To Pray is to know
We pray not to the god out there, but to the god within us β the one who listens to our desperate pleas and pays attention to what we want and need. When we pray, we lay bare our soul. All our desperations, our wants, and our needs are placed on display. In that moment, we experience absolute clarity about what we truly want from life. That one thing which, if granted, would make our life infinitely better.
That is why prayer is essential across all cultures. I donβt believe there is a god sitting in the clouds, listening to each individual plea. But I do believe in god. I believe there is a force that created this universe and set in motion the governing laws by which it operates. However, it does not seem fitting for such a being β the architect of the entire cosmos β to adjust those laws based on individual requests.
The Upanishads say that the soul within us is untainted. It observes all our actions without being affected by those actions. This inner witness is the closest reflection of how god functions. When we are freed from the cycle of life and death, it is this soul that merges with the ultimate god. If that is true, and if this god created the universe along with the laws of karma and causality, then the act of prayer is no longer about asking for things. It becomes something else entirely.
Prayer, in that sense, is not about changing the external world but about reaching clarity within. Desperation reveals what we yearn for. It sharpens our focus and points us toward that one thing which, if attained, would keep us alive and driven. A prayer becomes a list of what we are desperate for. If you had only thirty seconds to say your prayer, and could only ask for three things, what would they be? Those are the things you truly want.
In my view, everything that happens after prayer is coincidental β including those moments that feel magical and serendipitous. What truly gives us strength is knowing what we want. Once we identify that, we redirect all our efforts toward it. We stop obsessing over the outcome and simply continue putting in the work. Desperation doesn't allow us to be disheartened. That is exactly what Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita. Put in the efforts.
Prayer leads us toward clarity, and the path to that clarity is often through desperation. It narrows our vision and aligns us with our deepest objective. The prayers that seem to be answered are often the ones backed by consistent effort, free from attachment to the result.
We cannot shape our lives with this kind of inner alignment unless we go through the process of prayer. That is why religions have endured for so long. That is why there are countless rituals and ways to pray. The purpose is not to make an all-powerful god listen to us. It is to make our inner self understand what we are desperate for β to uncover what we truly want.