Overview and Nature of the Work
Answered Prayers is a compilation of prayers, affirmations, and devotional writings by Paramahansa Yogananda, the Indian spiritual teacher who founded Self-Realization Fellowship and brought yoga and meditation teachings to the West in the early twentieth century. The book serves as a practical devotional manual, offering readers specific prayers and spiritual techniques designed to deepen their relationship with the Divine and to invoke divine assistance in various aspects of life. Unlike Yogananda’s autobiographical masterwork or his systematic commentaries on scripture, this volume is organized as a collection of prayers for different purposes and circumstances, each accompanied by instruction on how to pray effectively according to the principles of yoga and meditation that Yogananda taught.
The work reflects Yogananda’s fundamental teaching that prayer is not mere petition but a scientific technique for attuning human consciousness with divine consciousness. Throughout the book, he emphasizes that effective prayer requires concentration, devotion, and the proper mental and spiritual attitude. The prayers themselves range from general invocations for divine communion to specific requests addressing health, prosperity, relationships, guidance, and spiritual progress. Each prayer is crafted to help the devotee not merely ask for divine intervention but to establish a living, conscious contact with God.
The Philosophy of Prayer in Yogananda’s Teaching
Yogananda opens the work by establishing his distinctive understanding of prayer, which synthesizes Hindu yogic philosophy with universal spiritual principles that he believed transcended any single religious tradition. He teaches that prayer is effective not because it changes God’s will but because it changes the consciousness of the one who prays, bringing that consciousness into harmony with divine law and divine grace. This perspective draws on the yogic understanding that the universe operates according to spiritual laws as precise as physical laws, and that human beings can learn to work with these laws through proper technique and understanding.
Central to Yogananda’s approach is the concept that God is not a distant being who arbitrarily grants or denies requests, but rather the infinite consciousness that pervades all existence. Prayer, in this framework, is the practice of consciously connecting one’s individual awareness with this universal consciousness. When this connection is made with sufficient depth and intensity, the devotee experiences not only the fulfillment of legitimate needs but, more importantly, the direct perception of divine presence and love.
Yogananda emphasizes several key principles for effective prayer. First is the importance of concentration: scattering one’s mental energy in distracted, mechanical repetition of words produces little result, while focusing all one’s attention and will creates a powerful spiritual force. Second is the quality of devotion and love: prayers offered with deep feeling and sincere longing for God reach the Divine far more effectively than those recited as mere duty. Third is the principle of persistence: Yogananda teaches that continued, patient prayer demonstrates genuine faith and eventually breaks through the barriers of karma and material limitation.
He also addresses the question of why prayers sometimes appear to go unanswered. According to his teaching, there are several possible reasons: the prayer may lack the necessary intensity and concentration; the request may not be in harmony with the devotee’s spiritual welfare or karmic pattern; the answer may be coming but requires time to manifest; or the devotee may be receiving an answer but failing to recognize it because it comes in an unexpected form. Yogananda encourages practitioners to combine prayer with meditation, as meditation develops the inner calmness and receptivity needed to perceive divine guidance and grace.
Structure and Categories of Prayers
The book is organized to address the full spectrum of human needs and spiritual aspirations. While the exact arrangement varies among different editions published by Self-Realization Fellowship, the prayers generally fall into several major categories that reflect both worldly concerns and spiritual goals.
One significant category consists of prayers for spiritual development and divine communion. These prayers seek not material benefits but the deepening of one’s relationship with God, the awakening of spiritual perception, and progress on the path to Self-realization. They include invocations for divine love, for the experience of God’s presence, for spiritual strength and determination, and for the removal of inner obstacles such as doubt, restlessness, and attachment. These prayers reflect Yogananda’s teaching that the ultimate purpose of human life is to know God directly and to realize one’s true nature as the soul, eternally one with the Divine.
Another major category addresses prayers for healing—both physical and mental. Yogananda taught that disease often has its roots in mental and spiritual disharmony, and that prayer can invoke divine healing energy to restore health. The healing prayers in the book are designed to be used both for oneself and for others. They typically combine affirmation of divine perfection and wholeness with specific requests for the healing of particular conditions. Yogananda instructs that healing prayers should be accompanied by visualization of divine light and energy flowing into the affected area, and by deep faith in God’s power to heal.
Prayers for prosperity and success form another important section. Yogananda did not teach that spiritual people should be indifferent to material welfare; rather, he believed that God wants devotees to have their legitimate needs met so they can focus on spiritual growth without the distraction of severe deprivation. However, he carefully distinguishes between praying for reasonable prosperity that supports one’s life and spiritual practice, and praying for wealth as an end in itself or for selfish purposes. The prosperity prayers emphasize that true abundance comes from attunement with divine supply, and they often include affirmations of God as the source of all good.
The book includes prayers for guidance and wisdom, to be used when facing important decisions or seeking to understand one’s life direction. These prayers ask for divine illumination of the intellect and intuition, for the ability to perceive the right course of action, and for the strength to follow divine guidance even when it conflicts with personal preference or worldly wisdom. Yogananda teaches that God guides those who sincerely seek guidance, but that one must develop the inner stillness and receptivity to perceive that guidance clearly.
Prayers for relationships and family life address the human need for love, harmony, and right relationship with others. These include prayers for finding a suitable life partner, for harmony in marriage, for the welfare of children, for healing troubled relationships, and for the ability to love others with divine, unconditional love rather than merely human, possessive attachment. Yogananda’s approach to relationship prayers reflects his teaching that all human love should ultimately lead one toward divine love, and that the highest purpose of relationships is mutual spiritual growth.
There are also prayers for protection—from physical danger, from negative influences, from one’s own weaknesses and temptations, and from the harmful thoughts or intentions of others. These prayers invoke divine light and power to surround and shield the devotee. Yogananda taught that sincere prayer creates a genuine protective force, though he also emphasized that the best protection comes from living in constant remembrance of God.
Specific Prayers and Their Characteristics
While I cannot reproduce the exact wording of specific prayers without risk of error, the prayers throughout the book share certain distinctive characteristics that reflect Yogananda’s spiritual approach and his synthesis of Eastern and Western religious traditions.
Many of the prayers address God using multiple names and aspects—as Father, Mother, Friend, Beloved, as the Infinite, as the Divine Consciousness, as Christ Consciousness, as the Cosmic Beloved. This multiplicity reflects Yogananda’s teaching that God is beyond all names and forms yet can be approached through any name or form that resonates with the devotee’s heart. He frequently uses the term “Heavenly Father” alongside more impersonal terms like “Infinite Spirit,” showing his comfort with both personal and impersonal conceptions of the Divine.
The prayers often incorporate affirmations—positive statements of spiritual truth that the devotee repeats with concentration and conviction. For example, prayers for healing might include affirmations of one’s true nature as a perfect spiritual being, or affirmations of God’s healing presence and power. Yogananda taught that affirmations, when charged with deep concentration and feeling, impress the subconscious mind and help to manifest the affirmed reality. This technique reflects his understanding that consciousness shapes experience, and that changing one’s consciousness through affirmation and prayer can change one’s life circumstances.
Many prayers include elements of visualization, directing the devotee to imagine divine light, to visualize desired outcomes, or to picture oneself in God’s presence. This use of visualization draws on yogic techniques of meditation and reflects Yogananda’s teaching that mental imagery, when combined with concentration and devotion, creates powerful spiritual and material effects.
The prayers frequently express complete surrender to divine will, even while making specific requests. This paradoxical combination—asking for specific things while simultaneously accepting whatever God chooses to give—reflects Yogananda’s teaching that the devotee should make their desires known to God but ultimately trust in divine wisdom. The attitude is not one of passive resignation but of active cooperation with divine will, trusting that God’s plan for each soul is ultimately for their highest good.
Instructions for Practice
Throughout the book, Yogananda provides detailed instruction on how to pray effectively. These instructions are not merely prefatory material but are woven throughout the work, often accompanying specific prayers or groups of prayers.
He emphasizes the importance of preparation for prayer. Before beginning to pray, one should calm the mind through meditation or deep breathing, withdrawing attention from external distractions and centering it within. Physical relaxation is also important, as bodily tension interferes with the flow of spiritual energy. Yogananda often recommends finding a quiet place, sitting with an erect spine, and taking a few moments to become still before beginning to pray.
Regarding the mental approach to prayer, Yogananda stresses that one should pray with absolute conviction and faith. Doubt undermines the effectiveness of prayer by dividing one’s mental energy. He teaches that faith is not blind belief but a deep inner knowing that God exists, that God loves each soul, and that God responds to sincere prayer. This faith can be developed through meditation, through study of spiritual teachings, and through the practice of prayer itself—as one experiences answers to prayer, faith naturally grows stronger.
The intensity and duration of prayer are also important factors. Yogananda teaches that a few moments of deeply concentrated, heartfelt prayer are far more effective than hours of mechanical repetition. However, he also emphasizes persistence, encouraging devotees to continue praying for important matters until they receive a clear answer or until they feel an inner peace about the situation. He sometimes recommends praying at specific times—upon waking, before sleep, or at regular intervals throughout the day—to maintain continuous contact with the Divine.
Yogananda provides guidance on recognizing answers to prayer. Sometimes the answer comes as a direct manifestation of what was requested. Sometimes it comes as an inner knowing or intuitive guidance. Sometimes circumstances change in ways that address the underlying need even if not in the exact form requested. And sometimes the answer is a deeper spiritual realization or a change in one’s own consciousness that makes the original request unnecessary. He teaches that devotees should remain alert and receptive, watching for God’s response in whatever form it may come.
The Role of Devotion and Love
A central theme throughout Answered Prayers is the supreme importance of devotion—of loving God with all one’s heart and soul. Yogananda teaches that devotion is the most direct path to God and that prayers offered with intense love and longing are the most powerful. He frequently emphasizes that God responds not to the eloquence of one’s words but to the sincerity and depth of one’s love.
This emphasis on devotion reflects the bhakti yoga tradition of India, which teaches that love for God is both the means and the goal of spiritual life. Yogananda presents devotion not as mere sentiment but as a powerful spiritual force that can transform consciousness and draw divine grace. He encourages devotees to cultivate devotion through regular prayer, through meditation on God’s attributes, through service to others as expressions of God, and through the practice of seeing God’s presence in all things.
The prayers themselves are designed to evoke and express devotion. Many of them are written in language of great beauty and feeling, intended to stir the heart and awaken love for the Divine. Yogananda understood that the words of prayer, when chosen well, can help to kindle the devotional fire in the heart, especially for those who are just beginning to develop their capacity for devotion.
He also addresses the relationship between devotion and wisdom, teaching that true devotion is not blind emotionalism but is illumined by understanding. The devotee should love God not only with the heart but also with the mind, understanding the nature of the Divine and the spiritual laws that govern existence. This integration of devotion and wisdom characterizes Yogananda’s overall approach to spirituality.
Theological and Philosophical Context
Answered Prayers reflects Yogananda’s distinctive synthesis of Hindu Vedanta philosophy, yoga practice, and Christian mysticism. His understanding of prayer draws on the Vedantic teaching that the individual soul (Atman) is ultimately one with the universal Spirit (Brahman), and that the apparent separation between the devotee and God is an illusion created by ignorance and identification with the limited ego. Prayer, in this context, is a practice that helps to dissolve this illusion and restore conscious awareness of one’s unity with the Divine.
At the same time, Yogananda’s approach honors the devotional traditions that treat God as a personal being with whom one can have a loving relationship. He resolves the apparent contradiction between impersonal Absolute and personal God by teaching that the Infinite can be experienced both ways—as the impersonal, formless Spirit beyond all attributes, and as the loving Divine Person who responds to prayer and guides devotees. Both approaches are valid, and different individuals may be drawn to one or the other according to their temperament and stage of spiritual development.
Yogananda’s teaching on prayer also reflects the yogic understanding of consciousness and energy. He teaches that thought is a form of energy, and that concentrated thought charged with will and feeling creates powerful effects both in one’s own consciousness and in the larger field of cosmic energy. Prayer, when practiced correctly, is a way of directing this mental and spiritual energy toward specific purposes in harmony with divine law. This understanding gives prayer a scientific dimension—it works according to definite principles that can be learned and applied.
The concept of karma is also relevant to Yogananda’s teaching on prayer. He acknowledges that individuals face different circumstances and challenges based on their past actions in this and previous lives. However, he teaches that prayer and devotion can modify or even transcend karmic patterns. Divine grace, invoked through sincere prayer, can bring blessings that one has not “earned” through karma, and can mitigate or remove the effects of past negative actions. This teaching offers hope while still maintaining the principle of moral causation.
Paramahansa Yogananda and His Mission
To understand Answered Prayers fully, one must place it in the context of Yogananda’s life and mission. Born in India in 1893, Yogananda was trained in the ancient science of Kriya Yoga by his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar. In 1920, he came to America to teach yoga and meditation to Western audiences, eventually establishing Self-Realization Fellowship as the organization to disseminate his teachings.
Yogananda’s mission was to demonstrate the underlying unity of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, showing that the teachings of yoga and Vedanta were compatible with and could enrich Christian faith and practice. He taught that all religions, at their mystical core, teach the same essential truths about God, the soul, and the path to divine realization. This universalist perspective is evident throughout Answered Prayers, which uses language and concepts accessible to people of various religious backgrounds while remaining rooted in yogic philosophy.
His most famous work, Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946, brought yoga philosophy and the stories of Indian saints to a wide Western audience and became a spiritual classic. Answered Prayers serves a different but complementary purpose—where the autobiography inspires and instructs through narrative and teaching, this prayer book provides practical tools for daily spiritual practice.
Yogananda emphasized that spiritual realization requires not only understanding but also practice. He taught specific meditation techniques, particularly Kriya Yoga, as scientific methods for achieving direct perception of God. Prayer, in his system, works alongside meditation—prayer being the soul’s call to God, and meditation being the practice of listening for God’s response and experiencing divine presence in the silence.
The Book’s Place in Yogananda’s Literary Legacy
Answered Prayers is one of several devotional and instructional works published by Self-Realization Fellowship based on Yogananda’s writings and talks. Other works in this category include collections of his talks, commentaries on scripture, and compilations of his sayings and counsel. The prayer book is particularly accessible, requiring no prior knowledge of yoga philosophy or meditation practice, though it certainly complements and is enriched by such knowledge.
The book has been published in various editions over the years, sometimes with different selections or arrangements of prayers. Self-Realization Fellowship, which holds the copyright to Yogananda’s works, has continued to make his teachings available in various formats to serve the needs of students and devotees worldwide.
For those following Yogananda’s teachings systematically through the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, Answered Prayers serves as a companion to the meditation practices and philosophical instruction provided in those lessons. For general readers interested in prayer and spirituality, it offers a distinctive approach that combines practical effectiveness with profound spiritual philosophy.
Reception and Influence
Answered Prayers has been valued by students of Yogananda’s teachings as a practical manual for developing one’s prayer life and deepening one’s relationship with God. It serves both those who are committed to the specific path of Kriya Yoga and those who simply appreciate Yogananda’s spiritual wisdom and want to incorporate his approach to prayer into their own practice.
The book reflects the broader influence that Yogananda has had on Western spirituality. He was among the first teachers to successfully present yoga and meditation to Western audiences not as exotic foreign practices but as universal spiritual sciences compatible with Western religious traditions. His emphasis on direct personal experience of God, his teaching that spirituality should be practical and scientific rather than merely theoretical, and his message of the underlying unity of all religions have influenced countless spiritual seekers.
The approach to prayer presented in this book—emphasizing concentration, devotion, and the scientific principles underlying spiritual practice—has offered many readers a way to revitalize their prayer life and to experience prayer as a living communion with the Divine rather than a mere ritual or petition. For those who have found traditional approaches to prayer unsatisfying or ineffective, Yogananda’s teaching provides both inspiration and practical technique.
Conclusion
Answered Prayers stands as a practical expression of Paramahansa Yogananda’s teaching that spirituality must be lived and practiced, not merely studied or believed. The book provides tools for establishing and maintaining conscious contact with the Divine in the midst of daily life, addressing both spiritual aspirations and practical needs. Its prayers and instructions reflect Yogananda’s synthesis of Eastern and Western spirituality, his understanding of the scientific principles underlying spiritual practice, and his profound devotion to God.
The work’s enduring value lies in its combination of accessibility and depth. A reader can begin using the prayers immediately, without extensive preparation or prior knowledge, yet the more one understands the philosophical and practical principles Yogananda teaches, the more effective one’s prayer practice becomes. The book thus serves both as an entry point for those new to Yogananda’s teachings and as a continuing resource for longtime students.
Ultimately, Answered Prayers is an invitation to experience God as a living reality, present and responsive, rather than as an abstract concept or distant being. Through the prayers and practices it contains, Yogananda offers readers a path to transform their relationship with the Divine and to discover, through their own experience, that sincere prayer truly is answered.
