Prayer is not the right thing; the right thing is to meditate.

Mulla Nasrudin once staggered from a train, his complexion very white. I had gone to the station to receive him. "Riding backwards for ten hours," he explained, "I never could stand that." "Why," I inquired, "didn't you ask the person sitting opposite to change seats with you?" "I could not do that." said the Mulla. "There wasn't anybody there."

There is nobody in the sky to listen to your prayers. Whatsoever you want to do, do. There is nobody who is going to give you permission to do it. Whatsoever you want to be, be. There is nobody you have to look to for the permission.

Existence is free and available. This is the understanding of yoga: that existence is available to everybody. Whatsoever you want to be, you can be. Everything is ready. Don't wait for anybody's permission because there is nobody. The opposite seat is vacant -- if you want to sit, you can sit on it.

Mulla looks absurd, ridiculous, but that's what the whole of humanity has been doing for centuries looking at the sky, asking permission, praying -- to somebody who is not there. Prayer is not the right thing; the right thing is to meditate. And what is the difference? When you pray you have to believe in someone who is listening to your prayer. When you meditate you meditate alone. In prayer the other is required; in meditation you alone are enough.

Yoga is meditative. It has no place for prayer, because it has no place for God. It has no place for any childish notions about God.

[Osho]