Importance of prayer
One of the important criteria of spiritual progress is the extent of dissolution of our mind, intellect and ego. (Refer to footnote 2 below.)
The issue that all of us face from birth is we have had our parents, teachers, friends enhance our five senses, mind and intellect. In the current world a lot of emphasis is given to outer beauty, the individual, our salary, our circle of friends and the list goes on. At no point are we told that the purpose of our life is to go beyond ourselves to tap into the God within.
So when we start spiritual practice we also have to unlearn years of conditioning that we have to improve upon our five senses, mind and intellect. Prayer is an important tool to reduce our reliance on the five senses, mind and intellect and help us unlearn years of conditioning.
The very act of prayer implies that the person who is praying considers the power to which he is praying to as superior to himself. Hence by praying he expresses his helplessness and surrender and pleads for help. This is a blow to his ego as praying implies that he is looking for help from a higher mind and intellect than his own. Thus by praying frequently we transcend our limited mind and intellect and access the higher Universal Mind and Intellect. Over a period of time this contributes to the dissolution of our mind and intellect. Thus frequent sincere prayers for spiritual growth, help in dissolution of mind, intellect and ego.
