Prayers - why do I?

There have been several occasions in my life when I have been asked 2 questions –

1. What is the need for prayers or prarthana?
2. Why do I pray?

Out of curiosity, I did a short introspection and here are my findings. Most major religions in the world involve prayer in one way or another in their rituals. Prayer is considered to be an integral part of the Hindu way of living. The Gita and the Vedas play a vital role in Hinduism in the rituals of prayers. The chanting of mantras is the most popular form of praying in Hinduism. The word ‘Prarthana (prayer) is derived from 2 words - ‘pra’ & ‘artha’ meaning pleading fervently.

• In other words, Prayer includes respect, love, pleading and faith and involves asking The Lord for something with intense yearning. 
• The words used in prayer may take the form of intercession, a hymn, chanting words of gratitude, or a spontaneous utterance in the person’s praying words.
• Praying is done in public, as a group, or in private and has different forms which include prayers reflecting praise, requesting guidance or assistance, confessing sins or an expression of one’s thoughts and emotions.

In addition to these conclusions, I wish to offer my own thoughts on why I pray:

1. Prayer is my first resort rather than my last resort to ensure God always guides me, not by preventing problems for me but by providing solutions for the problems constantly.
2. Through a prayer I wish I succeed in expressing my helplessness and thus endow the task for help to God.
3. I pray for wisdom and guidance through the maze of life that is always sidetracked with a lot of distractions and diversions. 
4. I pray to build bonds with Him in good times rather than run to Him only as bad times.
5. I pray so that I get to know God better and request for an altruistic relationship with all.
6. I pray to ask for strength to overcome trying times. 
7. I pray because when there is no crutch, prayers offer me solace and the belief that my words for help will be heeded.
8. Another reason for me to pray is for the purpose of repentance.
9. Praying permits me to seek God's help the purpose of my life. I think one of the most important purposes of prayer is to bring my will into synchronized correspondence with God’s will.
10. After all, hope keeps the world alive. My hopes lie in the strength of my prayers in the language that I do not understand but which I find pleasing to my ears – Sanskrit.

The Bhagavata Purana [Srimad Bhagavatam] - What, why & how?

The Bhagavata Purana [Srimad Bhagavatam] - What? why and how?

“The Srimad Bhagavatam is the very essence of all the Vedanta literature. One who has enjoyed the nectar of its rasa never has any desire for anything else."

• The Bhagavata Purana also known as Srimad Bhagavatam or Bhagavata, literally meaning Divine-Eternal tales of Supreme God) is one of the maha (prefix meaning great) Puranic texts of Hinduism, with its focus on bhakti (religious devotion) to Supreme God Vishnu (Narayana), primarily focusing on Krishna. 
• The Bhagavata is a product of oral tradition, its extant version usually dated between 4th or 10th century CE and Sage Veda Vyasa is accredited for being the author of Bhagavata Purana. 
• The Bhagavata Purana includes many stories well known in Hinduism, including the various avatars of Vishnu and the life and pastimes of his complete incarnation, Krishna. 
• The Bhagavata is widely recognized as the best known and most influential of the Puranas, & is at times referred to as the "5th Veda" along with itihasa + other puranas. 
• The Bhagavata is unique in Indian religious literature; and is primarily a bhakti text, with an emphasis emphasis on the practice of bhakti and achieving moksha through cultivating a personal relationship with Vishnu in the form of Krishna, compared to the more theoretical bhakti of the Bhagavad Gita. In fact, the Padma Purana categorizes Bhagavata Purana as a Sattva Purana (Purana which represents goodness and purity).
• The Bhagavata teaches that simply following Vedic injunctions that do not produce devotion towards God, is of transitory benefit and so is considered to be fruitless labour The Bhagavata extends the concept of dharma that had previously been regarded either as the duty to follow Vedic injunctions, as a moral code that emphasizes ahimsa (non-injury), and satya (truthfullness), into the idea of self-realization through yoga. While classical yoga attempts to shut down the mind and senses, the Bhakti Yoga in the Bhagavata teaches that the focus of the mind is transformed by filling the mind with thoughts of Krishna. The Bhagavata also considers dharma to consist of sincere worship and devotion towards God without any ulterior motive.
• The Bhagavata Purana is considered to be the purest and greatest of all the puranas since it invokes intense devotion and personal bhakti toward Krishna as Lord Vishnu and his various incarnations in human form but primarily focusing on Krishna since he was the complete incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
• The Bhagavata Purana declares Lord Vishnu (Narayana) as Param Brahman  or Supreme Lord who creates unlimited universes and enters each one of them as Lord of Universe. 
• The Bhagavata Purana truly reveals the means for becoming free from all material work, together with the processes of pure transcendental knowledge, renunciation and devotion to Lord Vishnu and anyone who seriously tries to understand, hears and chants the verses of the Bhagavata Purana with devotion to Lord Vishnu, becomes completely liberated from material bondage and attains moksha or liberation from the cycle of births and deaths in the material world.
• Lord Vishnu engages in creation of 14 worlds within the universe as Brahma when he deliberately accepts rajas guna. Lord Vishnu himself sustains, maintains and preserves the universe as Vishnu when he accepts sattva guna and annihilates the universe at the end of maha-kalpa as Shiva or Rudra when he accepts tamas guna.
• The tenth book (or canto), which is dedicated to Krishna, takes up about one quarter of the entire Bhagavata. It includes the most comprehensive collection of stories about the life of Krishna, showing him in all the stages and conditions of human life. It also includes instruction in the practice of bhakti, an analysis of bhakti, and descriptions of the different types of bhakti. 
• Many Vaishnavas consider Srimad Bhagvatam to be non-different from Krishna and to be the literary form of Krishna. In fact, the Bhagavata, along with the Bhagavad Gita, are the main sources of scriptural authority used by Vaishnavas for demonstrating the devotion to Hari.
• The Bhagavata is a recounting of events by the storyteller Ugrasrava Sauti (Sūta) to Shaunaka and other sages assembled in the Naimisha Forest. 
• As a composer, Veda Vyasa re-edited the vedas which was a single unit into 4 units - Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva, so that the four kinds of officiating priests may perform and the vedas do not disappear. 
• Vyasa also wrote Mahabharata for the people who were debarred from studying vedas to understand Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha principles. 
• As Sūta explains, Veda Vyasa was still very dissatisfied, even after he made divine knowledge available to humans by writing the Vedas and the Mahabharata.
• As he was contemplating the source of his distress in the banks of river Saraswati, Sage Narada arrived and Vyasa Maharshi confesses that he was unhappy and that he does not feel any joy or satisfaction within himself. He asks Sage Narada for advice. 
• Narada asks Veda Vyasa to create an epic (divine sacred text) which would describe the unsullied glory of Lord Vasudeva (Vishnu) and sing the glory of the Omnipresent Hari since it is only devotion which would please the Lord and nothing else. Agreeing to which, thereupon, Vyasa wrote Bhagavata Purana and attained perfect peace of mind
• Sūta recounts this Bhagavata in the form of a story recounting Vyasa's work being recited for the first time by his son Shuka to the dying King Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, who owes his life to Krishna first recital of Vyasa's work, given by Vyasa's son Shuka to King. Parikshit is the son of Abhimanyu and Krishna protected him in his mother's womb from the Brahmastra weapon of Ashwatthama.
• Parikshit had angered a rishi's son for being disrespectful to the rishi's father. He was cursed to be bitten by a poisonous snake and had only 7 days to live. 
• Fasting by the banks of the Ganges River, and with Krishna no longer alive, Parikshit longed to hear of him. Longing to hear of Krishna before he dies, Parikshit hears the Bhagavata recited by Shuka, including questions by the king and replies by the sage, over the course of 7 days.
• The Bhāgavata introduces the life of Parikshit as background, thus bringing Krishna into the story, and is presented as part of Shuka's recital over the course of 7 days. Shuka tells Parikishit that when one is about to die, they should become free of the fear of death and let go of all attachments to pleasure, home, and family. They should control the breath and mind and concentrate on the sacred Aum. The development of yoga and bhakti, different types of dharana, the nature of Bhagavan, and the liberation of a yogi upon his death are also explained by Shuka. In response to Parikshit's questions, Shuka describes creation and the avatars of Vishnu, concluding with a description of the ten characteristics of a Purana.
• It concludes with Shuka asking Parikshit the standard, "What more do you want?" Completely satisfied with what he has heard and his purpose in life fulfilled, Parikshit dies.
• The Narayaneeyam is a condensed Sanskrit version of Srimad Bhagavatam composed by Melpathur Bhattathiri of Kerala in 1586.