One of the verses sung during the arathi of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi, states जैसा भाव तैसा अनुभव (Jaisa Bhaava Taaisa Anubhava)i.e. One’s experience is based on their prayer that arises out of devotion.

How one prays to God is an individualistic approach that grows from one’s own devotion, faith, experiences, belief, cultural and social upbringing. It may sound childish, bizarre or even stone age practices to others who are not from a similar background or alien to the other’s practices.

At the core of all is the direct communication of the soul with the over soul. As long as that communication is untainted and done with love, the response from divinity is always felt back. The more the antics in the form of ritualistic or cultural practices the less the effect is felt.

Shri Shirdi Sai emphasized this emphatically when He once told a visitor, “What is the necessity of bowing so many times when all is needed is one bow with pure heart and love”.

The approach to prayer service has undergone sea change in modern world. The concept of a prayer service relevant to the scriptures and age-old customs is self-defeating. People do not simply have the time to indulge in long prayer services prescribed by scriptures.

Of its own creativity, Modern society has built its own complexities in relationships and its ways that they take away a major chunk of an individual’s daily time. In the time that is left, an individual’s mental disposition decides how much time is to be spent on prayer.

Driven by the sense of instant gratification of modern world philosophy, today, even prayer is viewed in the same light. When results manifest within a short time when the Prayer is invoked, then God is great; otherwise, God is another hoax. – in short “Jaisa Bhaava Taaisa Anubhava” (One’s experience is based on their devotion)