Prayer should be for prīti alone

Every sentence in Śrī Jīva Goswami’s Sandarbhas is so packed with meaning and significance, that if one blinks, one might miss it. As an example, consider the Prīti Sandarbha Anuccheda 51.1 where we find the following statement:

tatra teṣu ajāta-prītibhiḥ sarva-puruṣārthatvena tat-prītir eva prārthanīyā

This profound statement is loaded with import. Babaji translates it as:

Among all ekāntīs, those who have not yet attained prīti should pray for it alone as the sum total of all puruṣārthas.

It is common to see people request others to pray for them. Whenever there are natural calamities or disasters, politicians send ‘thoughts and prayers’. I do not think any of these prayers work. As we see in the statement above, prayers should be for prīti alone. Śrī Jīva Goswami recommends it because such prayers may actually work.

Babaji devotes a significant section to this statement in his commentary which I reproduce below:

“It is seen that practicing devotees often pray for their own or another’s good health, or for some other felicitous situation. Or they may pronounce some blessing for the material well-being of others. Sometimes they may pray for the well-being of society in general or for assistance in case of some natural calamity. Such prayers, however, are not particularly conducive for a devotee’s progress on the path of uttamā-bhakti. Although they may be valued as ethical and admirable appeals from a social point of view, they do not fit within the context of the sādhana of uttamā-bhakti.

Sometimes actions that are esteemed as being of social, ethical, and practical benefit may not be suitable for bhakti. Consequently, these actions are to be avoided by devotees, even at the risk of appearing antisocial. For practitioners who are firmly rooted in faith in Bhagavān, who intuit His immanent presence as the ground of all transactions, the subtle workings of the law of karma become immediately recognizable. For those established in this larger view of life, what could possibly prompt a prayer to alter the course of material events? And even if our prayers could change the material circumstances, how would that help the jīva in any ultimate sense? Every material situation is temporary and leads to some form of discomfort. For this reason, Brahmā advises practitioners to patiently endure the results of their past karma without attachment, bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam (sb 10.14.8). Our prayers should be only for prīti.”

Summary

I am often asked on this site about prayer. The above statement from Śrī Jīva Goswami’s writings and Babaji’s commentary on it are emphatic- prayer should be about prīti alone and nothing else.