Does God fulfill your desires? Or do you believe that you can accomplish all that you want through your own self-efforts?
Before answering these questions, it’s important to know who or what is God. Vedanta states that God is the divine presence or Truth that permeates all of creation. It gives existence to all things and is the life in all living beings. Our capacity to think, feel and act comes from this life-giving factor.
God doesn’t micromanage our lives and He/she/It does not dispense blessings on some and withdraw it from others. It is equally present in all, and all beings draw on this supreme source of power when performing their actions. Without It, we are merely dead matter.
You can compare this universal life-giving presence to electricity. There is only one type of electricity everywhere. There aren’t many different types. One and the same electricity expresses differently depending on the equipment it functions through. For example, a toaster toasts bread, a heater warms up a room, a microwave cooks food and so on.
In the same way, God, the life-giving factor expresses differently in all living beings. How it expresses will depend on individual beings, their capacities and how they choose to use them. For instance, we each choose our personal goals and work toward achieving them in different ways. Or, we can choose higher responses to life and be kind and helpful to others whenever possible.
We are free to choose what we do and how we do it. It is the divine power that gives us the ability to do so. God neither interferes in our affairs nor makes decisions for us.
You may ask, if God or some higher power doesn’t fulfill our desires, why is there an apparent misconception that prayer has the power to bring what we want into our life?
And, aside from prayer, how do we accomplish our goals and get what we want in life?
Your faith helps to fulfill your desires
Spiritual master Swami Chinmayananda tells us, “It is by the power of your own faith that you draw to you what you want.”
How is this so?
As you repeatedly think of something that you desire and believe that you can achieve it, your faith in it slowly grows. As your faith grows, you become convinced that it is achievable. It is your concentrated faith that drives you to put in determined efforts in the direction of your desire. This finally manifests it in the world and you fulfill your desires.
The more success you gain in getting what you want through your own efforts, the more your faith in yourself increases.
If you choose to pray and rely on God to fulfill your desires, your faith in Him/Her/It will gradually increase in the same way as above.
Where you decide to place your faith is your choice. Faith is the magnet that attracts what you want into your life.
Whether you have faith in yourself or faith that God will help you fulfill your desires, self-effort is needed in both cases. Without hard work, patience, and perseverance, we can’t achieve any worthwhile goal.
To fulfill your desires, why pray?
If you draw what you want into your life through your own faith and efforts, then why pray?
Like radio signals that are broadcast freely in the airwaves, the infinite resources of the universe are available to everyone. But we must know how to tune in to that frequency of abundance and allow it to flow into our lives.
Prayer is the means through which we tune our minds to that frequency of abundance. A mind that is keenly focused on God gains inner strength and manifestation power.
Prayer along with your sincere efforts in the direction of your goals will help you fulfill your desires.
Guaranteed success
The mind is like Aladdin’s lamp with a genie inside that can fulfill your desires. To tap into this magical power of manifestation, we must concentrate the mind on what we want with faith and single-minded purpose.
God doesn’t simply step in to fulfill our desires. The ‘genie’—the divine power and potential in God must be invoked by tuning the mind toward it through prayer. If this is coupled with firm faith and efforts in the right direction, then success is doubly guaranteed.
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