Why arent prayers answered?

[Rudy]

Why arent they? Some one could be praying for the right reasons, the right state of mind, and the love for their ishta devata and yet the prayer foes un answered.

I know there is a good Hindu answer but I couldn't find it by Google search.

[Jainarayan]

Sometimes they are answered but not in the way we expect. Sometimes the answer comes by us doing something, or not doing something. Lord Ganesha removes obstacles, but sometimes He also puts them in our way to help us solve our own problems.

Sometimes a prayer seems to not be answered, because karma needs to be fulfilled. For example, when my mother was end stage ovarian cancer, not amount of prayer was going to eliminate the cancer. All we could pray for was that she would go to sleep, which she did.

Is there something specific you're thinking of? I'm sure someone can give a better answer than mine.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Rudy: Its quite simple.If its not going to help your spiritual development, it won't be answered. How could a loving God answer a prayer that leads you away from Him. So you might think its leading you towards him, but He doesn't. :)

Aum Namasivaya

[NayaSurya]

Already very good answers and I hope to bring the mother's point of view.

When a child is so beautiful...sweet...and ask for candy? What can a mother do? We give the child what he ask for...and then the child come again? Giving the child what he request every time will just make him sick. Or what if the child has already been sick and wanting to play outside before recovered?

I think restraint shows we have such a loving Father and Mother.

I prayed a simple pray for many years...


Thank you for my every breath.

"...for every vespered prayer you have heard and answered with amazing miracles.

...for every prayer...with your supreme wisdom, ignored for my own well being."


One time I helped a young person in a video game, I kill a monster attacking them and they turn and say...wait! I could handle it myself! I want to do it myself! and I realize that sometimes we do more harm than good when we try to help.

This is the wise lesson of a lifetime!

Sometimes, prayers are not answered because...You...in your Infinite Wisdom, has decided it..as a good Father, He carry it out according to plan.

So keep striving.<3

[Rudy]

TouchedbytheLordSometimes they are answered but not in the way we expect. Sometimes the answer comes by us doing something, or not doing something. Lord Ganesha removes obstacles, but sometimes He also puts them in our way to help us solve our own problems.

Sometimes a prayer seems to not be answered, because karma needs to be fulfilled. For example, when my mother was end stage ovarian cancer, not amount of prayer was going to eliminate the cancer. All we could pray for was that she would go to sleep, which she did.

Is there something specific you're thinking of? I'm sure someone can give a better answer than mine.28 July 2011 03:00 PM

I'm not thinking of anything specific I just I'd just like to know the answer to that classic question.

[satay]

Namaste,
I have asked this question many times. My conclusion is that it has to do with karma. Karma has to be worked out by Jiva.

[RosemaryOs]

This being Ramana Maharshi's answer to the question...

...from "The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, In His Own Words" edited by Arthur Osborne, p. 59


D.: Are our prayers granted?

B.: Yes, they are granted. No thought will ever go in vain.
Every thought will produce its effect some time or other.
Thought force will never go in vain.2

(Thanks for asking the question!!)

[Friend from the West]

Namaste,
Satay, if you do not mind would you expound on your response? Perhaps elementary for others but would like to understand better.
Regardless, thank you.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namast&#233;



Feeble thoughts produce feeble results... Clear, pure thoughts that are in line with Universal principles produce the best fruit.

This follows the same principle submitted on a previous thread:

It is said that success, happiness, bliss (sukṛta&#185;) is born of sattva (sāttvkaṁ). It is by this infusion of sattva&#185; , being, wholeness, purity, that one unfolds their essence (sāra).

This also includes one's prayers , as they are ~intent~.

praṇām

words

sukṛta - meritorious act , virtue , moral merit ; well-conducted , virtuous , fortunate ; another name for prajā-pati
sattva - Being, true essence , the existence of the Supreme ; In the sāṃkhya view of reality it is the the highest of the three guṇaspraṇām

[satay]

namaste,
I am not sure that I can. It is just my personal conclusion on the question. I have noticed in practice as you and others probably have too that some prayers get answered very qucikly yet some you can try all your might, you can be sincere, you can try to 'bribe' God with this and that, you can do fasting, you can do pujas recommended by pundits, you can do chandi yagyas or havanas to please the forces, yet no response from above.

So the only conclusion I come to is that there is sometimes karma that God rather have us resolve ourselves instead of intervening. Why he doesn't answer all prayers is a mystry.

For the past few years, I have been seeing everything that is happening in my personal life through the eyes of karma lens i.e. I think to myself, this is happening due to some karma, whatever the situation might be.


Namaste,
Satay, if you do not mind would you expound on your response? Perhaps elementary for others but would like to understand better.
Regardless, thank you.

[Friend from the West]

Namaste,
Thanks so much Satay for your response. Vajvan, "intent", I could meditate on this for.....
Good evening.
Rich

[Eastern Mind]

For the past few years, I have been seeing everything that is happening in my personal life through the eyes of karma lens i.e. I think to myself, this is happening due to some karma, whatever the situation might be.

Vannakkam Satay: Very wise approach indeed. Do you take it a step further as well, and act knowing present creates future?

Aum Namasivaya

[satay]

namaste,


Do you take it a step further as well, and act knowing present creates future?

Aum Namasivaya

Yes, I try to make choices that I think will create less rnanubandan and thus less karma but it is very hard to follow this practice. For example, I am very careful about taking favours from others. I almost always do not accept any money or cash from anyone even if they owed it to me. A friend of mine once told me, 'never say no to money and accept it the way it comes.' I take the other extreme approach and do the opposite of his advice. :)

That said, I don't shy away from doing favours for others when needed, same thing for money.

Again, this all has no scriptural support that I am aware of, just my own personal thing.

[JaiMaaDurga]

Namaste,
Perhaps it is because it was told to me as a young child, but I am always reminded of "The Frogs Who Wished For A King" from Aesop's Fables, when this question is raised... perhaps not Hindu in origin, but still useful for me to remain mindful of my self-responsibility.. (and of course on a social level, that any leader is only as powerful as the community has permitted them to be)

[Eastern Mind]

namaste,

For example, I am very careful about taking favours from others. I almost always do not accept any money or cash from anyone even if they owed it to me.

This all has no scriptural support that I am aware of, just my own personal thing.

Vannakkam Satay: I am the same. When I take a favour from someone, I am thinking. "Rats, now I owe." Its like borrowing money. For example, the other day my daughter moved, and I encouraged her to just rent a van for 90 bucks rather than use friends as she had done before. So she did, and she just used relatives, which is a different less of a karma to later work out or repay.

There is a couple at our temple who are constantly asking for rides. I give one if its convenient. Occasionally, I like doing this, but constantly, no. Its enabling them then, and they actually have a car and can drive.. The last time when he started going on about karma, I really felt like saying, "So next time you're giving me a ride, right?" but I held the tongue.

I have no scriptural support either, its just gut feeling, but also some learning from my father who was the same.

Aum Namasivaya

[Jainarayan]

Namaste satayji,


For the past few years, I have been seeing everything that is happening in my personal life through the eyes of karma lens i.e. I think to myself, this is happening due to some karma, whatever the situation might be.

For years I've "wrung my hands" and chanted "woe is me!". I used say "I wonder what Gypsy Queen I peed off who put a curse on me". How silly and ignorant, but when you can't understand why you experience the things you do, and don't understand karma in its various forms, you turn to silliness. Instead of wringing my hands I have to accept that, like everyone else, I am experiencing Prarabdha Karma. There is no other explanation.


namaste,



Yes, I try to make choices that I think will create less rnanubandan and thus less karma but it is very hard to follow this practice. For example, I am very careful about taking favours from others. I almost always do not accept any money or cash from anyone even if they owed it to me. A friend of mine once told me, 'never say no to money and accept it the way it comes.' I take the other extreme approach and do the opposite of his advice. :)

That said, I don't shy away from doing favours for others when needed, same thing for money.

Again, this all has no scriptural support that I am aware of, just my own personal thing.

I'm on your page 100%. I did something for a local cop, for which he offered to pay me for my expense. I flat out refused and told him to take the money and use it for the pd's Explorer or youth organization, or whatever he wanted. It was just something to give back to the pd. They've been more than good to me, on various occasions.

Once there was an old lady at the supermarket checkout who didn't have enough money for her juices. She was going to have the cashier take them away. I looked at the cashier and mouthed "put it on my bill". Shortly after that, something nice came my way, completely unlooked-for and unexpected.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namast&#233;



prayers seem to come in 3 flavors...

things I need for myself: self-centered
things I hope and request for others: less self-centered
things I hope and request for the world at large :self-lessYet it seems the best prayers are those that ask for guidence for right action for right thoughts, for wholesome thoughts.

How can the Lord not know what you already need ? What then in asking when She knows ? One can ask for proper guidence for oneself or others to take them in the right (dharma) direction.

praṇām

[RosemaryOs]

Thanks for this discussion. These are things I think about often.....

[sunyata07]

Namaste,

Thanks for posting such a simple but often asked question, Rudy! This is actually something that's been on my mind a lot lately, probably because in the last month or so I have been praying a lot more for things than I normally would. A part of me has sometimes found the idea of praying to God for a favour or a boon as something of a pointless endeavour. Not because I feel He doesn't hear or care what we ask of Him, but rather because He already knows exactly what each of us need and want. If God really is Antaryami, surely He knows what any of us would like or require before we even come to that decision ourselves. All the same, it is comforting to pray, especially when you need some help.



Sometimes they are answered but not in the way we expect. Sometimes the answer comes by us doing something, or not doing something. Lord Ganesha removes obstacles, but sometimes He also puts them in our way to help us solve our own problems.



I agree with you, TBTL, and I think it also ties in with what Satay was saying about karma that needs to be worked out. Who knows in what ways the past karma of prior lifetimes will unfold for the individual in his time on earth? On this planet with the 6 billion people and even more non-human jivas living their lives, who can say what is really fair and what isn't? I think getting into the complex mechanisms of how past karma comes to affect the present lifetime doesn't do much good. Up to a point, I mean. Why delve into the past, when the future can be fixed right now? God is always there to help us and give us guidance when we need it, but we also have to make the effort to help ourselves, either by doing something different, or seeking help from another source. If anyone remembers or knows about Aesop's fable about Hercules and the man pulling the cart with the broken wheel, the same can apply here. You could get down on your knees and pray as loud and long as you want for God to appear before you and help you fix your burst tyre, but first maybe you should think about taking the first step and getting the jack out of your car boot.

Nayasurya, that's another good point you bring up. Sometimes we pray for an object or a thing to come into our lives, thinking it will bring us joy and success, but does not the parent know what's best for His/Her child? So often I find people think they know what they want, when they really haven't a clue what makes them happy. I'm certainly one of them.

Om namah Shivaya