To understand God, first you must understand your own mind

Your prayer is merely a petition, it is a demand that you should be satisfied, therefore it is not prayer at all. You say to God, 'I am suffering, please gratify me; please give me back my brother, my son. Please make me rich. You are perpetuating your own demands, and that is obviously not prayer. The real thing is to understand yourself, to see why you are perpetually asking for something, why there is in you this demand, this urge to beg. The more you know yourself through awareness of what you are thinking, what you are feeling, the more you will discover the truth of 'what is';