually speak to Krishna,
chant His holy names and
enter the spirit of
the sastric stotras.
 
 How should we pray?
Prayers are
transcendental records of
thoughts,
sentiments and
spontaneous utterings
Actually expressed by devotees
at times when :
They adored the Lord
in a personal darshana (OR)
when they were in danger
when they were in Samadhi of devotion.
 How to THANK the
Lord by prayer ?
Bhakta Prahlad thanked the Lord for
sending His pure devotee,
Narada as guru.

In Bhisma’s prayers at the time of his

passing away, he thanked the Lord for
graciously appearing before him.

In the prayers of Queen Kunti she

thanked Lord Sri Krishna for
the bounty.
What should we REQUEST
the Lord in prayer?
Lower quality prayer 
praying for some material benefit

Higher quality prayer 

Request for pure devotional service

Lord Brahma : “My dear Lord, I therefore pray

to be so fortunate that in this life as Lord
Brahma, or in any other life, wherever I take my
birth, I may be counted as one of your devotees.
I pray that wherever I may be, even among the
animal species, I can engage in devotional
service to Your lotus feet” [SB 10.14.30]
Praying with REPENTANCE
The prayers of Lord Brahma and
Lord Indra spoken in their mood
of Repentance, were actualy
spoken by them from the heart
after they had attempted to
defeat Lord Krishna and had been
humiliated. They are prayers
spoken on the occasion, out of
deep spiritual emotions and
realisations—and they are
directly inspired by the Lord.
 How should we ask for
FORGIVENESS from the Lord ?
Arjuna asked Krishna to forgive him for
acting in a too familiar way [ BG 11.41-2].

Brahma asked to be excused for his

impudence in trying to play a trick on
Krishna by stealing the cows, calves and the
cowherd boys [SB 10.14.10].

Wives of Kaliya asked that the Lord to

please forgive their husband
[SB 10.16.51-2].

Prahlada prayed that the Lord please forgive

Hiranyakasipu for his sinful activities.
 
 How should we ask for
FORGIVENESS from the Lord ?

Our personal prayer should arise

from our heart. If the heart
does not pray, it is useless for
the mouth to labour.
In the beginning it may be
difficult to pray from the heart.
We should at least regret our
inability to humble ourselves
before the Lord in prayer.
 Since God already knows
everything about us, why
bother to tell Him ?
He is pleased if we use our free
will to spend time with Him, to
be affectionate with Him, and to
pray to Him to increase our
desires for loving service.
 Personal prayer goes hand-in-
hand with sastric prayer. It is not
a remote, unimportant practice.
In one purport Prabhupada
declares that unless one talks
prayerfully with God, his religion
is merely theoretical.
 How should we offer a
Personal Prayer ?
Praise : There is a great benefit in praying
with the words of scripture as mentioned
earlier – Gajendra’s prayers, Kunti’s prayers,
Nagapatni’s prayers etc.
 
For example, we may say,
“My dear Lord Krishna, I thank you for
saving me from maya and keeping me in the
association of devotees, despite my
naughty and mischievous nature. By this
you’ve given me chance to know about You,
serve you and awaken love for you. I am
eternally grateful to you for bringing me in
this good sanga and giving me a guru to
guide me in my way back to Godhead.”
 How should we offer a
Personal Prayer ?
There is a great benefit in praying with the words
of scripture, but there may be a tendency to hide
behind the perfect formulas of prayer which
others have made. Personal prayer forces us to
speak directly and to come out from hiding.
 
As Prabhupada said, even if our talking is
babyish, Krishna wants to hear from us, because
we are His sons and daughters. Therefore in
honesty we may begin a prayer session with
broken words like, “My dear Lord Krishna, I am
distracted today by what X said to me and my
body is also sick, so I don’t feel much like praying.
But please help me. I really do want to serve You
if I had sufficient spiritual strength.”
 
 Thanking Krishna in distress
It may be harder to thank Krishna when we are feeling
distress, but we have learned from the sastra that this
will be a test of our devotion. And Krishna is present in
the rough times :

Learned devotees accept even conditions of distress as

representing the presence of the Supreme Lord. When
a devotee is in distress he sees that the Lord has
appeared as distress just to relieve or purify the
devotee from the contamination of the material world.
- SB 10.2.28

Prabhupada doesn’t say merely that the devotee

tolerates distress, but he feels the presence of Krishna.
And this is what we seek almost more than anything in
prayer—to come into the presence of Krishna and to
be with Him and pray to Him.
 
 How does the Prayer help?

1. Purity is the force. Any

spiritual activity which purifies us
and makes us a genuine devotee
will make us more fit to preach.
Prayer will help us to become
more convinced of Krishna’s
presence.

2.As we become more Krishna

conscious, the people we meet
will be impressed that we are
not trying to cheat them.
 How does the Prayer help?

3. Prayer will also give us Inner

Strength to face the opposition
to preaching which comes from
nondevotees.
4. By praying for others, one’s
selfish heart broadens and an
automatic result is that one
wants to give them KC. This
attitude of caring for others and
then wanting to actually do
something for them, is
 Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare
Hare Rama
Hare Rama
Rama Rama
Hare Hare
Bhajahü Re Mana Çré Nanda-nandana
-BY GOVINDA DASA KAVIRAJA
bhajahü re mana çré-nanda-nandana
abhaya-caraëäravinda re
durlabha mänava-janama sat-saìge
taroho e bhava-sindhu re
çéta ätapa bäta bariñaëa
e dina jäminé jägi re
biphale sevinu kåpaëa durajana
capala sukha-laba lägi' re
e dhana, yaubana, putra, parijana
ithe ki äche paratéti re
kamala-dala-jala, jévana öalamala
bhajahü hari-pada néti re
 Smarana - Prahlad

çravaëa,
Sravana – Parikshit maharaj
kértana,
Kirtana – Sukadev Goswami
smaraëa,
vandana,
päda-
sevana,
däsya re
Dasya - Hanuman Pada sevana - Lakshmi Devi
 püjana, sakhé-jana, ätma-nivedana
govinda-däsa-abhiläña re

Atmanivedanam – Bali maharaj

Pujana – Pruthu maharaj

Sakhyam - Arjuna
 A completely Always Prays to
surrendered Lord for No fear of
soul Protection from falling
is sufficiently material into
fearful attachments & material
of maya & Blessings to contami-
never perform nation
Association Inattentive prescribed duty
with fallen
condi- Diverted
tioned souls from
Not strong Fall down
Spiritual
  from
spiritually energy to
Brahminical
& Material Excellence
Inattentive energy