Suppose I am a poor man, and if a rich man says: "Swāmījī, whatever millions of dollars you want, you can ask from me," then I shall put my claim—a big, very big amount, "Oh, here is a great opportunity." But Prahlāda Mahārāja refused. Prahlāda Mahārāja said: "My dear Lord, it is my duty to render service unto You not in exchange of something, gain. Oh, I am not a merchant that I am doing this." Vanik-vṛtti. So the Lord was very satisfied.
That is the way of pure devotion. That was taught by Lord Caitanya. Na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye (CC Antya 20.29, Śikṣāṣṭaka 4): "My dear Lord, I do not ask from You any amount of wealth," na dhanaṁ na janam, "neither any number of followers." Because every one of us, we want to be the richest man in the world, the greatest leader of the world, and to have a very beautiful wife . . . this is our heart's desire in the material world, to control over a vast mass of people—I want to be prime minister, president or political leader, Hitler or Gandhi, like that—and to amass vast amount . . . amounts of wealth.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: "No, no, no. I don't want all these things." This is prayer. Na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye. "Then what for You have come to Me?" Mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi: "My dear Lord, I pray that birth after birth I may have unconditional, causeless devotion unto You."
Not devotion for some purpose. That is not pure devotee. If you have got some purpose to . . . that is, of course, accepted in the Bhagavad-gītā, that if anyone goes to Lord to pray something with purpose, that is also good. But that is not pure. Pure devotee never asks anything from the Lord. That is pure devotion.
So Prahlāda Mahārāja was a pure devotee. Therefore he does not make any business with God that, "I offer You my prayer to take something from You." We shall discuss these prayers of Prahlāda Mahārāja one after another, and in none of the paragraph you will find that Prahlāda Mahārāja is asking something, "Give me this for my sense gratification." No. This is the sign of pure devotion.
So he says, mahi gṛṇāmi, "I shall simply . . ." You can pray. Anyone can pray. It does not require any education. If you simply feel, "Oh, God is so great. Oh, He has created the sun. He has created this moon. Oh, He has created this ocean. He has created this air. He has created so many fruits, so many flowers." Go on. You don't require any education. Simply try to understand how great God is.
There is no other education required. In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says, prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ (BG 7.8). He says that "I am the taste in the water." Who does not take water? Water is our life. So when you take water, quench your thirst, you can immediately thank God, because that taste is God. So immediately you can remember, "O my dear Lord, You have created so nice thing, water. Oh, I am so thirsty. It is quenching my thirst. Thank You." Is it very difficult?
But the nonsense, they will not do even this. They'll say: "Oh, God is dead." Therefore we are suffering. We are so ungrateful that we even do not give thanks. In the ordinary way, if somebody gives me a glass of water when I am thirsty—it is etiquette—I say, "Thank you." And the God has given us so vast mass of water in the ocean, in the sea, in the sky—without water we cannot live—there is no thanksgiving.
There is no thanksgiving. Rather, we say: "God is dead." There are so much profuse light. For this electric light you are paying bill to the electric company; and God is supplying so much light, in the night as moon, in the daytime as sun. Prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ (BG 7.8). Śaśi means moon, and sūrya means sun. So He is supplying so much light, everything, whatever we require, and there is no thanksgiving.
So only one has to become grateful. Prahlāda Mahārāja says that, "I don't require to be very educated or a learned scholar in Sanskrit or any other language, and very poetic so that I have to offer my prayers in a beautiful language and God may be pleased by the poetic idea." Just like some mundane poet thinks that they imagine some poetic ideas, and thereby God is pleased. No. Bhaktyā tutoṣa bhagavān gaja-yūtha-pāya (SB 7.9.9): "The God can be pleased only by the feelings of your love." That is required.