Only Prayer Can't Help You Achieve Success
Swami Dayananda Saraswati
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Traditionally, both teacher and student pray together before beginning the study of any Upa nishad. Every Upanishad has a shantipatha, a prayer invoking peace, in the beginning. Any new undertaking whether building a house, writing a book or studying a text begins with a prayer. A prayer is said to invoke Divine Grace and to overcome obstacles.The success of an undertaking requires three factors prayatna, kala and daiva. Prayatna is well-directed, adequate effort, your commitment to the pursuit. You must persevere and continue to be with the pursuit until it is accomplished. This perseverance is prayatna. Kala is time, an important factor in the successful completion of an undertaking because everything does not happen instantly .
The third factor is daiva, an unknown factor. Unlike prayatna and kala you have no control over daiva. An undertaking does not succeed just because you put in effort and time.There could be many obstacles in the way of accomplishing the goal; you may not be able to totally overcome all of them. Our knowledge is very limited. You cannot visualise all possible obstacles to be avoided. Even if you do, you either do not have the power to overcome these obstacles, or the power you have is not adequate. The result of an undertaking is not predictable.This is daiva. You may call it law of karma, chance, luck, God or whatever, but you recognise that there is an unknown factor that makes the difference between success and failure.
Daiva may be called chance, something you cannot control. If you can control it, then it is not chance; it is a manageable fact. Though you cannot control chance, you can take it into account and do something to make it favourable, in which case you are not that helpless; you can be hopeful. This hope has a basis. Hope is not based on your knowledge of what is happe ning or what will happen and so on; it is based on prayer. It is prayerful hope to avoid hel plessness. If you acknowledge the existence of this factor, then you are objective; otherwise you are in a helpless situation. You are in for disappointment.
You would call yourself a failure saying, “I am defeated all and smothered by situations. I the time and smothered by situations. I have no control over anything.“ By being objective you discover strength within.
The objectivity here is, “I have some resources, talents and knowledge. With all these, i plan for a particular thing to happen, but there is always one factor over which i have no control. I say a prayer to have that factor in my favour.“
When you say a prayer you are pragmatic. You know that you cannot call all the shots. When you do not call all the shots, naturally , you take into account the daiva factor and say a prayer to help control hidden variables.
This prayer, meaningful for the occasion, is a specific prayer. When you pray in general, without a specific purpose, it is a broad-spectrum prayer.There are specific prayers too, for every season, problem and disease, for instance. But like the intake of medicine, mere prayer does not do the job. Prayer is to make daiva favourable. You have to make adequate effort for a length of time to make the undertaking successful.
The third factor is daiva, an unknown factor. Unlike prayatna and kala you have no control over daiva. An undertaking does not succeed just because you put in effort and time.There could be many obstacles in the way of accomplishing the goal; you may not be able to totally overcome all of them. Our knowledge is very limited. You cannot visualise all possible obstacles to be avoided. Even if you do, you either do not have the power to overcome these obstacles, or the power you have is not adequate. The result of an undertaking is not predictable.This is daiva. You may call it law of karma, chance, luck, God or whatever, but you recognise that there is an unknown factor that makes the difference between success and failure.
Daiva may be called chance, something you cannot control. If you can control it, then it is not chance; it is a manageable fact. Though you cannot control chance, you can take it into account and do something to make it favourable, in which case you are not that helpless; you can be hopeful. This hope has a basis. Hope is not based on your knowledge of what is happe ning or what will happen and so on; it is based on prayer. It is prayerful hope to avoid hel plessness. If you acknowledge the existence of this factor, then you are objective; otherwise you are in a helpless situation. You are in for disappointment.
You would call yourself a failure saying, “I am defeated all and smothered by situations. I the time and smothered by situations. I have no control over anything.“ By being objective you discover strength within.
The objectivity here is, “I have some resources, talents and knowledge. With all these, i plan for a particular thing to happen, but there is always one factor over which i have no control. I say a prayer to have that factor in my favour.“
When you say a prayer you are pragmatic. You know that you cannot call all the shots. When you do not call all the shots, naturally , you take into account the daiva factor and say a prayer to help control hidden variables.
This prayer, meaningful for the occasion, is a specific prayer. When you pray in general, without a specific purpose, it is a broad-spectrum prayer.There are specific prayers too, for every season, problem and disease, for instance. But like the intake of medicine, mere prayer does not do the job. Prayer is to make daiva favourable. You have to make adequate effort for a length of time to make the undertaking successful.
