Sunday, December 7, 2008

Pray for the end; not for the means

I don't know what you thought about my subject but when it came to my mind first it almost felt as if I'm saying "pray for your end" :). That is certainly not what I've in mind!

My subject wants to convey that we should pray for what is our ultimate goal in life and not the small little things that we think we need to add to our basket on the way. If all you want from your life is to be happy; then pray for that. Not something like: "God please give me X, Y and Z so that I'm happy".

Often we pray that I get X (where X could be an object or an intangible) or that Y would happen (where Y is an event). My question is: why do we that?

Isn't all that we want is for us and our family to be happy? Then why don't we simply pray that we be happy? Why do we add clauses to our prayers? If we're praying to the supreme one then that means we believe that he has the power to grant us. Then we must also believe that whatever he does is for our benefit.

I remember that when we were in high school, some students would pray to get good scores/marks/grades. So I asked myself that why don't they just pray to God that they be happy. The answer that I got back was maybe they're too young to understand that.

So I thought of people older than those students. People in that category are praying for a good job or a good house or some such thing. I asked myself the same question and couldn't explain why they do that except that they don't know what they want from life.

How can we be so sure that getting X would make us happy? Why not make our lives simpler (and His job too :)) by simply praying for the happiness of our family. Can you imagine the power of the prayers when everyone in your family prays for the same thing?!?!

I would love to hear what everybody thinks about this!

3 comments:

Renu said...

Earlier daily i used to pray..God give long life and happiness to my H, and kids, but then i was very unhappy sometimes, so somebody suggested..why not pray for ur own happiness, then u will get everything because u cudnt be happy unless ur children are happy:) and i marveled at that person's clever mind:)
but as u said if we ask for happiness, then may be in God's eye's we may be happy, but we may not feel it, as for us to feel we need to have any particular thing, so its better to ask specifically what u want?

Anonymous said...

wow!! this is very impressive. I like your thoughts. I think what you say has merit and i read the other comments as well. Maybve what we need to distinguish is - are these mutually exclusive or not! ok so i dont have too big an opinion but glad to read so mature thoughts. shows you are growing old!!

Smriti said...

Thank you for your comments mom and bhaiya!