Prayer seems to be instinctive in man. It is the cry of a heart for help, for deliverance from danger or distress or for the fulfillment of some desire. It can be verbal or may be only silent longing of the heart, but it is almost universal. To know any religion the knowledge of the importance of this prayer phenomenon is necessary because if the religion is an integral part of man's life than prayer is the core of religion.
What is the psychology working behind prayer or why do we pray? This is an important question and to find its answer we will have to peep into the mind of a person busy in seeking to explore the transcendental nature of Reality through prayer with folded hands and eyes closed. The unknown, the unseen, the unheard and the unexpressed reveals to the mind at work the deepest truths about the Ultimate Reality.
To deal with them more comprehensively, it is better to define prayer first, and then I will try to give elaborations from the types of prayer and the psychology working behind the various forms of prayer from the primitive time to modern age.
Prayer is a universal religious phenomenon because it stems from the natural human disposition to give expression to thought and emotion. As man naturally communicates by speech with his fellows, he instinctively addresses the supernatural powers of his belief through the same medium. Prayer is a natural and necessary outcome of belief in God. To stress this point I would quote some important personalities. For instance, Luther says very emphatically that faith is, "Prayer and nothing but prayer", and continues, "He who does not pray or call upon God in his hour of need, surely does not think of Him as God, not does he gives Him the honor that is His due." 1
John Arndt, a great mystic says, "Our end is to seek, find and ultimately be one with God, and prayer is the means to achieve that end."2 Richard Rothe too stresses the same point when he says that "the religions impulse is essentially the impulse to pray”…therefore “the non-praying man is rightly considered to be religiously dead.” 3
God's greatness and goodness. We offer gifts to God with the feeling that God would favorably respond to our prayers. This practice exists in almost every religion. Before prayer is done a gift is offered to God, but for various reasons certain psychologists hold the view that we cannot draw a hard-and-fast line between worship and prayer, for them both are essentially one. We can say worship is an experience which includes in it prayer. Thus prayer is a part of the divine worship.
Prayer is entire inner experience. It is a `holy silence' which mystics experience as the purest form of reverent adoration of the Deity. For great religious figures, mystics, prophets, apostles and reformers prayer is not only a regular turning to God but it becomes part of their life. St., Francis touches the spirit of the whole discussion on the topic when he says, "Prayer is regarded as a gift of grace from God, not as an independent activity of man, as we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with signs too deep for words." 4
Dr. Gill quotes in his essay what white singer told him about prayer, "Prayer is not like you and me, it's like a holy person. It has a personality five times that ours." 5 Actually there is no better test of love than the capacity of two individuals naturally and easily to share their prayers. This view expresses reality that prayer is entirely a psychological process. As Dr. W.K. Wright points out, "Prayer is psychologically in the conversation form." 6 It is considered as a dialog between oneself and ‘Thou' who is being addressed. The worshiper talks to God in his prayer and seeks his answer.
Prayer enhances the psychological well-being of the prayee, adding to his energies. His prayer gives him hope and a feeling of the purpose of life. To say with Tseodar Fechner, "Take prayer out of the world and it is as if you have torn asunder the bond that binds humanity to God, and struck dumb the tongue of the child in the presence of his father." 7 Prayer is the vein that runs through the whole body of religion; its blood and the circulation of blood is the religious life.
After defining prayer it becomes necessary to discuss its objects. Prayer depends upon the idea of God because prayer is the natural and necessary outcome of belief in God. So, the first object of prayer is to inculcate faith in God or a Divine Being.
From time to time man’s way to pray has found alterations. In the primitive times the feeling of dependence and man’s consciousness of his own weakness and limitation dominated the feeling of spiritual communion only. The primitive man addressed his prayer to the God of heaven not personally and directly but invoked the lower divinities for his intersession. In those times the idea underlying prayer was to control the power of natural phenomena.
Prayers were addressed mostly to various nature spirits and nature Gods and the higher mighty beings. Such nature objects may be named as trees, thunder, wind, the flaring fire and the evil spirits. It is interesting to note that some times people prayed to their ancestors. In this way the limitations of man enlarged the God's sphere of activity.
From all illustrations the theory that emerges, without doubt, is that the gods, deities, ancestors and the natural powers were not the objects of prayer, the real object behind all these was one God. The ultimate psychology behind all prayers has always been to get rid of one fear that life puts before man and man's need to be one with that Supreme soul that provides the ultimate peace and happiness. The method has always differed. It is an age old practice which is seen even today at some places that man tries to approach God through rituals, sacrifices, spell, deities and priests. The Supreme Being is and always has been the only object of prayer, others are just the means to approach that Superhuman soul.
Now the question arises as to what motivates one to pray? A momentary, concrete, immediate need in which primary interests of life either of the individual or of the group, are threatened-this form the original motivation for prayer. Clark further supports this view, "not only famine and drought, danger, to life in storm and lightning, attacks by enemies and wild beasts, disease and pestilence, but also accusations and complaints, such as those caused by the childlessness, urge the primitive man with force to pray to the higher beings".8
If we analyze the psychology working behind prayer we come to the conclusion that man has always found himself helpless and ,dependent upon the superhuman powers. Momentary or habitual and permanent emotional state of high intensity, such as fear, anxiety, wrath, hatred, sorrow and worry are the psychic experiences resulting from such situations that act as motives of prayer. The feeling of absolute dependence on higher powers is operative in every religion.
Believers assert that every man knows that he is completely dependent upon God for everything and lives only by his Will and that is why he prays. A lingering fear always haunts man. And some religions are totally based on fear. Concept of “Hell” in most religions confirms the theory of religion based on fear. The feeling that all benedictions and joys may be over due to divine wrath is the main reason for fear.
The connection between the feeling of dependence and self-asserting effort gives birth to hope, "the Being who is Lord of my fate can also help and save me spontaneously and unconsciously." His faith in the ultimate power in the hour of need leads one to invoke that divine spirit and pray for help. Yet it is also true that faith is not the first stage. Man's mind swings between fear and hope until at length trust becomes so strong that words of petition come automatically upon lips, To say with Heiler, F., "Fear may be described as the impelling and hope as the releasing motive of prayer"9
Fear alone is not religious and it can never be religious unless it is fear of goodness and justice. It may well be true that weak and sinful men tremble with fear in the presence of perfect goodness. Such a fear is religious fear. But it is religious not because it is fear, but because it is in the presence of perfect and eternal goodness. The key note of every religion is 'Fear Not' whether one reads the Bhagvad Gita, the New Testament or the Guru Granth Sahib (Guru Teg Bahadur, the ninth, Guru, says, "Not to frighten anyone, or to be afraid ! That is the mark of a spiritually advanced person", SGGS: p.1427). The running thread in all these is aspiration reaching towards Fearlessness.
Thus, it is this universal feeling of fear, which so animates a person that at every opportunity he appeals to God through prayer and sacrifice. But until fear is got rid of, until soul is free from its bondage, no true bliss can be enjoyed.
The other most important motive for prayer is man's wish to gain material happiness. Man by nature is selfish, his chief desire worldly gains and impels him into an endless circle of secular activities. Usually people pray for the physical things. It is an old saying that, "necessity teaches man to pray." Many religious people have depicted man as the bride of the Lord. Just as a wife feels a right on her husband, and pins her faith in him, and in doing so, she places all her demands and needs before him; in the same way man requests God to satisfy his needs. But this is not the real purpose for which we pray. This kind of prayer is materialistic and tends to become irreligious.
According to P. S. Gill, "Prayer for physical things is religious so far as physical is desired as an instrument for the development of the spiritual values". But no man has felt that he has enough, this is the only psychological factor which motivates man to pray for worldly things. He does not know what is good for him. And when God does not grant his prayers, the man blames Him and curses His creation. This is contrary to the principle of submission to the Will of God.
Here Lord Buddha’s words come to the mind. He says, “So you pray to God, pray for that which is godlike, for that which is unstained by any earthly passion. Instead of asking worldly things the devotee must put his trust in God and entreat Him to do what He thinks best".
The Almighty never fails those who surrender themselves completely to Him. But only true prayer can change our psychology or attitude. In the light of such facts it will not be wrong to describe prayer as an expression of the desires and short-comings which compels man to pray to God.
Along with fear and material gains, there is another important thing that motivates prayer, that is to get forgiveness for sinful acts. Man is never without sin. Ignorance is often regarded as a course of sin. This shows that ‘I' is more important than the Lord. It is the sin of self-love, living within us, that gives birth to all our sinfulness making man a sinner from head to foot. Sin is not the negation of ethical values and standards, but the unrestrained indulgence in the natural emotions and impulses. According to Buddhists, thirst for life is also a sin. If we analyze our daily actions we shall come to the conclusion that whatever we do, to satisfy our ego, which is the biggest sin.
The idea behind prayer of confession is, all is never lost; if man realizes his mistakes and shifts the center of his life from the lower self to higher self, he can still attain the highest goal.
The real prayer which is beyond all other worldly desires is directed towards the harmony with one beyond. Da-Casta Guimaraens, the French psychologist, defined prayer as a means to satisfy a psychical need. But this discovery of the deepest root of prayer does not disclose its peculiar essence. In order to get to the bottom of this, we should not ask for the psychological motive of prayer. We must rather make clear the religious ideas of him who prays in simplicity. We must grasp his inner attitude and spiritual aim.
All visible things on earth, which are loveable and desirable - riches, glory, wife, children, everything in this world that is beautiful and attractive, belong not to the soul but only to the body, being temporary, will pass away as quickly as a shadow. But the soul being eternal by its nature can attain eternal rest only mingling with eternal God. He is its highest good, more perfect than all beauty, sweetness and loveliness and He is its natural abode.
For the soul was created by God in order to dwell with Him for ever. In this temporary life we must diligently seek union with the Divine. But no unity with God is possible except by exceedingly great love, for this it is necessary to pray for prayer made with the mind dwelling ever more deeply in God, arousing divine love in the heart. In India this is called Bhakti, a kind of unreasoning love.
To conclude, we can say that in the hearts of some men of all races and in all ages there has been a deep-seated desire to come into union with the unseen Deity. The attempt to satisfy this desire takes a great variety of forms and prayer is one of the most spontaneous outcome of that desire of union with God.
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