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Prayer and Aspiration, Part 1 · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When most people are asked about the nature of prayer, they
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  respond that it is a formulation in words of a specific request
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  to God for some result or benefit they desire to see come
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  to fruition. Prayer is much more than that
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  and need not be formulated in words.
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  Each level of the being actually can formulate prayer.
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  In some cases, prayer and aspiration become
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  indistinguishable. For example, the Mother stated,
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  quote, let us work as we pray for work.
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  Verily is the body's best prayer to the Divine.
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  End Quote. We see here the idea that the
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  body has its own mode of prayer, which constitutes putting out
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  effort and energy in the realization of some activity.
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  The prayer that issues from the psychic being is more
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  experiential than verbal in nature.
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  It takes hold of the being and creates a mood, an attitude, a
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  sense of focus that does not require words.
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  A disciple inquires, what is the difference between prayer and
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  aspiration? The mother responds, quote, I
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  have written this somewhere. There are several kinds of
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  prayers. There is the purely mechanical
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  material prayer with words which have been learnt and are
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  mechanically repeated that does not signify anything much, and
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  that has usually only one single result, that of quieting the
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  person who prays. For if a prayer is repeated
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  several times, the words end up by making you calm.
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  There is a prayer which is a spontaneous formula for
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  expressing something precise which one wants to ask for.
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  One prays for this thing or that.
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  One prays for one thing or another.
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  One can pray for somebody, for a circumstance, for oneself.
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  There is a point where aspiration and prayer meet.
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  For there are prayers which are the spontaneous formulation of a
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  lived experience. These spring up already from
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  within the being like something that's the expression of a
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  profound experience and which offers Thanksgiving for that
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  experience, or asks its continuation, or asks for its
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  explanation also. And that indeed is quite close
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  to aspiration. But aspiration is not necessary
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  formulated in words, or if it is formulated in words, it is
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  almost a movement of invocation. You aspire for a certain state,
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  for instance. You have found something in
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  yourself that is not in keeping with your ideal.
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  A movement of darkness and ignorance, perhaps even of ill
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  will. Something that's not in harmony
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  with what you want to realize then that is not going to be
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  formulated in words. That will be like a springing
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  flame and like an offering made of a living experience, asking
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  to grow larger, be magnified, and ever more and more clear and
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  precise. All that may be put into words
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  later if one tries to remember and note down one's experience.
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  But aspiration always springs up like a flame that rises high and
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  carries in itself the thing one desires to be, or what one
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  desires to do or desires to have.
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  I use the word desire, but truly it is here that the word aspire
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  should be used for that does not have either the quality or the
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  form of a desire. It is truly like a great
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  purifying flame of will and it carries in its core the thing
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  that asks to be realized. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Powers within Chapter 9,
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  Aspiration and Prayer, pages 84 to 85.