Question: I am a student of philosophy. I have read Sri Ramakrishna’s Gospel and loved it a lot, but some times I get skeptic, if God really listens to our prayers. We hear Sri Ramakrishna to have questioned God’s existence and got favorable answers. I think, we need to test too. Many times we take these things for granted, but can a prayer really change the course of events?
Let’s take a simple example. I will use an unbiased coin which I’ll toss 50 times. Can any amount of prayer influence the course of events in such a way as to get me 50 heads? Can you or some devotee demonstrate to me, let us say someone prays and then asks me to test, I throw the coin 50 times to get 50 heads. It would be a beautiful demonstration.
If no one can demonstrate it this way, and since I myself am not able to do it no matter how much faith I express towards my God, it would only be right for us to conclude that
1. Prayers to God are not answered.
2. We cannot influence the course of events through prayer.
3. So it’s useless to ask God to save us or to improve our personality.
4. It’s useless to request him to show himself to us.
[I do not question prayer as an aid to meditation. It definitely is, but perhaps meditation can be even without prayer. If prayer is only a misconception, it does good to meditate without its aid than using it as an aid.]
I know that these ideas, if they are true would shake the whole basis of my philosophical beliefs and I would suffer. Coz I am an ardent devotee of God and Ramakrishna. Yet, if this is not true, it has to be discarded. Coz more important than our beliefs is the Truth. Truth or the Reality is all I seek and am ready to discard any idea or concept that is not true.
Please show me the way and help me out of going astray. I would lose my companion if I lose God, I may become lonely and hapless. But yet, if it is not true, I do not want to hold onto ideas that work like wine Ð by getting be habituated to the set of ideas.
Can prayers help us influence the situation?