Prayer ? I Dont Have Time To Pray

“Jay, I did not pray today.. I did not get time…” there was sort of guilty feeling in my friend’s voice. Then I told her:

“Don’t worry about it. It is good to have a time for prayer, but don’t worry about it if you miss it. He is not going to punish you…..”

That reminded a poem I read sometime ago. Author is unknown.

I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My duty toward god was now done
My soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of God to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.

No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time the time to die.

I went before the Lord,I came,
I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book;
It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said
"Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time"

Those are not my thoughts and will God behave like that? I don’t know…as I said, its not my thoughts of belief. I just copied it just coz it came into my mind.

Thus we talked for a while about being busy and missing prayers. What will happen if we miss a prayer? Nothing, in reality but it depends on the person and his/her level of guilty feeling.

As I said, it is good to have a prayer time but do we need to limit our prayers only to that time and allot a slot for being with God?

I don’t believe in that. Anytime is prayer time. In Indian tradition, other than the morning and evening prayer time, we are supposed to offer prayer before we eat anything. Most of the drivers here pray before they start their vehicle. We can extend that still further…when we hear some good news, when we here something sad, when we get opportunity to thank somebody, we can also thank God…

I personally don’t have any guilty feeling to offer a prayer even when I am at toilet. We can not hide from Him, anywhere we are whatever we do.

How much ever busy we are, it is better we find some time in the morning and night, without any excuse. May be, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. If somebody is offering a prayer as a duty, there is no point in making a lengthy one, make it short. Coz, there is no point in kneeling down, folding the hands , thinking some other thing and utter something. Coz, he looks at our heart and not at our lips….

I don’t believe in a standard format of prayer. Prayer can be personal and private. Everyone can pray in their own words. But my personal belief is, at night, it is a good idea to thank God for providing us with food, cloth, shelter, money etc. Is that also is a prayer? I think it is…