Sanathana Dharmam defines the universal rules for living a human existence.  Every Human Being that was born, that is born and that will be born, lives by these rules.  Sanathana Dharma is said to apply regardless of the origin, faith, race, color, caste or creed of the Individual. 

This is why Hinduism, which is just another name for the framework of Sanathana Dharma is said to be the Mother of all Religions.

Sanathana Dharma is a far reaching framework of rules that are prescribed to enable every one of us to transcend this ocean of life without being trapped in its quagmire and without being lost in it forever.

Since there was no means of publication into the written word, the Ancients that transcripted the rules have also composed them into hymns and songs that enable them to be memorized, sung and thought like music and poetry.

These hymns constitute the predominant portion of our daily prayers.  

These hymns are repeated by us before Easwara,  who takes it as our vow to live by His Rules and Code of Conduct. 

These rules are repeated every day to reiterate our commitment. 

Once the commitment is received by Easwara, He or She or both, depending on the deity to whom we pray, will then keep track of our progress and our compliance with the rules.  A nudge, a signal or push and shove will be provided by Easwara as the signal to make sure that we do not deviate too much from the correct path that we are supposed to tread. 

Because the correct path is not an easy one to transcend alone, given the limitations of the average Human Being,  many of these Hymns also have the request for help, on an as required basis, built into them.  So our prayer effectively means that we will do our best to stay on the correct path, but that we will need help along the way. 

The mental invoking of Easwara to transcend this ocean of life, in critical, simply because we operate in ignorance of where we came from, where we are going and what obstacles await us on the way.

So prayers become the means of communication with Easwara. We convey that we are doing our best but that some of the obstacles in our path seem overwhelming.  It is mostly these perceived obstacles that drives most of  us to the feet of the Lord in the first place.  Our awareness of our ignorant state should be enough to drive us to fall at the feet of Easwara, but most of us wait till the obstacles loom large and threaten our very physical existence.

The Hymns have built into them the expression of the limitations of the Human existence and the turmoil and the conflict that we all face, both within ourselves and with the external world.

So we convey our committment and we also convey the obstacles in our path everyday to Easwara.  How do we receive his feedback and correct ourselves? 

The two way communication will be established when our minds cease to be driven by insecurity, fear, greed etc. The only desire should be to rid the mind off these base elements.  Our prayer should be focused on obtaining divine help and assistance to complement our efforts towards attainment of Moksham by purification of the mind.  If this objective is firmly establhed in our minds and we are sincere and devout in our efforts to purify the mind, then all other material world needs and wants become secondary since Easwara then realigns our day to day life so that these do not bother us any longer.  

Prayers provide us  with the strength to face our everyday problems so that we can focus on the prime objective of self realization in an unhindered manner.

Dhyanam is one way to receive the feedback. Dhyanam can be thought of as the sister of Prayer. In simple language, Dhyanam means to quieten the mind and quell all its internal noise (fear, insecurity, panic), and wait to hear the message from above.

Obviously, the message wll not be audible, or visual.  It will mostly occur in the form of thoughts that germinate in our minds when our only focus is on receiving input from Easwara.  Dhyanam and meditation are meant to quieten the mind to dissipate thoughts that are driven by ignorance and by the unknown. When the internal noise is eliminated, the message from above will flow in.

The other way to receive messages from Easwara is to see His hand in every event that we perceive.  Every good event must be acknowledged as Easwara's blessings and the rewards earned should be ascribed to Him.  Good events signal that we are on the correct path. The adverse events should be interpreted as indicative of the need to correct our orientation and approach. In the face of both types of events, one should remain steadfast in adherence to living life as prescribed in the Sanathana Dharma.

Prayer is the Primary Tool for Purification of the Self.