In Bhakti-sādhana, the practice of cultivating an inner life of devotion, we commonly say that devotional service consists of nine different activities: hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshiping, obeying, maintaining friendship, surrendering, and praying.
But why do we pray? Who do we pray to? What do we pray for?
To pray is most often understood as addressing a request to some supernatural being—a request that cannot be satisfied by mundane means. Either the request is beyond our material reach, or directly impossible. Our expectation in praying is that the request will be granted by some agency beyond our knowledge, beyond our experience, beyond our control.
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