If we want any kind of renunciation in life—material or spiritual—we must only pray to the appropriate authority for that. To put it another way, one must submit his application honestly and humbly. Of course it goes without saying, whatever benediction one receives must be repaid, with interest, so that is the catch in all matters. The only benediction therefore worth having is Love for Krishna.
Krishna already loves us, but we do not love Him, and because of this imbalance in our relationship with God, we are suffering in every way.
Even in mundane circles, if we want to buy a house but haven’t sufficient funds, we apply for a loan. So the loan application is a kind of prayer. If we want to marry a certain woman, we propose. It is a kind of prayer. If we are in legal difficulty, we appeal to the court or the judge. That is a kind of prayer. So prayer is a universal activity. Even cats and dogs pray to their master for benedictions of food or other comforts. Why human beings foolishly declare “God is dead” and neglect prayer? American Indians prayed for rain (and got it). But modern man has become so puffed up he will not humble himself in prayer. Therefore he will find no solution to his problems.
There is nothing but prayer to help us solve life’s problems. Of course life is full of problems—economic, health, legal, social, sexual, etc. So many problems. In fact, life means an endless chain of problems. Beginning with birth and old age, disease and the ultimate problem is death.
What is the underlying motivation of all human (animals) activities? It is to avoid dying, disease and old age. But death is the all-consuming fear of the living, and everything we do is aimed at somehow or other avoiding death.
Therefore we eat, we sleep. We are constantly arranging for our defense, individually and collectively, and lastly we beget children to perpetuate our name.
So prayer is the only effective action to help us deal with these problems. And that prayer should be directed towards God, Krishna, and our prayer should aim at a wholesale solution to our problem—that is, to get permanent relief from the sufferings of birth, death, old age and disease. Any other prayer is really superfluous, because all problems are the result of those four basic problems—birth, death, disease and old age.
I pray that I may actually become a pure devotee of Krishna and Prabhupada, and thus be able to distribute the message of Krishna as His transparent medium all over the world. I pray that Prabhupada and Krishna and all the previous acharyas will dictate to my heart directly the necessary messages to convince all people of the necessity for Krishna consciousness—above all other necessities. This is my prayer.
