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The Essential Difference Between Prayer and Aspiration · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  While there is a real difference between prayer as an external
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  action and aspiration as an inner status of being, there is
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  also connection between the two, which can be extremely potent in
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  terms of bringing forth the aspiration into the external
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  world and making it a living and real thing.
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  When prayer is done purely by the external being, it can take
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  on a mechanical or rote feature. The real potency comes when it
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  is harnessed by the psychic being to become the instrument
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  of turning the aspiration into a form that can change or even
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  transform the mental being, the vital being, or the physical
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  body. If powerfully enough expressed,
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  it can go beyond and have impacts in the environment and
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  in the society. Harnessed to the psychic
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  aspiration, prayer can become a potent force for change.
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  While prayer is generally directed toward a being who can
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  influence events, it can also be directed to the living
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  consciousness manifesting the universe.
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  And through prayer, an alignment can take place so that the
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  individual takes on the expressive force of that
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  universal consciousness, the mother writes.
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  Quote To be clearer, we may say that prayer is always formulated
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  in words, but the words may have different values according to
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  the state in which they are formulated.
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  Prayer is a formulated thing, and one may aspire, but it is
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  difficult to pray without praying to someone.
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  For instance, those who have a conception of the universe from
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  which they have more or less driven out the idea of the
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  Divine. There are many people of this
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  kind. This idea troubles them.
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  The idea that there is someone who knows all, can do
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  everything, and is so formidably greater than they that they can
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  be no comparison. That's a bit troublesome for
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  their Amour propre. So they try to make a world
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  without the Divine. These people evidently cannot
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  pray, for to whom would they pray unless they pray to
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  themselves, which is not the custom.
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  But one can aspire for something without having any faith in the
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  Divine. There are people who do not
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  believe in the existence of a God, but who have faith in
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  progress. They have the idea that the
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  world is in constant progress, and that this progress will go
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  on indefinitely without stopping towards an ever greater
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  betterment. Well, these people can have a
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  very great aspiration for progress, and they don't even
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  need any idea of a divine existence for that.
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  Aspiration necessarily implies of faith, but not necessarily
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  faith and divine being. Whilst prayer cannot exist if it
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  is not addressed to a divine being.
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  And pray to what? 1 does not pray to something
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  that has no personality. One prays to someone who can
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  hear us. If there's nobody to hear us,
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  how could one pray? Hence, if one prays, this means
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  that even when 1 doesn't acknowledge it, one has faith in
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  somebody infinitely higher than us, infinitely more powerful,
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  who can change our destiny and change us also.
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  If one prays so as to be heard, that is the essential
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  difference. So the more intellectual people
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  admit aspiration and say that prayer is something inferior.
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  The Mystics tell you that aspiration is all very well, but
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  if you want to be really heard and want the Divine to listen to
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  you, you must pray and pray with the simplicity of a child, a
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  perfect candour, that is a perfect trust.
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  I need this or that, whether it be a moral need or a physical or
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  material need. Well, I ask you for it.
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  Give it to me or else. You have given me what I asked
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  of you. You have made me realize
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  concretely those experiences which were unknown to me and are
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  now marvels I can attain at will.
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  Yes, I am infinitely grateful to you and I offer a prayer of
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  Thanksgiving to sing your praise and thank you for your
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  intervention. It is like that to aspire.
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  It is not necessary to direct the aspiration to someone
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  towards someone. One has an aspiration for a
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  certain state of being, for knowledge, for a realization, a
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  state of consciousness. 1 aspires for something, but it is
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  not necessarily a prayer. Prayer is something additional.
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  Prayer is a personal thing, addressed to a personal being,
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  that is, to something, a force or a being who can hear you and
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  answer you. Otherwise you can't ask for
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  anything. End Quote.
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  Reference Srioro Bindo and the Mother Powers within Chapter 9,
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  Aspiration and Prayer, pages 87 to 89.