Orlando,
Sriman Narayana cannot be seen easily. By any means. He can be seen only when he wants. That happens when you are full of love, and implicitly perform saranagati to him. Even when Dhruva did penance for the sake of material desires, what did he ask when finally he had the divine vision? He asked for nothing. Finally, Lord had to force him to accept material desires and made him an emporer.
Similarly, chanting Rama Nama even for the sake for material desires will ultimately lead to Visvarupa darshana. Because the name itself will purify you. Note that I mentioned 960 million repetitions. Do you really think your material instincts will persist even when you complete this? The first few million will be materialistic, but the more you involve in spirituality, automatically you will be drawn away from materialism - that is power of mantras and God's names. You can start with material desires, but you will never remain the same.
It is to be noted that Vishnu alone seems to be so hard to obtain. There are numerous instances to Asuras and Rakahsas performing tapas on Brahma and Shiva and getting their material desires sanctioned. Shiva is said to grant boons that lead Asuras to their own destruction, or sometimes is in trouble himself. This is all just myth though. It just stresses the point that Lord Vishnu is extremely hard to attain by any human effort, by any amount of Yoga or tapasya, except by his grace. That does not mean we should stop making our efforts.
Om namO nArAyaNAya
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srIman nArAyaNa caranau caranam prapadye srImate nArAyaNAya namaha
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sarva-dharmAn parityajna mAm Ekam saranam vraja
aham tvan sarva- papebhyo moksayisyAmi ma suchah
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