Demand, don't beg

A birthright, not a favour

The Foreword puts the logic plainly: "All the property a father owns can be claimed by his son, but not by a beggar." Since God made man in His own image, the devotee is family, not a supplicant at the gate.

Yogananda explains his choice of word: "I prefer the word 'demand' to 'prayer,' because 'prayer' is based on an old-fashioned, medieval concept: God as a kingly tyrant whom we, mere subjects of His, need to supplicate and flatter."

A demand is therefore the opposite of arrogance. It is the confidence of a child who already belongs in the house.

First remember who is asking

There is a condition. To demand, the Foreword says, "we must first realize our forgotten identity with the Father in deep meditation; we must, by right living, remember that God made us in His image."

So the demand rests on two legs: meditation, which restores the memory of that identity, and right conduct, which keeps it from being merely a fine thought.

"Once you feel yourself to be truly a son of God, your steadfast mental discipline and devotional love, expressed in meditation, will give you dominion over all things."

Between two extremes

The book steers between egotistical self-direction and blind, passive dependence on God. Its formula, quoted in the Foreword, is: "I will reason, I will will, I will act; but guide Thou my reason, will, and activity to the right thing that I should do in everything."

You keep your God-given will and use it fully. What you surrender is not effort but direction.

This is why so many demands in the book concern daily work, decisions and activity rather than only mystical states.

Watch this teaching

A talk on the difference between begging and demanding in prayer — the practice behind this book.

How to Pray Effectively — Swami Kriyananda